Public safety should be the first priority of government. We have
repeatedly written
about the understaffing of the Sheriff's Department and called for the Board of Supervisors to fund efforts to reverse the problem. That is why the Los Angeles County budget passed on June 26, 2017 is a disappointment, as public safety came in a distant second to other budget items.
The shortage of line deputies to perform patrol duties has affected public safety in a myriad of ways. For example, it has led to implementation of the disastrous "CARP" program, a shell game where deputies from detective and other assignments are pulled away from those positions to "parachute in" and fill a patrol assignment on an occasional basis. That has a cascading effect throughout the department by affecting morale and impeding investigations on open cases. It certainly doesn't address the basic problem of not enough patrol deputies to perform patrol functions.
The priority of the Board of Supervisors should be deputy staffing levels for community safety. There is a rising crime wave in Los Angeles County thanks to measures such as
AB 109
and
Prop 47
.
It is proven that a cost-effective way to curtail crime and its associated economic costs is to fully fund law enforcement agencies. This basic function of government, however, was ignored by the Board of Supervisors who chose to make political statements with taxpayer dollars and direct those taxpayer dollars to areas where public safety is not advanced.
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