She Voted Against Restoring West Hollywood’s Sheriff Deputies. Now She Wants Your Vote

Two people have been shot in West Hollywood in the past six days. The supervisor who helped cut the city’s sheriff’s deputies is now calling for action. The only sitting council member who voted for maintaining those cuts and against restoring those deputies is asking voters for a second term.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Councilmember Chelsea Byers is running for re-election in November. Her public safety record is not hard to trace.

How the Deputies Got Cut

In June 2022, the West Hollywood City Council voted 3-2 to slash funding for up to five Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies, redirecting the money to the City’s unarmed Block by Block security ambassador program. The vote came three months after the Sheriff’s Department reported that crime in West Hollywood had jumped 137 percent in February 2022 compared to the same period the previous year.

Councilmember Lindsey Horvath, then on the council and now Los Angeles County Supervisor, voted yes. So did Councilmembers Sepi Shyne and John D’Amico. Mayor Lauren Meister and Councilmember John Erickson voted no.

“Prioritizing people’s safety doesn’t just mean people with badges and guns on the street,” Horvath said at the time. “We have to find another way to keep our residents safe in a way that is affordable.”

Meister disagreed. “I’m not going to vote for the budget if we cut the sheriff’s funds,” she said. “You can’t expect us to have a public safety team where most of the people aren’t armed in order to defend our citizens.”

Two months later, as West Hollywood was cutting deputies, the Los Angeles City Council authorized $216,000 to add officer shifts to the LAPD’s Hollywood Division next door. The reason: a 75 percent increase in homicides and a 35.6 percent increase in shots fired that year. “If you plan to come to Hollywood to commit crime, you are not welcome,” Councilman Mitch O’Farrell said.

The Votes That Define Her Record

Byers did not wait long to signal her position. On the night she was sworn in — December 19, 2022 — the council voted 3-2 to maintain the existing cuts to sheriff’s deputies. It was one of her very first votes as a council member. Shyne proposed the motion, Erickson seconded it, and Byers was the third yes vote.

By May 2023, public pressure had forced a reversal. Residents packed council meetings for months. Neighborhood watch leaders organized. At the May 15, 2023 meeting, the council took up a motion to restore the Entertainment Policing Team sergeant position, add a deputy back to the West Hollywood Station, and create two non-sworn public information positions.

Erickson — who had voted against the original cuts — made the motion. Even Shyne, who had voted to cut the deputies, seconded it and voted yes.

The council voted 4-1.

Chelsea Byers was the lone no vote.

She was the only member of the West Hollywood City Council who voted against restoring deputies even after everyone else — including the architects of the original cuts — had reversed course.

Byers explained her position before the vote. “I don’t actually think we have enough data tonight to tell us how effective the number of deputies is to the number of crimes deterred,” she said. She added that she was “not really sure how feasible or realistic it is to think that we can equip every block with deputies or have deputies within enough line of sight to be actively deterring.”

A Pattern on the Dais

The May 2023 vote was not a one-time position.

In July 2024, Byers and then-Councilmember Shyne voted against a $750,000 package of new law enforcement technology for the Sheriff’s Department — a drone-as-first-responder program, a real-time watch center, and a network of fixed cameras. The measure passed 3-2. Byers said public outreach had been insufficient.

Byers also personally opposed Proposition 36, the 2024 ballot measure that toughened penalties for drug and theft offenses and rolled back the state’s Prop 47 sentencing reforms. The measure passed with 73 percent of California voters. “This would look at that issue in a criminalized way, thinking that anybody experiencing these issues is worthy of being sent to prison,” Byers said at the time. The City took no official position.

Earlier this year, Byers voted against keeping the City’s Flock Safety license plate reader camera program. She was the only council member calling for an outright end to the relationship. The council voted 3-2 to keep the cameras.

The Science She Voted Against

Research presented to the City’s own Public Safety Commission cited a Dartmouth study finding that each additional officer prevents an average of four violent crimes and 15 property crimes, with a social value exceeding $432,000 per officer. Commissioner Adam Eramian put it plainly: “What if fires were down? Are we going to get rid of half of our fire department?”

The Sheriff’s Department itself had a moratorium preventing additional staffing beyond agreed annual service levels — meaning the damage from the 2022 cuts had a longer tail than the 2023 reversal vote suggests. Positions restored on paper took longer to fill in practice.

Now

On April 9, a West Hollywood woman was shot on her balcony on Vista Street. The suspect has not been found. On April 14, a man was shot on Norton Avenue while walking with his wife and infant child in the middle of the day. That suspect has not been found either.

Supervisor Horvath — who cast one of the three votes that cut the deputies in 2022 — issued a statement Tuesday saying she had personally contacted Sheriff Robert Luna and Captain Fanny Lapkin to demand every available resource be deployed.

Chelsea Byers has not issued a statement. 

She is asking West Hollywood voters for a second term in November.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Councilmember Chelsea Byers was sworn in on December 19, 2022.