The county Board of Supervisors voted to explore how to grant the inspector general subpoena power — a legal mechanism that would allow the office to compel information from the Sheriff’s Department about secret societies of deputies with matching tattoos.
The chief watchdog for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has typically relied on cooperation from the law enforcement agency to obtain documents and access to internal department data.The county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to explore how to grant the inspector general subpoena power — a legal mechanism that would allow the office to compel information from the Sheriff’s Department related to secret societies of deputies who wear matching tattoos.
The move marks an escalation in the inspector general’s dealings with the Sheriff’s Department, whose leader, Sheriff Alex Villanueva, has sought to distance his agency from political influence from watchdogs and county supervisors. Villanueva has suggested the department under his predecessor, Jim McDonnell, may have given the inspector general’s office too much access to sensitive department matters.
“I was hired in part to tell you if we ever faced a Tanaka-level crisis again. We face it now,” Huntsman told the supervisors, referring to former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, who was convicted of conspiracy and obstructing an FBI investigation into jail abuse and is now in prison. Tanaka was said to encourage deputies to work in the “gray area” of policing and dismissed efforts to hold deputies accountable.
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