When on September 28, 2012, the Citizen’s Commission for Jail Violence presented their lengthy and meticulously researched report on problems in the LASD that had resulted in violence and corruption in the nation’s largest jail system, the CCJV’s most prominent suggestion for reform was the creation of an independent “oversight entity,” with “unfettered access” to “department records, witness interviews, video footage, data, personnel, and facilities.”Īt the time, there were already a number of oversight bodies monitoring the LA sheriffs, but they had no real power to affect wrongdoing in the department, which had metastasized to the point that over the next five years, more than 21 LASD members, including the sheriff and undersheriff, would be indicted by a federal grand jury, convicted, then sentenced to federal prison. In making the decision, the department’s past relationships with oversight have cast a shadow.
But the oversight bodies “need access to relevant information,” he said, “and the recent lack of access to sheriff’s department documents has impeded their ability to perform their core function.”Ī series of tense exchanges between sheriff’s department representatives and Inspector General Huntsman at last Thursday’s COC meeting – followed by an angry post-meeting letter from Sheriff Villanueva – seemed to make the case that the time for subpoena power had indeed arrived.Īlso, since the board already voted to give this same power to the soon-to-be-launched Probation Oversight Commission, giving the power to compel the COC was expected. “The county has made great strides in attempting to reform the sheriff’s department over the years,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas who together with Supervisor Sheila Kuehl co-authored the motion to create the needed amendment to the county ordinance governing the COC. Then, 30 days after vote two, subpoena power for the OIG will go live.įor a number of years, the board was against giving this authority to any of the various oversight bodies it has created.īut given the power struggles that have occurred this year between the sheriff and the board-and also between the LASD and the combined oversight entities of the COC and Inspector General Max Huntsman-on Tuesday afternoon, all five board members appeared to feel the time had arrived for a new tool to be added to the oversight toolbox. Since this greater authority requires the amendment of a county ordinance, the decision will be voted on one more time, most likely at next week’s board meeting.
on Tuesday, January 21, 2020, the LA County Supervisors voted to give subpoena power to the Civilian Oversight Commission for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, via the county’s Inspector General, which is the COC’s investigative arm.