On Monday, the Office of the Inspector General released a 17-page report on “Unlawful Conduct” of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, most specifically the LA County Sheriff.
The report was requested by the Civilian Oversight Commission or COC.
As its name suggests, the COC is charged with providing “ongoing review, analysis and oversight” of the nation’s largest sheriff’s agency, its practices and procedures, while also building bridges between the department and the public. To help the COC with these tasks, in January of 2020, the LA County board of supervisors voted to supply subpoena power to the group, via the Office of the Inspector General.
The concept was further ratified by LA voters on March 3, 2020, when the county passed Measure R, a grassroots-led ballot measure that gave teeth to civilian oversight of the LASD by, once again, authorizing the COC to have subpoena power.
Then, in case the matter wasn’t clear enough, in September of this year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 1185, which codifies the state’s counties’ ability to establish oversight bodies for their sheriff’s departments, and grant them subpoena authority — which LA County had (obviously) already done months earlier.
In LA, however, here has been one problem. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, doesn’t like oversight, which is part of why the COC asked for the OIG’s new evaluation of unlawful behavior.
More specifically, according to the report, Sheriff Villanueva believes that, as an elected sheriff, his “power comes from the state Constitution” and therefore cannot be limited by “charter, statute, or ordinance.”
