Join us on May 6 at 10:00 a.m., when our featured speaker, Commissioner Sean Kennedy, will discuss the challenges facing the Civilian Oversight Commission. The commission is charged with the mission to improve public transparency and accountability with respect to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Kennedy, an associate clinical law professor at Loyola Law School and executive director of the Center for Juvenile Law & Policy, recently wrote a report to the Commission titled 50 Years of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) is the nation’s largest and runs its largest jail system. For decades, the Sheriff’s Department has been mired in charges of inmate abuse and corruption, and it has been beset by violent deputy gangs.

A decade ago, conditions had so spiraled out of control that the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation of the jail system. Subsequently, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, upon the recommendations of the Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence, implemented dozens of reforms, including the creation of the Sheriff’s Civilian Oversight Commission (COC) as an advisory body to the department in 2017. The COC holds monthly meetings of nine civilians who question LASD officials about policies and practices, with the public able to comment online and, probably again soon, in person.

As the COC began addressing the need for greater LASD transparency, it pushed the sheriff to release more information about deputy-involved shootings and called on him to ground the pilot drone program. The sheriff pushed back, however, on the drone program, telling the COC that they were not a policymaking body.

Under the current sheriff current sheriff, Alex Villanueva, the disconnect between him and the COC grew from the outset regarding his rehiring deputies fired for misconduct, dismissal of reforms to reduce force against inmates as a “social experiment,” dismissal of the concerns of COC and FBI agents over the presence of deputy gangs in the department, halting access to documents needed to help COC monitor the department, and concerns over the way other reforms were being addressed.

With the passage of Measure R last year, voters granted the COC subpoena powers to secure needed documents and testimony. Yet the sheriff has defied even these directives until directed to do so by the court. Most recently, the Board of Supervisors has called for ways to remove the sheriff.

The question arises, How can governing bodies secure accountability from the sheriff? Is appointment a better alternative? What are the pros and cons of electing or appointing a sheriff? What are other options? Join us on May 6 to hear Commissioner Kennedy speak on these issues and the latest developments with the Sheriff’s Department. You can help by becoming an observer at COC meetings. For more information, contact Kris Ockershauser at kmopas [at] earthlink.net.

—Kris Ockershauser, Co-chair, Policing Practices Subcommittee, Social Justice Committee