ACLU Report Claims 'Excessive' Inmate Abuse

I am a retired Los Angeles County Deputy sheriff, and through departmental contacts (line-officers) presently working with in the jail, this current small group of abusive rogue Deputy Sheriffs are not representative of the majority of Deputies on the Sheriff Department or presently assigned to the jail. From my contacts, they told me two years ago that a small number of Deputies were starting to become inappropriately abusive towards Inmates as a control measure.

I lay the majority of blame for this underlying developing trend totally on the assigned administrative Captain down to all Jail Lieutenants and supervising Sergeants for lacking managerial insight and adequate understanding that such an adverse trend was emerging and to stop it in its tracks.

Moreover in his decade tenure as elected Sheriff, and in my opinion, Lee Baca had lowered the hiring standards to a point where the Sheriff's Department is obtaining lesser type of quality individuals. Also in correlation to this, I also see a growing development during Sheriff Baca's political elected occupancy where a greater widespread and increase of incidents of police officer misconduct and abuse than what had ever occurred under either past Sheriff Sherman Block or Sheriff Peter J. Pitchess. While it is admirable that Sheriff Baca defends the reputation of his Deputy Sheriffs, who the great majority do their jobs with integrity, dedication, and honor, however, I feel that his blind respect and appreciation clouds his judgment and causes him to be denial that there some people on the department that should never have become or ever be Deputy Sheriffs.

Lastly, the comment from the former FBI agent that now works with ACLU that said "gang-like groups of deputies have been going on for years in jails at least since 1980's and 1970's" is full of crap. Yes, there were a few rogue Deputies that did abuse inmates, but this was an anomaly and the Jail administration and supervisors back then had a more hands-on control over the situation. I know this for a fact because I was assigned to jail during that time period.

Bottom-line: Whether Lee Baca stays on or we get a new county sheriff, the department needs an entire departmental cleansing of the few bad apples it definitely has. Moreover, there is an immediate need to put in place pragmatic workable protocols and conducive preventive programs to thwart and avert police misconduct and abuse both in the streets and in the jail. One of the best ways to approach and help accomplish this objective is to glean beneficial ideas and get honest feedback from all line-officer Deputy Sheriffs for administrative assessment and consideration.