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Payouts over sheriff’s department misconduct on the rise

by City News Service • April 10, 2017

LOS ANGELES – Payouts arising from lawsuits against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department over misconduct or bad shootings have spiked dramatically in the past five years — from $5.6 million to nearly $51 million in 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The judgements and settlements often involved allegations of serious misconduct against law enforcement officers, including sexual assault, excessive force, shooting unarmed suspects and wrongful imprisonment, the Times reported.

The number of lawsuits against the sheriff’s department has declined since the 2014 resignation of Sheriff Lee Baca and the election of Sheriff Jim McDonnell later that year.

Many of the payouts stemmed from incidents that stretched back several years and were settled after working their way through the legal system, so they don’t necessarily reflect current deputy misconduct, according to the newspaper.

But attorneys, government officials and law enforcement experts say the increases nevertheless reflect growing distrust of law enforcement and the intense public scrutiny of how officers use deadly force.
The 42 cities that contract with the sheriff’s department — including Lancaster and Palmdale — have had to pay millions of dollars more to help cover settlements.

The result is that cities are finding it harder to obtain insurance to cover law enforcement litigation, and some local officials say the county should pick up more of the cost, The Times reported.

Read the Los Angeles Times article here.

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Filed Under: Crime/ Safety, Politics

13 comments for "Payouts over sheriff’s department misconduct on the rise"

  1. Kelly says

    April 12, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    Arrest all the attorneys and fire the public defenders! Done deal.

    • Tim Scott says

      April 12, 2017 at 8:40 pm

      Perhaps North Korea would be more to your liking. You should emigrate.

      • Kelly says

        April 14, 2017 at 7:59 am

        No thanks, I’ll stay in my good old USA. I’ll send you a throphy for your post though because everyone’s a winner now days.

      • George says

        April 14, 2017 at 8:26 am

        Timmy you need to grow up,sorry cops union are good ,but need to make theses cops loose there pention there are 3 percent bad cops here

  2. troll hunter says

    April 12, 2017 at 11:11 am

    Unless and until laws are changed that make the individuals responsible for their behavior/actions, nothing will change. What incentive is there for real change? The Sheriff doesn’t pay for it out of their pocket. The LEO doesn’t pay for it out of their pocket. We do. It’s not unrealistic to expect people’s behavior to change when they face punitive financial consequences for their actions. So the next time you cheer a jury judgment against a LE agency, remember this, your tax dollars are the ones paying for it and you get nothing in return.

    • Raymundo says

      April 12, 2017 at 12:32 pm

      Excellent point, troll hunter. The next time you pass one of those big, black billboards or busses with a certain politician/attorney’s name on it with the braggadocious claim of $1.1 billion since 1985, remember the same thing apply. You and your tax dollars–or income through higher prices—are the ones paying for it.

  3. Jaime says

    April 11, 2017 at 10:20 pm

    “… a nation of sheep begets a government of wolves” — Edward R. Murrow.

  4. Jaime says

    April 11, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    … combination affected by every police-state which ever existed on God’s green acre: the local economy doesn’t work so good. In a police-state, markets can’t function properly. Every police-state since the days of Barney and Betty Rubble, long-term unemployment and economic exclusion are always astronomical; concentration of wealth is disgusting. Quietly, over the course of the last 30 years, perhaps you’ve denoted how the psychological profile of local police changed, from the Barney Fife persona we all knew and loved, into the pent-up, frustrated, anti-social military cut-outs, amped-up on amphetamine and god knows what else, with the itchy trigger fingers, who act less like peace officers, and more like foreign troops occupying our cities, just looking for the first excuse to pump a magazine of caps into you? The Obama administration quietly set about the task, putting the finishing touch on militarizing our local police. Slowly, but surely, perhaps you’ve taken notice how police cruisers have been converted, into NASCAR style battering rams, and how police ever decreasingly act like policemen, while ever increasingly resembling a foreign occupation force, eager to bait you into a protracted police pursuit for the news cameras. I have bad news for you people: the more our Founding Father’s constitution is winnowed away, the worse it’s going to get. This is just the beginning. It is going to get a whole lot worse –

  5. George says

    April 11, 2017 at 8:17 pm

    I agree the pay outs need to stop fire the bad officers there union needs to cut out keeping bad cops u will be broke soon

    • Vic says

      April 12, 2017 at 8:23 am

      Yes, fire bad officers, fire bad mayors like the one we have in Lancaster.

  6. Ray Ray says

    April 11, 2017 at 6:31 pm

    Think of the payouts we’ve made in Lancaster on account of the mayor.

  7. Ramon says

    April 11, 2017 at 1:54 pm

    let the SHERIFF’S department do there job dam if they do and dam if they don’t. all does people that say F## the police are the first to call 911 and snitch on every one else. they are risking there lives for ungrateful people like you.

    • stopit says

      April 12, 2017 at 1:05 am

      so we should let public servants have gross misconduct in the field Ramon?

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