2021

LA County Sheriff’s Department employees are now Mirroring LA County Demographics

Since taking office, Sheriff Villanueva’s vision of LASD’s hiring practices have resulted in sworn personnel representing what our communities look like.   Currently, the LA County demographics are reflected in all ranks from entry level deputy to the top ranks.  Sheriff Villanueva oversees the LASD which is comprised of approximately 9,800 sworn personnel, 18,000 total personnel who serve throughout Los Angeles County, a County with over 10 million residents, and spread out over 4,000 square miles.

During Sheriff Villanueva’s tenure there has also been equity in promotions at the Executive ranks.  For example, Sheriff Villanueva has appointed one Hispanic and one Asian to the Undersheriff position, a rank designating the second in command of the Sheriff’s Department, which is currently held by Undersheriff Timothy K. Murakami.

At the Division Chief level, this is the first time in the history of the Department there are four African American Division Chiefs. 

As of January 31, 2021, the Executive ranks from Captain to Chief were represented by 26 females, compared to 94 males, which resulted in 21.66% female and 78.33% male representation.  Department females account for 18.3% of LASD personnel at all ranks (The national average is 11.9%). 

Under Sheriff Villanueva’s leadership, sworn personnel and the leadership of the LASD are truly reflective of the communities that we serve throughout LA County.

Members of the Community participate in Tactics and Survival Training

LASD values transparency with the public by engaging in open and honest communication.  Last year, members of the community were invited to participate in hands-on training with our Tactics and Survival unit to promote transparency during critical incidents.  During these scenarios, veteran law enforcement instructors recreated high stress scenarios that Deputies experience on a regular basis.  Community Members were confronted with several different scenarios including some when a mock firearm or other deadly weapon were produced.

During one scenario, a role player stumbled out of his residence while holding his head as if he was an injured victim. A second man exited the residence and approached the community members. Without any warning, he suddenly retrieved a handgun from his waistband and fired several rounds before they even had time to react and return fire.

In another scenario, a role player was sitting in the driver’s seat of his vehicle and lifted his leg to reveal a loaded handgun that he was sitting on.  The training team pointed out this is one reason why, during traffic stops, Deputies will often direct members of the public to leave their hands on the steering wheel or in plain view. 

Marquis Diamond, a community representative who attended the training program, shared his experience, “Working in the community, we get to see things from the social media side; and sometimes, like we just realized today, that’s not always what’s accurate.  So coming to an event like this, it allows us to see the perception from the officer’s eyes.  That way when we’re in our communities we get to let them know: let the facts come out first, before we make judgement on how this situation played out.”

LASD thanks the community members who took the time to participate in these training scenarios.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva addresses policy on deputy cliques and subgroups With Department Members.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva is the FIRST Los Angeles County Sheriff to successfully implement a policy banning “deputy cliques.” The policy went into effect in February 2020, and a video reinforcing his message was recently released to the Department. All sworn Department members have been briefed and are being held accountable. This is what culture change within the organization looks like.

View LASD Policy

PROMOTION ANNOUNCEMENT – MARK REYES PROMOTED TO CAPTAIN, TEMPLE STATION

Mark Reyes has been selected by the area contract cities and Sheriff Alex Villanueva as the next Captain of Temple Sheriff Station (TEM), following the recent retirement of Captain David Flores.  This will be Reyes’ second tour at TEM, having previously been assigned there as a lieutenant.

Reyes began his time on the Department as an explorer at 16 years old.  He was also a community service officer and a custody assistant prior to becoming a deputy.  In 1995, he became a custody deputy at Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood.  He worked in patrol at Transit Services Bureau and Industry Station.  He was a field training officer and a member of a gang task force with the Community Oriented Policing Bureau before promoting to sergeant.

Reyes served five years as a sergeant, both in custody and in the field.  He also worked as an investigator at Internal Affairs Bureau.
When Reyes promoted to lieutenant, he transferred to North County Correctional Facility where he worked as a watch commander.  He then transferred to TEM, where he served as a watch commander and Detective Bureau lieutenant.  From there, he moved to Narcotics Bureau where he was assigned as the operations lieutenant.

Since 2019, Reyes has served as an executive aide for Central Patrol Division, the Assistant Sheriff of Patrol Operations, and lastly, for the Undersheriff’s Office.

This will be Reyes’ first assignment as a captain.  He grew up in the TEM area and is a graduate of Rosemead High School.  He has a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Union Institute & University and is fluent in reading, writing and speaking Spanish.  Reyes has two adult children; his daughter is a graduate of Azusa Pacific University and his son is a police officer for another local agency.  He enjoys traveling, golfing and spending time with his family and friends.  Reyes is also a recipient of the Department’s Meritorious Conduct Gold award for rescuing a pilot after an airplane crash.

Temple Station was established in 1926 and provides law enforcement services for the cities of Bradbury, Duarte, Rosemead, South El Monte, and Temple City, as well as the unincorporated areas of Arcadia, Monrovia, Pasadena and San Gabriel.  Reyes will be in charge of approximately 200 professional and sworn personnel who handle an average of 3,900 calls for service per month.

Transparency via SB 1421: Update

Effective January 1, 2019, Senate Bill 1421, the Right to Know Act, went into effect.

This CA bill essentially made public previously confidential records about law enforcement officers involved in shootings or other serious uses of force, as well as those who committed sexual assaults or acts of dishonesty. 

As this law went into effect, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) had very little infrastructure in place to prepare for the onslaught of Public Records Act (PRA) requests that were to come.  As the requests began to pour in, Sheriff Villanueva had been in office for one month and was left with no infrastructure to handle this massive undertaking.  The Sheriff understands the value of transparency and accountability, to that end, the LASD requested funding for personnel, and tracking and redaction software, but was denied multiple times.

As a temporary fix to meet the law’s requirements, Sheriff Villanueva temporarily re-assigned personnel in an effort to meet the demand and instructed LASD’s Data Systems Bureau to create software to move forward at a faster pace.

We are thankful that In November of 2020, the CEO provided funding for the software which is currently in the procurement stage.

Since January 1, 2019, LASD has received 3,725 SB-1421 requests, and Sheriff Villanueva is proud to announce we have managed to fulfill 3,593 of those requests to date.  Given the extraordinary amount of meticulous tracking and legally mandated redacting necessary for every document requested, it is a huge feat that LASD has nearly accomplished the enormous number of SB-1421 requests.  Also noteworthy, LASD currently has 335 SB-1421 cases PUBLICLY posted on www.lasd.org under a new digital page titled “LASD Transparency.”  As new records are released to the requestor, they will be continued to be posted online to that page.  Finally, only those cases that are still being investigated and/or involve civil litigation, cannot be publicly released.

LASD, being the largest Sheriff’s Department in the nation, is the recipient of probably the highest number of PRA requests given the sheer size of our Department and the 10 million residents we serve.