Who will head the deeply troubled Los Angeles County Probation Department?
That topic was set for discussion in a closed session of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, March 14, but they took no action and rescheduled it for the regular board meeting on March 21.
Chief Deputy Probation Officer Karen Fletcher, the second in command, was automatically moved into the position of chief probation officer, according to a staff member in Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office.
Who will be the next chief remains unclear. The board was scheduled to interview candidates for the job of “interim chief probation officer,” but without a full board that was delayed. If the board chooses an interim head, it is unknown if the board will search for a permanent chief.
Two county supervisors were with President Joe Biden during his visit Tuesday to Los Angeles, and unable to join the board debate. Hahn, the Fourth District supervisor and chair of the board, greeted President Biden at LAX . First District Supervisor Hilda Solis was with the president in Monterey Park, where Biden unveiled an executive order to curb gun violence.
The county’s embattled Probation Department faces allegations of abuse of force within juvenile halls and allowing illicit drugs in the juvenile detention centers.
The Probation Department was targeted last year in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse of hundreds of girls by agency staff dating back to 1985. The county’s juvenile lockups have also been criticized in recent years by state corrections officials for being unsuitable to house offenders.
Late last year, the department abruptly moved all detainees out of Central Juvenile Hall in Lincoln Heights over concerns about conditions at the facility.
In February, the Board of Supervisors approved an emergency motion after learning that the Probation Department was auctioning off surplus firearms to dealers.
Supervisors Hahn and Solis wrote in their motion that such an auction…
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