Sheriff’s Station Is Facing a Tough Mix of Problems

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies measure their time at the Century station in dog years. One year at Century, they say, is equivalent to seven years anywhere else.

It is among the busiest and largest stations in the Sheriff’s Department, covering 13 square miles of some of the toughest sections of southern Los Angeles County from Athens to Lynwood, and registering nearly a quarter of all the homicides in the department in the first half of this year alone.

But until recently, Century was defying those statistics in an important area. For two years in a row, shootings by the station’s deputies dropped even as crime flourished, an encouraging development that earned the station’s leaders praise. Now, however, that trend has been reversed, as a new report documents an abrupt surge in deputy shootings.

What makes this recent turnaround even more notable--and, to some observers, troubling--is the fact that Century deputies are far more likely to shoot suspects than are the officers of the Los Angeles Police Department’s neighboring Southeast Division. There, crime trends and demographics are nearly identical, but officers shoot less often.

In the first six months of this year, deputies at the Century station shot seven people, killing one. A few miles away, at the LAPD’s Southeast Division, police shot one suspect during the same period. That shooting was not fatal. Century has 276 deputies, while 350 officers work at Southeast.

“It’s striking that the disparities . . . between these two otherwise very similar stations persist,” said Merrick Bobb, a special counsel to the Board of Supervisors who oversees reforms in the Sheriff’s Department and whose recent report on Century has drawn new attention to the station’s record. “This raises once again for me the question of whether officer-involved shootings are in fact subject to substantial management control.”

Bobb and others noted that the number of shootings by deputies dropped during the two years that a new captain and management team were assigned to oversee the station. Sheriff Lee Baca made those changes when he was elected during a particularly turbulent time at the station.

Today, however, Baca says he is no more concerned about Century than he is about any other station under his command.

“When you make conclusions from numbers, you’re pretty much saying that as long as there are no shootings, no uses of force, then all is well in policing,” Baca said in an interview. “All is not well in policing just because you evaluate it on the basis of the absence of force and shootings. . . . I am not concerned about Century station being a station that will predictably have a problem employee or several problem employees. I believe Century is now like any other sheriff’s station.”

Century has a brief but storied history. It was established in 1994 after the merger of the Lynwood and Firestone stations, and it picked up other high-crime areas previously patrolled by the Carson station.

It quickly became known as a station of “cowboys” who had little tolerance for women and minorities. It was the alleged home to rogue white deputies’ gangs, the Vikings and the Regulators. The number of shootings by deputies in those days was high--in 1995 and 1996 three times as high as at any other station, in fact. Lawsuits, and the resulting judgments and settlements, were rampant and costly.

The cost to deputies was even more profound: One wall of the Century station is lined with large photographs of deputies killed in the line of duty. Century has lost more deputies than any other station.

Baca oversaw Century, among other stations, as a region chief before being elected sheriff in 1998. One of his top priorities when he became sheriff was to change the culture at the station, in part by assigning more minorities and women to work there.

Many deputies chafed at the changes. A deputies’ union assessment ranked then-Capt. Ken Brazile the lowest of any captain in the department.

“Sometimes you’re going to ruffle some feathers when you come in to do things,” said Brazile, who was promoted last spring to commander. “Obviously, we ruffled some feathers.”

Roy Burns, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, said Brazile put his “political correctness” and ambition ahead of deputies’ safety.

“He felt he had to basically appease individuals like Merrick Bobb at the expense of safety and good police work,” Burns said.

“If deputies are going to be second-guessed, their careers in jeopardy, deputies and law enforcement everywhere will not be as proactive,” Burns said. “They won’t be as aggressive when they know they won’t be backed by their captain or their system as a whole. I love LAPD, but you’ll see LAPD officers driving around with their windows up. You’ll see L.A. County sheriff’s [deputies] with their windows down.”

Today, Century is under new leadership--and its deputies are facing new problems.

From January to June this year, Century’s area accounted for 21% of the homicides in the Sheriff’s Department--125 of the department’s 599. Century also accounted for 20% of robberies in which guns were used in the department--1,023 of the total 5,237.

Sheriff’s Chief Michael Nagaoka, who oversees the region that includes Century, said gang-related crimes jumped nearly 10% in the first half of this year. Drive-by shootings, gang crimes with guns and gang assaults on deputies all have increased, he said.

All of that has helped drive up the level of danger in the community, along with the risk to deputies. Still, sheriff’s officials say they are not satisfied to merely attribute the recent spate of deputy shootings to the rising level of crime in the area. They declined, after all, during high-crime years, officials said.

Shootings by deputies, Nagaoka said, are “a very, very important topic in this region.”

“A deputy told me that it’s a great place to work if you like to drive around with your hair on fire,” said Lt. Jim Lopez, who worked at Century for two years until last January, when he was reassigned. “But we have to be careful that we don’t let people go there and run amok. . . . You have to hold those people in check and monitor them real closely.”

That job now falls to Capt. Eric Smith, who took over command of the station in June. Smith said he is reviewing all the recent shootings by deputies and that he hopes to foster a better relationship between the deputies and the community they serve.

That community, however, looks far different from the sheriff’s force charged with protecting it. Outside Century station, the neighborhoods are predominantly Latino, with a large African American population as well. Deputies are mostly young and white.

Smith, who was raised near Century and still has relatives in the area, said the high-crime, fast-paced activity requires deputies to think quickly and use unusual restraint. He said he is committed to bringing down the number of shootings. Each time one occurs, Smith reviews the case with an eye toward recommending training that could help deputies avoid reaching for their gun in the future.

As a result of the recent rise in shootings, Nagaoka and others said, increased training already has begun at Century. The department’s shooting simulator, for instance, was brought to the station for training.

Burns, the president of the deputies’ union, said Smith appears to be “a company man,” who is not necessarily sympathetic to the deputies.

“He’s not a person who supports deputies over rules,” Burns said.

Just a couple of miles away, the numbers from the LAPD’s Southeast Division are strikingly different.

There, officers patrol an area of similar size and complexity. Crime there, too, is ticking upward, propelled by gang violence and other factors.

But the LAPD officers, at least this year, have avoided the shootings that are again raising Century’s profile in the Sheriff’s Department.

LAPD Capt. Richard Bonneau, who oversees the Southeast station, said he is not surprised by Century’s numbers, nor does he believe they are reason for much concern.

“We had six officer-involved shootings [in 1999] and if you looked at that one year, it might look unusually high,” Bonneau said. “I would not criticize Century for high numbers this year or last.”

Still, Bonneau said, shooting tactics are discussed frequently in roll calls and briefings with officers. Additionally, the station has established a violent crime task force that saturates certain high-activity areas with officers. Already, Bonneau said, he has seen a decrease in crime in those neighborhoods.

Over the years, one persistent question about Century has been the adequacy of its supervision. In raw numbers, however, the station’s supervisorial ranks are not much different from those in the LAPD’s Southeast Division. Southeast has five lieutenants and 36 sergeants, the backbone of its supervisorial staff, to oversee its officers.

Century has 10 lieutenants and 39 sergeants.

Where there may be differences, however, is not in numbers but in experience. On average, Century’s supervisors have about two years experience at those ranks, less than the average tenures at the LAPD.

Crime trends rise and fall, captains come and go, and the Sheriff’s Department tries out new strategies for controlling crime. But for deputies, life on the street remains much as it always has: routine checks interspersed with flashes of trouble and risk.

On a recent day, Sgt. Kent Wegener, who has been a sergeant for 18 months, patrolled Lynwood, carrying an arsenal of nonlethal weapons in his trunk. He drove from scene to scene, checking on service calls and traffic stops made by deputies.

“It’s stressful,” Wegener said between calls. “I wouldn’t want to stay here a very long time. . . . I see things that nobody else at other stations are going to see. To me, this station is the busiest by a longshot.”

He pulled into an apartment complex where a dispatcher said someone had called 911 but hung up. The dispatcher said she heard arguing in the background, so deputies went to check on the residents there.

It turned out to be a false alarm: A child dialed 911 and kids were playing in the background.

As Wegener and the other deputies prepared to leave, one young man said: “Thanks for coming, though.”

Wegener shrugged off the appreciation. “He’ll grow up,” the sergeant said.

For Wegener and his colleagues, the payoff for doing a tour in Century is that it traditionally has cleared the way for deputies to advance to special assignments.

If they can handle Century, many believe, they can handle anything.

Most of Brazile’s management team members, in fact, were promoted, and many of the deputies who work there today believe their experience will serve them well in the future.

Baca insists that Century won’t suffer from high turnover.

“The one guy who is not getting promoted away from Century station is myself,” Baca said. “I’m going to continue to watch Century in a manner that is fair to those who are doing right.

“Those who aren’t,” Baca added, “aren’t going to remain there.”