It is no secret now that California is hostile towards law enforcement. Their soft-on-crime policies and laws have made it incredibly hard to do the job, let alone live in the state, without worrying about getting victimized. But now, with recent numbers being publicly disclosed, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is admitting that they have a problem. At Thursday's Civilian Oversight Committee hearing, Assistant Sheriff Jason Skeen reported to the committee that the department has 4,166 vacancies on the department. 

Skeen laid it out plain for the Committee: things are not okay: 

“For every three people, they have to do the duties of one additional person,” Skeen said.

#Breaking : @LASDHQ reveals that under puppet @LACoSheriff Luna, 4166 employees are MIA, either through vacancies or “impairments,” 24% of authorized staffing! This level hasn’t been seen since the 1970’s.#FactsMatter pic.twitter.com/fJPBpWWLMw

— Alex Villanueva (@AlexVilanueva33) May 16, 2025

Sheriff Robert Luna is quite literally killing his department, throwing his deputies under the bus, putting bogus and/or embellished cases on them; some families would even say that his policies and poor leadership led to the suicides of some, and murders of others. 

Since Luna took the reins on the department, there have been 12 current or former deputies and custody assistants who have committed suicide; Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer was murdered in an ambush killing outside of his patrol station. Additionally, Deputy Alfredo “Freddy” Flores was tragically killed in a mobile range explosion that was arguably preventable. The range that blew up was over 20 years old and had been retired, but was put back into service because the department lacked the money to fix the newer one. 

These are just some of the glaring examples of Luna's rancid leadership, and after today, the numbers do not lie. The LASD is running at roughly 75 percent staffing levels, and every employee is doing double, if not triple, the amount of work. Overtime levels are off the charts; some deputies are working 2, 3, sometimes 4 shifts of overtime every single week. If you add that up, these deputies are working at least one additional week's worth of shifts a month. 

My local Sheriff's station has roughly 135 patrol deputy positions, with only 90 of them being filled. And speaking with an LAPD officer on the condition of anonymity, they say that by year's end, the department is on pace to drop to 8,400 officers or fewer. These are numbers not seen since the '80s. 

To be clear, a department that, when fully staffed, is just over 17,000 people, with 8,000-10,000 of those being sworn personnel, is now running at under 13,000 people; there is a huge problem. Most of those vacancies are sworn staff, and those people have either been willingly quitting or retiring early, or have been forcibly removed, either by firing or taking medical retirement. Deputies do not want to work for Luna or any of his people anymore. The leadership is beyond toxic, and it is displaying plainly now. 

Sheriff Luna is not showing any signs of remorse, regret, or any other emotion that would tell his people that he may have made some mistakes. No, he seems to think he is doing just fine, and lies openly and proudly to his deputies that he supports them. Luna is the anti-cop; he pleases and serves his masters on the LA County Board of Supervisors first and foremost. He has taken a stance that every deputy sheriff fears: he fires them first and then asks for forgiveness. 

The discipline "bail schedule" they previously used to determine the punishment for whatever policy violation has been upended. What used to be a minor punishment for minor infractions is now a fireable offense. A good friend of mine was fired in 2024 because he was involved in an off-duty incident where an angry driver followed him to a gas station, and proceeded to berate him and tried to punch him. My friend's mistake? He told the guy to proceed to a different location and do something to himself, but in more colorful language not suitable for print, then pushed him back with his hands. Ten years ago, that would have been a slap on the wrist, but today, you get fired for it. 

I am not pulling any punches here; Sheriff Luna and his command staff have made such a toxic work environment that deputies and custody assistants alike are more afraid of their employer than they are of the criminal element on the streets. Several of my friends still on the job have told me that they have all written letters that list instructions if they are killed, like who they want to speak at their funeral, who's going to be their pallbearer, etc. It's a fairly normal thing to do, actually, but in this case, they all say that Luna, nor anyone in his command staff, is to be allowed at their funeral--not to mention any other politicians. Several of them even go as far as to say that they wouldn't lift a finger if Sheriff Luna needed help. Again, it was in some pretty favorable language not suitable to print. But you get the point. 

To make matters far worse, the County Board of Supervisors is considering a hiring freeze to address its budget woes. The future for the department and law enforcement in California, in general, does not look good at the moment. In Governor Gavin Newsom's proposed budget, the Democrat conveniently leaves out any funding for the recently approved ballot measure, Prop 36. 

Proposition 36 would have made some misdemeanors into felonies and increased punishment for those crimes. Now, Prop 36 was passed by a very large majority in the general election of 2024, something that came as a surprise, as California is extremely liberal. And when the left is angry about the rise in crime (which they voted for, but that's a story for another day), you know you have to do something about it. Nope. Not Governor Newsom. 

Rest assured, the weak and feckless puppet known as Sheriff Robert Luna will continue to ride his deputies and custody assistants into the ground and blame anyone else but himself. He's just perfect. Perfect at all the wrong things. 

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