*Los Angeles County officials have announced a 6-month investigation into “deputy gangs” in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The move comes following “numerous reports” about rogue cops who operate like street gangs, CNN reports.
“Numerous reports” show deputy gangs exist, but “their scope and impact is unknown,” said the county Civilian Oversight Commission, in a statement.
The COC says the gangs have existed for 50 years, and that they “create a shadow-system of supervision and leadership” and create an “us-against-them culture.”
“Deputy gangs have fostered and promoted excessive force against citizens, discriminated against other deputies based on race and gender, and undermined the chain of command and discipline,” said Loyola Law School’s Center for Juvenile Law and Policy commission chair and executive director Sean Kennedy. “Despite years of documented history of this issue, the Department has failed to eliminate the gangs.”
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The county Civilian Oversight Commission was created by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to “improve public transparency and accountability” in the sheriff’s department, according to its website, as reported by Complex.
Per the California statute, law enforcement gangs are known to share the same tattoos and “engage in a pattern of on-duty behavior that intentionally violates the law or fundamental principles of professional policing.”
Sheriff Alex Villanueva said the investigation is a “fishing expedition and political theater.”
“The problem with their announcement is the COC and Office of the Inspector General (OIG) already launched that investigation, almost three years ago,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a statement. “In all that time, not one deputy ‘gang member’ has been identified.”
Per Rolling Stone, Los Angeles County Inspector General Max Huntsman said in a letter sent to Villanueva that his office was investigating at least 41 deputies “whom the Sheriffs Department itself has identified as allegedly being tattooed members.”
Huntsman claims the sheriff’s department refuses to turn over documents related to the gang investigation.
“The Sheriffs Department may not refuse to produce the records requested,” Huntsman writes, “by unilaterally declaring that no deputy sheriff is a member of a ‘law enforcement gang.’”
Villanueva noted that he awaits the final report and “whatever new FACTUAL information they can provide.”
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