Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva on Wednesday threatened his division would stop patrolling Metro’s transit system except the company’s board provides the him full management over safety on the sprawling community of trains and buses.
Villanueva made the demand as the present contract — below which the Sheriff’s Division splits regulation enforcement duties with the Los Angeles and Lengthy Seaside police departments — is ready to run out this summer season. The LAPD patrols a majority of the transit system, 325 sheriff’s deputies are answerable for a couple of third of it, and Lengthy Seaside police deal with a tiny fraction.
“So efficient July 1, we are going to redeploy, absent a place from the board that they’re going to just accept our complete contract,” Villanueva stated, including there are vacancies throughout the division the place he might reassign the deputies. “I've three jobs ready for each single individual assigned to the MTA proper now.”
Villanueva and different sheriff’s officers stated the Sheriff’s Division will undergo Metro a proposal for about 600 deputies to patrol the transit system for $30 million much less yearly than what they presently pay for a similar degree of staffing. The Metro board paid about $800 million for the present 5-year contract.
How Villanueva would be capable of try this with out badly depleting different areas of his division is unclear. The sheriff has blamed a hiring freeze imposed by the Board of Supervisors for leaving him with virtually 1,000 vacancies throughout his division.
In a press release, L.A. County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, who can be chair of the Metro board and an outspoken critic of Villanueva’s, stated dividing patrol duties amongst three police businesses was meant “to enhance regulation enforcement response.”
“The Sheriff’s declaration of pulling out his deputies if the Division isn’t awarded the complete contract with Metro ought to alarm everybody,” she stated. “He would basically be defunding his personal division if not awarded a sole contract.”
The Metro board lately approved extending the three-agency contract for as much as a yr to permit time to develop a brand new course of for choosing an company or businesses to deal with safety. It’s unclear whether or not the Sheriff’s Division might refuse to take part in an extension.
Villanueva stated he didn't seek the advice of LAPD Chief Michel Moore earlier than his information convention. Moore advised The Occasions that the present shared-responsibility system “has improved security.”
“All of us in regulation enforcement have a shared accountability for the general public security and mass transit, and we are able to and will work collaboratively collectively,” he stated.
Moore defended the work of his officers in defending transit following the sheriff’s statements. “The women and men of the LAPD monitor trains, platforms and buses diligently each day across the clock,” he stated.
In making his announcement, Villanueva singled out a number of violent incidents which have occurred at transit stations since September 2020, when two deputies have been shot in an ambush whereas sitting in a patrol automotive close to the Compton transit station.
Violent crime on the system climbed 36% final yr, with aggravated assaults, rapes and homicides rising for the second yr in a row, in accordance with Metro information.
“To say this [is an] unsafe atmosphere is clearly an understatement,” Villanueva stated.
The Metro board has been discussing for years options to regulation enforcement on the transit system, together with contemplating unarmed ambassadors to work at stations and deal with nonviolent calls. The board additionally lately voted to require all deputies and officers assigned to the transit system to be vaccinated — a jab at Villanueva who has refused to implement the county’s worker vaccine mandate.
Villanueva criticized the ambassador proposal and different reform-minded initiatives.
“We’re not going to bid for the position of being overpaid safety,” Villanueva stated. “We’re really going to implement the code of conduct, fare evasion and the rule of regulation.”
For greater than a decade till 2017, the Sheriff’s Division had been solely answerable for patrolling Metro’s huge net of bus routes and practice traces that features subway stations in downtown L.A. and solitary bus stops close to San Gabriel Valley strip malls.
When the Metro board opted to usher in the Los Angeles and Lengthy Seaside police departments, the Sheriff’s Division confronted criticism from transit officers and from riders who complained that they hardly ever noticed uniformed deputies on trains and buses. Villanueva claimed Wednesday with out providing proof that the change was a politically motivated transfer meant to learn Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was operating for reelection on the time.
Villanueva has made threats earlier than about chopping providers. In 2020, he introduced plans to shut two patrol stations to assist shrink his division’s price range deficit. Amid criticism, he shortly walked again his remarks, and the closures by no means occurred.
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