The email from the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs arrived wrapped in confident branding and institutional polish, declaring a “productive week” and touting momentum behind a ballot measure that would place binding arbitration before voters in November 2026, highlighting a 4-0 vote by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to move the measure forward, thanking Supervisors Hahn and Barger for their support, crediting Supervisor Solis as co-sponsor, recognizing Supervisor Lindsey Horvath for authoring the motion, and emphasizing letters of support from Sheriff Robert Luna and Assessor Jeff Prang along with media coverage from the Los Angeles Times as evidence of growing strength behind the initiative.
The communication frames the effort as meaningful progress toward fair negotiations, presenting solidarity and coalition building as proof that deputies are closer to resolution, yet it carefully avoids the most pressing operational issue facing the department, which is time.
Even if the ballot measure passes in November of 2026, the process does not conclude with voter approval, because the union and the county would still need to complete binding arbitration, a process that would realistically extend into sometime in 2027, leaving roughly one year before the 2028 Olympics to recruit, hire, train, and deploy enough qualified personnel to staff Los Angeles County at levels necessary to handle routine public safety demands along with the extraordinary pressures of a global event.
That timeline raises significant concerns because recruitment pipelines in law enforcement are not instantaneous, academy classes require months of preparation and instruction, field training extends for additional months under supervision, and the layered processes of background investigations, psychological evaluations, medical clearances, and administrative onboarding all demand sustained resources and coordination, making it unrealistic to believe that a single year could reverse years of staffing instability and produce a fully operational force prepared for Olympic scale deployment.
The clock is ticking, and the margin for error is shrinking with each passing month, yet the official narrative continues to center campaign milestones rather than operational metrics.
The question that should be asked repeatedly and publicly is straightforward, which is what the current rate of attrition within the Sheriff’s Department actually is, how many deputies are leaving for other agencies, resigning altogether, or retiring, how many new applicants are entering the academy, how many of those recruits successfully complete the academy, and what the true net gain or loss of personnel is when departures are measured against successful graduations.
There is growing belief among experienced members of the department that the numbers would show more deputies are leaving than entering, that the net gain of new deputies is either negative or marginal at best, and that under current trends the department could be decades away from being fully staffed, which would place enormous strain on existing personnel and undermine long-term planning for both routine operations and major events.
Sgt. Tony Romo has been one of the most direct voices expressing these concerns, offering a response to the celebratory messaging that reflects frustration within the ranks rather than applause. He gave this exclusive statement to The Current Report.
“Congratulations to ALADS for patting themselves on the back in contributing to the longest length of time that the Deputy Sheriff’s have gone without a contract in the last Thirty five years.
Congratulations to the BOS and Sheriff Luna for guaranteeing that the county will get another year of working the Deputies to death without a legitimate contract. They along with the Unions collusion are destroying the department ensuring recruitment and retention issues will not be solved in time for the 2028 Olympics.
They are just throwing up a giant smoke screen. Pretending to care. If the Sheriff and the BOS really wanted to make LA COUNTY a safe place they have the power and ability to correct the disastrous last three years. They don’t need a ballot measure or binding arbitration to fix this.
The truth hurts and they don’t want to hear it.”
Romo’s perspective carries institutional weight because he was born and raised in Los Angeles County and has spent more than forty years employed with law enforcement agencies within the county, including thirty-six years with the Sheriff’s Department and twenty-three years serving as a Sergeant, making him one of the two longest serving Sergeants currently in the department, with experience spanning Custody, Patrol, Court Services, Investigations, Administrative assignments, Special Operations Division, Transit Services, Emergency Operations Bureau, Community Relations, Youth Services, and extensive involvement in employee relations matters, and he is currently off on work-related medical leave.
His argument is rooted less in ideology and more in arithmetic, because even under the most optimistic scenario in which arbitration concludes in 2027, the department would face the near impossible task of rebuilding staffing levels within a single year before the Olympics, a timeline that does not align with the realities of recruitment cycles, academy throughput, training demands, and retention challenges.
While the official update emphasizes solidarity, momentum, and campaign victory, it does not disclose staffing deficit figures, academy completion rates, resignation trends, retirement projections, or realistic modeling of how arbitration timing intersects with Olympic operational planning, and without those data points the public is left with promotional language rather than measurable accountability.
Los Angeles County’s public safety infrastructure depends on more than coalition messaging and political endorsements, because patrol shifts must be filled daily, custody facilities must remain adequately staffed, court operations must function, specialized units must remain deployable, and emergency operations must be prepared for contingencies that cannot be postponed to fit a ballot calendar, all while preparing for a global event that will test every layer of the department’s operational capacity.
The distinction between a productive week for a campaign and a productive solution for a department lies in transparent numbers, realistic timelines, and measurable staffing recovery, and until those metrics are openly presented and reconciled with the Olympic countdown, the debate over binding arbitration will continue to unfold under the shadow of an unanswered question about whether the strategy addresses the urgency of the moment or merely extends it.
As Los Angeles County barrels toward a global stage in 2028, the question is no longer whether the staffing crisis is real. It is whether county leadership is prepared to confront it honestly, or whether optics will continue to take precedence over operational reality. Arbitration clocks, press conferences, and carefully worded announcements do not put deputies in patrol cars. They do not restore morale. They do not reverse attrition. And they certainly do not prepare a depleted department for the security demands of a World Cup, a Super Bowl, and an Olympic Games.
Former Sheriff Alex Villanueva weighed in bluntly on what he believes is really happening: “This is political theater designed to give the appearance of progress to influence the upcoming elections. The board has had the authority to negotiate in good faith all along, this gives them a chance to kick the can down the road.”
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