The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered a thorough vetting of the troubled probation department, including written reviews of the department’s $700-million budget, internal affairs investigations and schools.
"The department has very serious, chronic problems in virtually every aspect of its operations,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. “We’re going to have to demonstrate to the Department of Justice and everyone else who is watching that we’re going to get this department back on track.”
Supervisor Gloria Molina said she was particularly concerned about finances, given recent reports that the department is over budget.
“This is a department that is in crisis,” Molina said. “I’m just not willing to put more money on the table until we know what’s going on.”
The demand for increased accountability, including an investigation by the Office of Independent Review, which oversees investigations into alleged misconduct by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, comes a week after a former teacher at a probation detention camp, Stephen Wesley, was charged with child endangerment for allegedly organizing boxing-style fights between students during class.
Earlier this month, probation officials admitted that at least 170 probation employees have committed misconduct — including cases of excessive force and abuse — but that they have so far escaped punishment because there are not enough staff to discipline them. Most are sworn officers who remain on the job, and about half face allegations of abuse of juvenile probationers.
A Times investigation found that another 112 misconduct investigations are pending, some going unresolved for nearly a year. Of those, 51 involve employees accused of abusing probation youths, department officials said. Many involved complaints of excessive force.
During the last decade, probation officials submitted to federal monitoring of first the juvenile halls, then the camps as part of agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice to avoid lawsuits by improving, among other things, internal affairs and child abuse investigations. Recent county reports found that department officials had failed to improve internal investigations, citing little coordination among investigators and no central tracking of complaints or allegations.
Federal officials are aware of the department’s recent troubles, but have yet to recommend followup investigations, according to Justice Department spokesman Alejandro Miyar.
Probation officials have said they need more investigators in order to discipline problem staff members quickly.
“We have been underresourced in that area so the investigations were taking too long to complete,” said Interim Probation Chief Cal Remington. “In the long run, what we need to do is fix the system” for investigating misconduct, Remington said.
Remington said he is consulting former probation chiefs from Orange and Riverside counties about possible improvements.
With 14 internal affairs investigators and 4,400 sworn staff, Los Angeles County has about one investigator for every 300 staff. Last year, they investigated 211 charges of abuse and misconduct at the camps and halls and sustained 32. Staff could not say the average length of misconduct investigations, but many have languished for months and some have taken nearly a year.
By law, most internal affairs investigations of peace officers expire after a year if the officer is not disciplined.
— Molly Hennessy-Fiske