Following months of large scale protests against police brutality across the United States in 2020, then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra initiated a probe into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The agency had been plagued by deputy gangs, allegations of misconduct and recent high-profile deputy shootings.
Becerra said at the investigation’s launch in January 2021 that a thorough report on the probe’s findings would be made public.
Three years later, the report is complete — but it remains unavailable to the public. When asked for a copy of the report, several county departments, including the Sheriff’s Department, said they could not share it and described it as “confidential.”
California Department of Justice officials presented the report’s findings in a closed-door meeting with representatives of the Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County Office of Inspector General at the end of March, according to four sources familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. The inspector general’s office serves as a watchdog agency to oversee the activities of the Sheriff’s Department.
Spokespeople for the offices of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors told Capital & Main that they received individual briefings and a copy of the report, which totals more than 100 pages. The Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, a Sheriff’s Department union, received a copy of the document, according to its president, Richard Pippin.
But the nine-member Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission was not invited to the presentation and has not seen the report, according to commission Chair Sean Kennedy. The commission’s mission is to monitor the Sheriff’s Department’s policies and practices and foster stronger ties with the community.
The state Justice Department’s failure to make the report public appears to go against the commitment made by Becerra, who left his post in 2021. Becerra is now U.S. secretary of health and human services. The process also lacks the transparency typical of federal investigations, according to Michael Gennaco, founder of OIR Group, a company that provides assessments of police departments. Gennaco is an expert on law enforcement reform and accountability who has worked as an independent auditor of police departments across the country. Gennaco said that failing to share the report with the public “is not the usual practice” of the U.S. Department of Justice.
The office of Rob Bonta, the current California Attorney General, said it was unable to comment on an ongoing investigation.
The Justice Department’s recommendations are expected to cover a range of topics, including use of force; stops, searches and arrests; deputy gangs; and internal investigations, discipline and complaints, according to internal Sheriff’s Department emails reviewed by Capital & Main. Additionally, they are expected to touch upon department oversight; community engagement; training, hiring, retention and supervision; and “custody and conditions of confinement.”
Attorneys for Los Angeles County are expected to negotiate with the Department of Justice over the terms of a settlement agreement, a legally binding contract that allows the two parties to avoid going to trial. The Los Angeles County’s Office of County Counsel said in an email their attorneys “and LASD are in communication with Cal DOJ and hope to avoid litigation.” The adoption of the settlement agreement is imminent, according to internal Sheriff’s Department emails and sources familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. The settlement agreement is expected to be made public, but unlike the report, it will not include a detailed accounting of the Department of Justice’s findings.
In a statement emailed to Capital & Main, the Sheriff’s Department said it was “not at liberty to discuss anything further.” In a departmentwide email sent in late March, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said that the department had a “legal obligation” to “meet and confer with relevant employee representatives regarding any changes that may impact working conditions.”
At the investigation’s launch, Becerra told the media that it would speak to community groups in the course of its investigation. Capital & Main spoke to representatives from four community organizations, including Cancel the Contract Antelope Valley, the JusticeLA Coalition, Dignity and Power Now and the Check the Sheriff Coalition that act as watchdogs over the Sheriff’s Department. They said they were never contacted by the Justice Department about the investigation.
The Sheriff’s Department is already under five settlement agreements dating back to the 1970s and overseen by federal courts. Four of them relate to the conditions inside county jail facilities. The fifth centers on racial profiling and policing practices in the Antelope Valley in Northern Los Angeles County.
A report that preceded the most recent agreement was released to the public, Genacco said. The Sheriff’s Department has remained out of compliance with each of these settlement terms.
The Kern County Sheriff’s Office entered into a settlement agreement with the California Department of Justice in 2020 following a four-year investigation. The report in that case was never released to the public. Prior to that, the most recent inquiry into a municipal police force overseen by the state Attorney General took place more than a decade earlier. In 2007, then-Attorney General Jerry Brown announced a review of the Maywood Police Department. Two years later, the two parties entered into a settlement agreement, which was voided when the department disbanded and was replaced by a contract with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 2010.
A robust public process would benefit efforts to improve operations at the Sheriff’s Department, said Peter Eliasberg, chief counsel and Manheim family attorney for first amendment rights at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. An ACLU lawsuit against the department alleging overcrowded and inhumane conditions in the county jails resulted in a settlement agreement last year.
“Good policy around changes in the way the Sheriff’s Department works and fixing long-standing problems with the Sheriff’s Department certainly should be informed by vigorous and widespread public engagement,” Eliasberg said.
