Full Coverage: Behind the Badge: Inside the hiring practices of L.A. County Sheriff’s Department
Despite background investigations that revealed wrongdoing, incompetence, or poor performance, the department still hired dozens of problem applicants in 2010, internal records show.
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New sheriff’s deputies who perform poorly on the job during their first year are not being weeded out, leaving them to potentially cause problems years down the road in life-or-death situations, according to a report by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s inspector general.
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Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca announced Tuesday that he would not seek a fifth term in office and would instead retire at the end of the month.
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The employees were part of a mass hiring of about 280 workers, even though investigators concluded many had committed serious misconduct.
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Assistant Sheriff Jim Hellmold, a trusted confidant, advised Baca that it was a good time to step down. Others in department leadership said they had lost confidence in the sheriff.
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The sheriff says a commission would strengthen transparency and accountability. One of his rivals for reelection, Cmdr. Bob Olmsted, also supports the plan.
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Those hired by other L.A. county agencies included an officer who cut a man’s neck with a knife in an off-duty fight, records show.
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After inquiries from The Times about questionable hires, department shuts program down
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Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials in 2010 hired about 80 people they shouldn’t have because of serious problems in their backgrounds, a department official acknowledged Tuesday.
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How and why were dozens of officers with records of misconduct allowed to join the L.A. Sheriff’s Department?
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When Justin Bravo applied to be a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, background investigators noted the young man had some brushes with the law that raised red flags about his past.
