HTLA: So… What’s The Deal With The LA County Sheriff

Episode 17

Brian De Los Santos  00:00

[street ambi] Hey y'all. How you doing? We're doing a quick show about the Sheriff's Department. Do you guys know what they do at all out here in East LA?

Unidentified Speaker #1  00:07

Not really, to be honest. N- I don't know. They just ride around and sometimes they throw events here. I lived here for like 13 years. They do things around here. [sirens] Keep it safe.

Brian De Los Santos  00:16

[music in] We're doing a show about uh, the Sheriff's Department. Do you know what they do out here?

Unidentified Speaker #2  00:24

No. I have no idea.

Brian De Los Santos  00:26

You don't have no idea like, what kind of policing or whatever?

Unidentified Speaker #2  00:28

No, not really. Sorry. [laughs]

Brian De Los Santos  00:31

We're doing a show about the Sheriff's Department. Do you know what they- What's it about?

Unidentified Speaker #3  00:35

Uh, no. I don't. Try not to get into like uh, [ ] politics and all of that.

Brian De Los Santos  00:46

From LAist Studios, I'm Brian De Los Santos. And this is How to LA, aiming to better connect you with the city with every episode. So a few weeks back [music out] something really unusual happened involving Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies.

Sheriff Deputy  01:03

[audio clip] Sheriff's Department! We have a warrant! Demand entry!

News Anchor  01:07

[audio clip] [music in] A search warrant has just been served at the home of LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.

Sheila Kuehl  01:12

[audio clip] There was banging on my door at about 7am.

News Anchor  01:14

[audio clip] The investigation concerns whether or not Kuehl helped her friend's nonprofit company gain a lucrative contract with the city.

Brian De Los Santos  01:22

It was unusual because the Sheriff's Department doesn't typically investigate other county agencies. The District Attorney's office normally handles that sort of thing.

News Reporter  01:31

[audio clip] So the Sheriff's investigators are alleging that crimes were committed by a supervisor including the possibility of bribery.

Brian De Los Santos  01:40

The State Attorney General, Rob Bonta, did eventually take over the investigation.

News Anchor  01:45

[audio clip] This news comes after a judge stopped the LA County Sheriff's Department from searching all the items that were seized.

News Anchor  01:50

[audio clip] It's no secret that the supervisors have had beef with the LA County Sheriff.

News Reporter  01:55

[audio clip] The Board of Supervisors has had a very turbulent relationship with Sheriff Alex Villanueva. Do you think this has to do with that? Do you think this is some sort of retaliation in, in a sense?

Brian De Los Santos  02:05

That story's still developing but it got us thinking. We should really explain how law enforcement [music out] works in the city because clearly there's some confusion and that guy we just mentioned, Sheriff Alex Villanueva, he's running for re-election. [music in] You might think you know what's up, but it's pretty complicated. I mean, most of us are familiar with the Los Angeles Police Department. Right? LAPD has been the focus of a lot of police scandals over the last few decades, from Rodney King, to Rampart, to the actions of police officers during the summer protests in 2020. But there's also the Sheriff's Department, which covers a lot of ground in LA County, literally. To make sense of all of this, we took a walk around the East LA Sheriff's station with Frank Stoltze. He's covered policing for a while, and now he's covering civics and democracy for LAist. [music out]

Frank Stoltze  02:54

[outdoor ambi] I'm very excited to be here.

Brian De Los Santos  02:57

We are in front of a lake at a cute little park that's in East LA. We see the Gold Line not too far away, a few steps from here.

Frank Stoltze  03:05

This is an unusual police station, right? It's the second oldest sheriff's station in the city. And you can see, it almost looks like it was an old library, right? Like it's, it's a single story long building. It's not like one of those, you know, giant concrete police stations that you see being built now that are like fortresses and impenetrable. This looks very inviting, doesn't it?

Brian De Los Santos  03:28

So the reason we're here to talk to Frank is because I think something that folks don't get is like the difference between LAPD and the Sheriff's Department. Can we just start there? What's the difference between the two of 'em?

Frank Stoltze  03:42

Everybody knows the LAPD, right. I mean, it's you know, Dragnet and Adam 12, and all those old shows and the Rodney King beating. The LAPD though, is actually a little bit smaller than the Sheriff's Department, and the LAPD patrols just the city of Los Angeles, which is 4 million people. Obviously, it's a huge city. The Sheriff's Department patrols basically the rest of the county. So all the unincorporated areas, you know, areas that aren't cities, and then a bunch of cities that hire it to patrol their areas, and that's 42 cities. [music in]

Brian De Los Santos  04:17

So yeah, let me just repeat what Frank said right there. The Sheriff's Department patrols 42 cities in LA County, from Altadena to Cerritos and a whole bunch of other areas not within LA city limits. The Sheriff's Department isn't just big. It's the largest sheriff's department in the world.

Frank Stoltze  04:36

And then the other big difference is the Sheriff's Department runs the jails. And it's a massive jail system. It's what- I think about 15,000 inmates now, and Sheriff's Department is bigger. And so while the LAPD has about you know, 9000 police officers, I guess the Sheriff's Department has about the same but then it also has another like 6 or 7000 civilians who help them run the jails. The Sheriff's Department definitely has a reputation for aggressive policing.

Brian De Los Santos  05:06

Who gets to vote for the LA County Sheriff?

Frank Stoltze  05:10

Everybody does. Even if you're in the city of Los Angeles, which is patrolled by the LAPD, you still vote for the sheriff. Santa Monica, Long Beach, City of San Fernando. All the- everybody in LA County votes, votes for the sheriff. And that's because the sheriff has jurisdiction all over the county.

Brian De Los Santos  05:29

Well, turning over to something that is a hot topic is Sheriff Villanueva. He's made headlines because he's running for re-election.

Frank Stoltze  05:38

You know, for a long time, people really didn't pay much attention to the sheriff's races, but really kind of in the wake of Michael Brown in Ferguson, and especially after George Floyd, you know uh, there's been a lot more attention to policing. And so when, when he ran back in 2018, he was uh, promising reform. And a lot of folks say that it was a little bit of a bait and switch, that he didn't turn out to be a reformer. And, you know, not just going after political enemies, but allegations of a cover up of police abuse, of Sheriff's deputies abuse, the jails are a mess. There was just a big report about, you know, filthy conditions inside the jails. And it's like I said earlier, the Sheriff runs the jails. And I'm kind of forgetting kind of the most obvious thing, which is he's constantly fighting with everybody, right? Like he's constantly fighting with the Board of Supervisors, and the District Attorney, and the Inspector General, who you know, watchdogs his department, and the Civilian Oversight Commission.

Brian De Los Santos  06:34

So, he's really a loud voice.

Frank Stoltze  06:37

I mean, some people kind of see him as like a Trumpian figure. One of the most interesting things is his attacks on the woke political left, and he just says that he's kind of the only guy with the answers. And he's fighting against this establishment that's after him. And yeah, there's kind of a level almost of paranoia.

Brian De Los Santos  06:55

So he's up for re-election this fall. And he's up against the Long Beach Police Chief, Robert Luna. What's at stake in this election?

Frank Stoltze  07:02

I think what's at stake is stable leadership at the Sheriff's Department. Villanueva is constantly fighting with the Board of Supervisors and accusing them of being politically corrupt. And that's threatened funding for the Sheriff's Department, because they don't have any faith in him. Civilian oversight is at stake. You know, he refuses to work with the Civilian Oversight Commission and with the Inspector General, which were set up in the wake of former Sheriff Lee Baca's obstruction of justice and jail violence scandal.

Brian De Los Santos  07:38

[music in] Just a little background. That guy Frank just mentioned, Lee Baca? He was the LA County Sheriff for more than 15 years. But he was convicted in 2017 for obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI. His crimes were kind of under the radar for a long time, which is why that oversight was set up. [music out]

Frank Stoltze  07:57

So that those things wouldn't happen again. And now we have a sheriff who's just thumbing his nose, you know, at these institutions that are designed to watchdog his department. Police departments and sheriff's departments are hard to change. You know, it's like moving the Titanic around. And when I covered the reform at the LAPD, you know, it took a federal consent decree and a federal monitor and a federal judge overseeing what was going on. You know, it took a guy from the outside coming in to lead it, you know, and it took a lot of money. So if we're gonna see real change at the Sheriff's Department, it's gonna mean probably a lot more than just electing a different sheriff.

Brian De Los Santos  08:36

Like to me, as a person who can't vote because I'm not a US citizen or a US resident, is it's my tax money. You know, it's like these institutions, they get tax dollars. So to me, that's one of the reasons why people should care about elections overall.

Frank Stoltze  08:52

$3.6 billion. It's a huge organization. You know, and there's a lot of discussion about diverting that money to alternatives to incarceration, to social programs to help people leave the criminal life or steer clear of it. We passed Measure J a couple years ago, which called for more money into programs like Care First, Jails Last. So people should care because Sheriff Villanueva has kind of poo pooed that effort, you know. He's called it wacky, politically left, unrealistic trying to help these people, and his challenger former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna is at least open to supporting stuff like that. Luna's a traditional police officer. Don't get me wrong. I mean, he ran the Long Beach Police Department. He's a career law enforcement guy. He's in his 60s. My experience is it's gonna take probably a new generation of police leaders to really embrace I think the reform [music in] that people want to see.

Brian De Los Santos  09:59

So Frank, you have a new podcast coming out about all of this. It's called Imperfect Paradise: The Sheriff. Give us a pitch.

Frank Stoltze  10:06

It's about the unlikely rise of Alex Villanueva to become sheriff and how he's been as sheriff, you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And then what's at stake in this coming election.

Brian De Los Santos  10:19

And I heard that you interviewed the man himself?

Frank Stoltze  10:23

I did. And he provided us a very interesting interview. He didn't perform well in the primary election. The walls are kind of closing in a little bit on him. So I think we could see an interesting few weeks here in the lead up to the election in terms of how the Sheriff behaves.

Brian De Los Santos  10:41

Thanks, Frank. Thanks for being here and explaining what policing is in LA for us.

Frank Stoltze  10:46

Thanks, Brian.

Brian De Los Santos  10:46

That's Frank Stoltze, Civics and Democracy Correspondent for LAist. Our conversation was just a snippet of the Sheriff's story. We'll be following the sheriff's race this fall. And be sure to check out Frank's new podcast all about the Sheriff. It drops today. Look for it wherever you get your podcasts. And while you're at it, hook me up. Subscribe to How to LA. That's if you haven't already. We'll have more on policing in LA in our newsletter, too. You can find that at LAist.com/HowToLA. And speaking of the newsletter, tune in tomorrow. We'll be hanging out with our newsletter editor Aaricka Washington at one of LA's climbing gyms. I promise you, it's an inspiration. All right. That's all we have for you today. See you tomorrow.

Brian De Los Santos  11:33

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people. [music out]