LA County Sheriff: Department will shrink by 200-300 deputies due to budget cuts

Sheriff Alex Villanueva said his section whitethorn shrink by 200 to 300 deputies by March and blamed the shortfall connected hiring restrictions imposed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors that were acceptable successful spot to code recurring fund deficits.

The sheriff made his prediction portion responding to questions from followers during a unrecorded league connected Facebook and Instagram Wednesday, Dec. 1. He said a partial hiring frost drastically reduced the fig of classes graduating from the Sheriff’s Academy each year.

“They’ve choked america from 12 each the mode down to four, which means we’re going to really beryllium smaller by extremity of March adjacent twelvemonth than we are close now,” Villanueva said. “We’re going to beryllium 2 to 3 100 deputies short.”

Each people hosts 85 cadets, Villanueva said. There were much than 10,200 sworn deputies successful the section arsenic of November, according to figures shared by the LASD.

The sheriff has repeatedly stated that his section is severely understaffed, and that a shortage of deputies is contributing to a emergence successful crime. He has pointed fingers astatine the Board of Supervisors and others helium accuses of attempting to “defund” instrumentality enforcement.

The Board of Supervisors chopped backing to each of the county’s 37 departments arsenic they encountered economical challenges astatine the commencement of the pandemic, Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said during a little interrogation Wednesday. She said astir of those agencies person worked hard to “live wrong their budgets,” but the Sheriff’s Department has remained nether continued scrutiny aft repeatedly overspending millions of dollars connected overtime pay.

“He is simply a section caput who volition not instrumentality responsibility, and continues to inquire for more, more, more,” Kuehl said of the Sheriff. “There is nary more, unless you instrumentality it from different departments. And I deliberation the Department of Public Health, others, person been beauteous important implicit the past year.”

She added that conscionable implicit fractional of the Sheriff’s Department’s unit are afloat vaccinated, and the remainder could beryllium taxable to termination if they bash not comply with an bid requiring each region employees to person the jab.

“If he’s truthful acrophobic astir losing deputies, his top interest should beryllium the highly debased vaccination complaint wrong his department,” Kuehl said.

Just nether 52 percent of the LASD’s employees were afloat inoculated arsenic of November. By then, much than 73 percent of the LAPD’s unit had received some doses of the vaccine.

Villanueva himself is vaccinated, but has been publically captious of the bid mandating the shots for region employees. Last month, helium blamed absorption to the mandate for a emergence successful retirements and resignations among his unit that helium said is impacting nationalist safety.