The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has announced its appointments to the "Civilian Oversight Commission" (COC) for the Sheriff's Department. 
ALADS does not have an issue with examining the Sheriff's Department's practices, as long as those making the inquiry come with an open and informed mind, not an agenda.

 

The COC will only be an advisory panel which has no legal authority over the Sheriff's Department, or the ability to subpoena any documents from the department.  The enabling ordinance for the COC states it will "Be advisory only to the Board of Supervisors and the Sheriff without the authority to manage or operate the Sheriff's Department or direct activities of the Sheriff's Department or Sheriff's Department employees, including the imposition of discipline."  This is very different from the panel which oversees the Los Angeles Police Department.

 

Critics of the Sheriff's Department fully intended and lobbied for the COC to have power. One supporter stated their hope that the COC could be a "powerful bully pulpit" for implementation of different policies in the department.  While the Sheriff, as an elected constitutional officer in California, retains sole power over the operations of the department, the COC is the creation of the Board of Supervisors who sets the Sheriff's budget.

 

We noted the overwhelming majority of the COC appointees have no law enforcement experience or specialized knowledge.  Supporters of creating the COC strongly opposed placing anybody with a law enforcement background on the Commission at all.  ALADS believes that if someone is in a position to review deputies' actions and recommend policy changes they should at least demonstrate some knowledge of the area they are judging.  While this is not the case for the COC, there are ways the current panel could gain some knowledge and understanding of the duties and challenges deputies face. 

 

ALADS will be sending a letter to each member of the COC asking them to go through training on use of force and any updates that each department member receives.  We will also ask that each member, after completing the use of force training, go through the Vir-Tra V 300 simulator and apply their training to scenarios embedded in the simulator.  We believe doing these two things will advance COC members' understanding of the real challenges deputies face on a daily basis; applying policy while making split second decisions.  Understanding LASD policy can also give COC members needed insight as they enter their "advisory" roles.

 

ALADS will not prejudge the COC, but will wait to see how they approach their task.  We sincerely hope that COC members will approach their roles with an open mind, and not an agenda driven by personal beliefs on how policing should be conducted in their opinion.  While the COC may have a "bully pulpit," if some get their way, we at ALADS also have the same ability to reach out to the public and provide a viewpoint and will not hesitate to do so if we believe the COC is going astray from their intended mission.