Talk:Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department/Archive 1

Size
Why is it that this article states that the LA County Sheriff's are the third largest local law enforcement agency behind NYPD and Chicago PD but the LAPD is supposedly the second largest behind NYPD? Blckmgc (talk) 04:52, 21 March 2012 (UTC) The listing of LASD as the fourth largest local agency is incorrect, but just barely. If you look at the current staffing levels cited at the LAPDonline.org site, it appears LAPD is about 100 sworn personnel smaller than LASD. But while NYPD is the largest agency, Los Angles is the second largest city but should be listed as the fourth largest agency, as Chicago PD is still listed as considerably larger that both LASD and LAPD. Fredgarvin.associates (talk) 22:38, 5 January 2014 (UTC)

Jurisdictional Structure
Under "jurisdictional structure", is the population figure correct. It is stated as being 2.8 million when the population of L.A. County is 9,878,554  --Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.255.7.137 (talk) 11:42, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Editorial
I consider the below editorial/opinion that was posted on this page by another user:

"While there is no denying that the men and women of the Sheriff's Department have probably one of the most difficult tasks in Southern California law enforcement, they also enjoy a certain cachet amongst the less generously endowed strata of society. The poor, racial (Latino, Black, etc.) minorities, and sexual (gay, transgender) minorities in Los Angeles County have learned that, even if not involved in any form of wrongdoing whatsoever, a good place to be when an LASD Deputy appears is somewhere else. They have also learned to quietly any pay medical expenses resulting from such encounters, and that they need not complain concerning their treatment by the deputies."

I disagree, the LASD patrol's West Hollywood under contract, that could be cancelled. Instead the LASD has an outreach. This other stuff is editorial in nature and not something appropriate for the article. I have seen the LASD to be very concerned about the communities they patrol.

Rhallanger 19:29, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Past Sheriffs
Should the past Sheriffs (Peter J. Pitchess, Sherman Block, et. al.) be listed somewhere? --evrik (talk) 14:39, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Done!- --Lasportsnut (talk) 13:42, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

An article about a huge sheriff's department, and no criticisms?
I support all sheriffs, but it must be ackowledged there have been many problems in the jails they run in Los Angeles. The most serious are deputies who encourage and allow violence by some inmates against others. In addition, meal eating times allowed are usually shorter than required by law, there is sometimes a lack of beds, large numbers of inmates are often held for many hours in small spaces, and medical attention is seriously deficient. I hear deputies usually serve their first year or two in jails, and perhaps their lack of experience contributes to these problems. To be fair, the Orange County jails suffer the same abuses and problems (currently under investigation).Ykral (talk) 06:43, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

This should not be mentioned as these are rumors and propaganda. If there are issues with a small percentage of personnel, why drag the entire department through the mud? Like any agency or corporation, there are bad apples that must be eliminated. The Sheriff does an very good job of doing this, considering the size of the department (15,000+).--Lasportsnut (talk) 14:56, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

The article is about the whole department, not just the current sheriff (Lee Baca). Understaffing does seem to be a problem. It seems the sheriff does his best with the limited funds he has, including trying to control jail deputies. Along that note, there also has been a failure to separate violent inmates from other inmates (also in Orange County), leading to several deaths. Finally, the number of premeditated assaults and riots indicate that inmate supervision is not as constant as it should be.Ykral (talk) 02:48, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

There are laws against inmate segregation. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is against segregation. When you have a jail of over 20,000 and approximately 12,000 gang members, it is difficult to keep inmates 100% safe without more jails. --Preceding unsigned comment added by Lasportsnut (talk • contribs) 02:41, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Lasportsnut, your comments are appreciated. As stated, I do support sheriffs and law enforcement. It seems clear they need more staff because there is an obvious lack of constant inmmate monitoring. There are often numerous and obvious signs that inmate trouble is about to happen, and it would be almost impossible for a watchful department to miss them, especially when large groups are suddenly getting together to plan things. On top of that, deputies frequently observe inmates who have been seriously beaten, yet the deputies do nothing about it. Once again, perhaps they are too busy to do their jobs well.Ykral (talk) 14:32, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

The misconduct section is woefully out of date. The Department produces nonstop examples of police misconduct and abuse. Dupea (talk) 16:59, 15 September 2020 (UTC)


 * Didn't senior management, including the County Sheriff and his subordinates all get sent to various lengths of prison? Why isn't this in here? I am paywalled by the LA Times where most of this coverage is, but for those with access to it, there should be substantial information on the removal of an earlier sheriff and his recent incarceration at a prison in Texas. Additionally, there are new investigations into the LA County Sheriffs office for reputed sheriffs' participation as police gangs - the "Executioner's Gang". That too is in the LA Times, and should not be omitted from this article... Stevenmitchell (talk) 21:34, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

Contract Cities
Altadena is listed first as an incorporated city that contracts with the Sheriff's Dept. to provide police services, but Altadena is unincorporated. Shouldn't it be removed? --Preceding unsigned comment added by Huntington (talk • contribs) 22:02, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Do you mean the city doesn't contract with the LASD to provide police services? If so, you may be mistaken with another city because the LASD does provide police services to Altadena, as shown here: .MOOOOOPS (talk) 22:19, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
 * You may wish to review the link you provided as it appears that the Substation is named the Altadena Station and covers the unincorporated county areas of Altadena, Pasadena, and remote unattached parts of the city of Pasadena. This is not a contract city.  The entire list likely requires review. SGT141 (talk) 22:38, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Your right. I am not familiar with the LASD, so if someone who is familiar with the department could review the list of contract cities, I'd appreciate it. MOOOOOPS (talk) 05:42, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Mangled "Academy" Section
The end of the "Academy" section appears to have the remnants of what might have been a criticisms section. It's a mess and probably should either be deleted or completely revised. I propose to delete everything including and following the sentence that starts with "December 2009" if no one is interested in revising it. G Sisson (talk) 21:17, 2 June 2010 (UTC)
 * This was cleaned up nicely by IRCPhoeniX shortly after I posted this.  Nice work! G Sisson (talk) 08:27, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Blue uniforms?
Saw an video circa 1979-1981 with footage featuring the LAPD and possibly the LACoSD. Did they used to wear light blue uniform shirts with dark pants before they switched to the famous tan and dark green? Any info would be appreciated 98.200.140.43 (talk) 05:37, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

LASD never wore blue uniforms of any kind. They were initially all dark green until shortly after WW2, where they switched to tan and green. After the LA County Marshal's Department was absorbed by LASD in the 90s, former Marshal's Security Officers continued to wear the white shirt / dark blue pants uniform for some years. Current LASD Security Officers and Security Assistants wear white shirts / green pants.

In Southern California, light blue shirts over dark blue pants are usually worn by Cadets, Community Service Officers, Police Security Officers, Records Technicians, and other non-sworn municipal police positions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.122.153.56 (talk) 01:27, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

County jail system
The article about the County jail system starts "The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department operates the largest jail system in the world" surely this needs some quantifying. I don't know if this is the usual American conceit that the US is the world, but how can LA County operate a larger jail system then say China or Russia. Take Russia for instance they have a jail population of ~600,000 whereas the whole of California has a jail population of ~200,000, just from these figures it would indicate that Russia has a larger jail system than LA County. I think folk in the US forget that most countries run on federal basis were things like jails police etc are ran on a national basis.

Yakacm (talk) 10:06, 28 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Perhaps you are confusing "jails" with "prisons". "Jails" (as the term is used in the United States; this article is about a US agency) are detention facilities run by local (city and county) agencies for offenders that have committed misdemeanors and for subjects that are awaiting trial or disposition. "Prisons" are detention facilities operated by states and the federal government for offenders who have committed felonies. So the claim's comparison would be to the equivalent government organizational level in other countries, not the whole country. For example, in Russia, a prison system would be operated by the Russian Federation its federal subjects, such as the 46 oblasts; and a jail would be operated by the federal subject's administrative divisions. However, depending on the equivalent terms for jails and prisons, and detention laws, policies, and organizational structures used in other countries, the claim may not be directly applicable to other countries. -hulmem (talk) 21:15, 28 March 2018 (UTC)

Rank Structure
I recall there was a rank structure in an older version of this page. Why was it removed? CaptainGummyBearz (talk) 22:22, 13 April 2019 (UTC)

List of LACSD Gangs
In my sandbox, I have made a list of the department's gangs. Please tell me if we can use it. User:PaulinSaudi/sandbox

Leave comments here.

--PaulinSaudi (talk) 22:27, 28 May 2021 (UTC)

Definition of "deputy gang"
Since we don't have an article on deputy gangs in general, and the phrase seems to crop up mostly in respect to LASD, it would seem prudent that we either state what a deputy gang is in this article, or, if we have strong information on the existence and history of deputy gangs in other sheriff departments, that we create the article Deputy gang and link to that article from here. Edderiofer (talk) 16:19, 7 November 2021 (UTC)