As part of a public hearing Wednesday, May 10, on Los Angeles County’s proposed $43 billion budget, Sheriff Robert Luna asked for enough funding to recruit 1,100 deputies, double up on captains at problem Sheriff’s Stations, purchase a jail management system and supply new Tasers to deputies on patrol.
The requests appear to be over and above the $4 billion allocated in L.A. County CEO Fesia Davenport’s recommended 2023-2024 fiscal year budget. It already includes a $135 million increase in the Sheriff’s Department budget and $6.6 million to restart the department’s Office of Constitutional Policing, billed as an effort to investigate and eliminate deputy gangs in the Sheriff’s Department.
Luna wants to add two captains to the East Los Angeles Station and two to the Compton Station, both of which had a history of having deputy gangs. He explained that under his plan, each station would get a new deputy who would focus on administrative duties and a new deputy who would practice community engagement.
In addressing county jails that are tangled in lawsuits due to overcrowding, and that face a Department of Justice consent decree that ordered the county to improve jail conditions and halt excessive force, Luna wants to turn to technology. He wants to install a digital monitoring system to track the whereabouts of inmates and jail deputies, and said he was shocked that the county did not have a digital monitoring system.
“We have to understand where the problems are, who the problem is, in order to fix them,” he told the Board of Supervisors.
In his first budget meeting with the board since taking office in early December, Luna said he wants to increase the number of academy classes to eight next year, with 100 department recruits in each. He said the 1,100-person vacancy among sworn officer positions is taking a toll on the department’s deputies, who do mandatory overtime. He also spoke about addressing the lawsuits and large cash settlements…
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