LOS ANGELES — Just as former Sheriff Alex Villanueva has announced his intentions to run for his old position, the current sheriff continues to evade disclosing documents to the oversight commission tasked with monitoring his department.
Sheriff Robert Luna continues to clash with the nine-member Civilian Oversight Commission and the department’s inspector general over lack of access to crime scenes related to deputy-involved shootings.
Luna campaigned on a platform of restoring public trust and increasing transparency in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 2022 and in his first press conference after being elected, he vowed to “repair relations” with the oversight commission.
“I’m going in with open arms, ears open, willing to learn, but it’s going to be a two-way street,” Luna said. ”I expect there to be a good working relationship, but like any other relationship there’s a give-and-take on both sides.”
Since then, two of the initial members of the oversight commission have left — Sean Kennedy resigned earlier this year and Robert Bonner was removed from office by county Supervisor Kathryn Barger after Luna defied subpoenas requesting information related to their work.
Luna has relied on advice from county counsel to prevent disclosing records related to deputy misconduct.
Inspector General Max Huntsman expressed his frustration with Luna in a letter submitted to the Board of Supervisors in June.
“While the Sheriff’s Department has implemented policies for cooperation with the Office of lnspector General, in practice the department does not fully cooperate,” Huntsman said in his letter. “Office of lnspector General requests are regularly routed to the Office of Constitutional Policing for a decision as to what information will be provided to us and the timeframe in which it will be provided. There are often lengthy delays in providing information, including failures to provide all the requested information.
“This effectively limits our access to information by impeding the process and circumvents state law and the department’s own policy,” the letter added.
Luna has gone so far as to sue the oversight commission to prevent turning over misconduct records, which further erodes public trust and doesn’t promote the transparency he campaigned on.
One of the first acts Luna implemented as sheriff was to create an Office of Constitutional Policing to eradicate deputy gangs. He appointed Eileen Decker, a former U.S. attorney and Los Angeles police commissioner, as the director of the new department.
“This department faces some real challenges like multiple consent decrees, court judgments, settlement agreements, the existence of deputy gangs, and lawsuits that cost our taxpayers millions in settlements and judgments,” Luna said at the time. “I will have zero tolerance for this type of conduct.”
Previous sheriff’s had constitutional policing advisors as well and Luna was asked how he would describe the difference between what was in place before versus what he has created.
“The big difference is that we’re going to have more than just two attorneys, we are going to have an entire team and with the position, Eileen will be holding is a chief level position in the department and she will be sitting in the room in a lot of our meetings and she’ll have so much say in how we move forward as a command staff,” Luna added.
Emilie St. John is a freelance journalist covering the areas of Carson, Compton, Inglewood and Willowbrook. Send tips to her at emiliesaintjohn@gmail.com.
