Supes Reject Proposed Civilian Oversight of Sheriff's Department

By ELIZABETH MARCELLINO
City News Service

UPDATED at 5:04 p.m.: On a 3-2 vote, the Board of Supervisors today rejected a proposal to create a permanent civilian oversight commission for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, urging advocates to give the inspector general a chance to do his job.

Opponents said such a review board would be powerless given the elected sheriff’s authority under state law, while advocates said that even an advisory- only board would give community members a much-needed voice.

The board’s authority over the sheriff is limited because he is an elected official, not appointed by the supervisors. Adding another layer of review would be ineffective without changes to state law, said Richard Drooyan, speaking on behalf of the Citizens’ Commission for Jail Violence. That temporary commission was established in 2011 and recommended dozens of reforms in 2012.

“A jail commission is not really going to have the ability to conduct investigations,” Drooyan told the board. “That’s why we have the inspector general.”

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and community advocates said civilian oversight was critical, even if such a review board could only play an advisory role.

“It’s not simply about having teeth, it is about having a voice,” Ridley-Thomas said.

Other advocates said a committee of civilians would give residents a forum for grievances, and many shared personal stories of deputy brutality against family members.

“Why is it so difficult to support a review board?”, asked Patrisse Cullors, executive director of Dignity and Power Now. Cullors was one of many who argued that a commission would be a good first step, while urging the board to move now to change state laws that could bestow more authority.

Inspector General Max Huntsman, a 20-year veteran of the District Attorney’s Office appointed by the board in December, said he still lacks access to the information he needs to do his job, despite the enthusiastic support of Interim Sheriff John Scott.

Huntsman noted that he was blocked from following the investigation of a fatal deputy-involved shooting this past weekend.

In a statement issued this afternoon, Scott said he was working with Huntsman “to build a climate of trust and transparency within the organization and the public.”

Supervisor Gloria Molina pushed Huntsman to start holding the Sheriff’s Department accountable. Saying it wasn’t just a matter of access, she urged him to start reviewing what she said were 3,000 older investigative reports.

“We need a system with integrity and you’re the person who can deliver it, and I say get to work,” Molina told Huntsman.

Huntsman has lacked the authority or funding to monitor jail conditions and review Sheriff’s Department investigations. But in a separate vote today, the board indicated its intent to adopt an ordinance formally establishing those powers.

Scott said he agreed with the ordinance “in substantial part.” But his statement seemed to indicate that he and Huntsman are not yet on the same page about access to information.

“We have formed a committee to establish working guidelines to ensure maximum cooperation and have requested a formal county counsel opinion about legal access to confidential/privileged information,” Scott said.

Supervisors Don Knabe and Zev Yaroslavsky argued that Huntsman should be given six months to a year to effect changes.

Many community members, including several rabbis, singled out Yaroslavsky in their calls for support of civilian oversight. Some of the dozens of advocates who rallied outside the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration carried signs with his photo that read, “Zev Yaroslavsky, what will you do?”

Yaroslavsky called the Sheriff’s Department a “poster child for how not to carry out its constitutional responsibilities” and said its problems had become a national embarrassment. However, adding civilian oversight without power wouldn’t change that, he said.

“The problem with the Sheriff’s Department is not that there is too little oversight. The problem with the Sheriff’s Department is that there is too little effective oversight,” Yaroslavsky said. “When everyone is in charge, no one is in charge.”

Some residents said they were tired of waiting.

“We don’t have time to wait because we’re losing our young people,” said “Sweet” Alice Harris, who told the board she has lived in Watts for 60 years.

She relayed the story of a 24-year-old inmate who she said was paralyzed from the waist down as a result of deputy brutality after being behind bars overnight.

“Wait broke the wagon down,” she told the board, using an old colloquialism. “Can’t wait.”

Ridley-Thomas and Molina were the civilian oversight commission proposal’s only supporters on the board.