In a stunning display of mixed messages and political double-speak, Los Angeles County is witnessing a leadership meltdown that’s crippling its law enforcement. On January 8, 2026, Congress members Derek T. Tran and Sydney Kamlager-Dove penned a letter to LA County Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis, Sheriff Robert Luna, and ALADS President Richard Pippin, urging all parties to negotiate in good faith for a new contract with the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS). The letter highlights the dire staffing shortages at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD), noting an estimated 1,700 deputy vacancies, roughly a quarter of authorized positions, and warns of the strain upcoming mega-events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup, 2027 Super Bowl, and 2028 Olympics will place on public safety.
The congress members emphasize the need for a strong, well-equipped force, acknowledging the burnout, low morale, and recruitment struggles plaguing deputies. They call for a contract that fairly compensates officers for their sacrifices, ensuring Southern California’s safety amid these global spectacles.
Ironically, this plea for unity and support came just one day after Supervisor Janice Hahn, who was CC’d on the letter, took to social media to publicly condemn federal law enforcement agents. In a scathing post on January 7, 2026, Hahn labeled ICE agents as “undertrained and trigger happy,” accusing them of “murdering” a woman in Minneapolis and demanding South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem withdraw ICE from cities. Hahn’s rhetoric paints law enforcement as “dangerous” killers, acting as judge, jury, and executioner in her own right, a terrifying overreach for an elected official whose role includes providing the budget for the very department she’s undermining.
This isn’t just hypocrisy, it’s a pattern. Hahn’s inflammatory comments bear a scary resemblance to Sheriff Robert Luna’s handling of the 2023 Palmdale use-of-force incident involving Deputy Trevor Kirk. In that case, Kirk was responding to a robbery call at a WinCo Foods in Lancaster when he encountered an uncooperative woman. Bodycam footage showed a chaotic scene, but Luna quickly threw Kirk under the bus, calling the incident “disturbing” and removing him from field duty. Federal prosecutors later convicted Kirk of excessive force for using pepper spray, setting a dangerous precedent that could chill officers nationwide from doing their jobs. Luna’s rush to judgment, without full context, exemplifies how local leaders prioritize political optics over supporting their own.
This betrayal is precisely why LASD is hemorrhaging talent and struggling to recruit the most qualified candidates. Who wants to join a department where your bosses will throw you under the bus – or worse, into prison – for following protocol and protecting the public? Vacancies are at an all-time high in the department’s history, climbing from around 1,069 in late 2022 to 1,461 by March 2025, and now hitting 1,700 in 2026. No one trusts “puppet” Sheriff Luna as an employer; his actions scream that he’ll sacrifice deputies to appease critics rather than stand by them.
This is exactly why LASD can’t recruit even with a bullhorn and a significant signing bonus. Vacancies are at an all-time high in the department’s history, skyrocketing from around 500 in 2019 to a staggering 1,700 today. Who wants to take a gamble to sign up for a gig where your “leaders” will toss you to the wolves – or worse – into prison for following the law and protecting the public?
The majority of LASD personnel don’t trust Sheriff Luna as an employer, and for good reason. He’s made it painfully clear he’ll sacrifice his own deputies the second it earns him applause from the anti-cop crowd. Loyalty in this department used to mean something. Under Luna, it means you’re expendable.
This crisis didn’t just “happen.” It was engineered in 2020, when the Board of Supervisors caved to defund-the-police hysteria, gutted budgets by 261,000,000 over two fiscal years. Then the Board voted to freeze LASD hiring and eliminated 1,281 budgeted positions all the while sitting on a 2 billion dollar surplus. Those decisions shoved recruitment off a cliff, decimated the candidate pool, and sent qualified applicants fleeing to other agencies.
Worse, it gutted the career-advancement pipeline, triggering a brain drain as seasoned personnel retired and weren’t replaced. Hiring didn’t merely dip, it collapsed, from 1,098 new deputies in 2019 to 81 in 2021. And this wasn’t driven by a fiscal crisis. It was political vindictiveness aimed at the Villanueva administration.
That wasn’t accidental. It was calculated sabotage, designed to put the screws to then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva while he was exposing corruption, and to satisfy the pro-criminal political momentum sparked by the George Floyd era. The mission wasn’t reform, it was crippling law enforcement by design.
And the predictable result followed: resignations and retirements surged, patrol coverage deteriorated, response times stretched, and communities were left exposed while the County played politics with public safety. Over the last 5 years, a steady upward climb in vacancies directly tied to the defund agenda, the kind of reckless policymaking that makes headlines for officials, and leaves consequences for everyone else.
Hiring plummeted from 1098 new deputies in 2019 to a dismal 81 in 2021, as a direct result of the Board’s hiring freeze. Meanwhile resignations and retirements spiked. The graph above illustrates the alarming rise in vacancies, directly correlating with defunding efforts that gutted resources and morale.
And where are the unions in all this? There has been deafening silence on these controversies from ALADS and POPA (Professional Peace Officers Association). Their inaction suggests they’re more interested in playing politics than fighting for members. For remaining LASD personnel, it’s time to find unions that will truly represent your best interests, not ones that stand by while the department throws you under the bus to serve political needs.
This is about the safety of millions of residents in LA County – not to mention the influx of visitors expected for the World Cup and the 2028 Olympics. Political leaders, specifically the Board of Supervisors and Luna, need to accept responsibility and be held accountable for their political actions that have endangered the lives of every resident in LA COUNTY.
Based on current attrition rates, LA County won’t have a Sheriff’s Department left for these mega events, let alone everyday crises.
La County residents deserve better, so do the deputies who protect them.
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