• Deputies who are required to work back-to-back eight-hour shifts for days on end know much better. They're exhausted as the end of their physically and mentally demanding mandatory 16-hour workday draws near;

• Staffing shortages don't just mean longer days for our workforce. They mean a lack of in-service training and an inability for deputies to take time off, which only perpetuates the cycle of exhaustion, diminishes proficiency, creates risk and affects morale;

• "Administrative re-assignment" (aka CARPing) is common place.  Cadre of Administrative Reassigned Personnel (CARP) is a hold over from the failed Baca/Tanaka era. The CARP Program was once viewed by some as a way to avoid layoffs. CARPing requires that Sheriff's Department administrative and investigative personnel continue to work mandatory patrol, jail, and court positions.  Under CARPing, detectives and some "non-patrol" assigned deputies are being required to work overtime in patrol.  One unit is requiring all detectives to work a minimum of 32 hours of patrol overtime per month in addition to being CARPed one day per week.  While we have been told that CARPing will not last forever, it has been an institution for over a decade and is still common practice in 2016; and

• Shifting employees around to fill staffing holes isn't a solution. It's a shell game. Temporarily assigning a detective back to patrol plugs the patrol hole. But then there aren't enough detectives to investigate the crimes investigated by patrol, increasing the chances that criminals will not be caught and continue to commit crimes.

• The scandals led, encouraged and perpetuated by disgraced former Sheriff Lee Baca and his partner in crime, disgraced former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, have clearly taken a toll and affected recruitment efforts;

• Ongoing reports of elected officials calling for worker pay concessions, reduced pensions and benefits have combined to make government jobs less attractive than they were years ago; and

• Law enforcement work is dangerous, but the sustained attacks on police by community activists and some politicians in the recent years have made policing a less attractive career choice.  And, increasingly, we are dealing with deputies literally under attack, often by early release prisoners or parolees the system has lost track of. 

• Commit to continuous hiring even in the lean economic times and training to exceed attrition so the Department can get to full strength;
• Implement more deputy friendly and desirable work schedules which will boost morale and allow deputies to get more done at work;
• Provide deputies additional training in the areas of mental health, responding to critical incidents, as well as mandated POST training; and
• Implement a cost neutral Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP). Even with the largest graduating classes in years, deputies are retiring at a faster rate than the Department can hire and train them. By instituting a DROP program, this will allow the Department to retain deputies who would otherwise retire as the Department hires new deputies to fill the gap between budgeted and filled positions.

Until the staffing shortfall is seriously addressed, the safety of our deputies and the public alike will continue to be at risk.

 George Hofstetter is President of the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. ALADS is the collective bargaining agent and represents more than 8,200 deputy sheriffs and district attorney investigators working in Los Angeles County.  George can be contacted at [email protected].