The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a sweeping motion on Tuesday aimed at exposing the scope and influence of so-called deputy gangs within the sheriff’s department.
The motion directs the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, county counsel, L.A. County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission and Office of Inspector General to create a framework for identifying deputy gangs and secret groups within the department.
The measure goes further than prior efforts to hold the department accountable for the rogue crews, which are alleged to be deeply entrenched within some sheriff’s stations and whose affiliates have been repeatedly accused of engaging in violence and celebrating shootings by deputies.
The measure gives the Sheriff’s Department 120 days to identify and publicly name all such entities within its ranks, whether they have been confirmed by the Sheriff’s Department or they are simply under investigation.
The motion by Supervisor Holly Mitchell explicitly requires that all deputy cliques be named, even ones for which there have been no associated criminal charges or convictions.
“This motion builds on existing work and seeks to establish a clearer process for identifying these groups and understanding the county’s options for accountability,” Mitchell said Tuesday. “Its not about simply creating an arbitrary list.”
During an initial discussion of the motion in September, she acknowledged the “significant strides” toward addressing deputy gangs that the department has made internally under Sheriff Robert Luna’s leadership, but said that more information needs to be made public because “we can’t outlaw what isn’t clearly defined.”
In 2024, Luna announced a long-awaited policy banning deputy gangs and hate groups in his department. Last week, two days after Luna won reelection handily, he announced a new policy that goes further than the 2024 policy by extending beyond deputy gangs and hate groups to also apply to other prohibited cliques.
He has also said in 2023 that he would investigate the prevalence of tattoos associated with the sub-groups among members of his command staff and the department’s thousands of deputies.
“Do you have my commitment to eradicate deputy gangs? 100% you do,” Luna told the supervisors on Tuesday. “But we have to do it in a legal manner,” he said, “because I am focused on the behavior, not just the names and tattoos.”
Asked whether the sheriff would immediately comply with the motion’s requirements, the department said in an emailed statement in September that it “responds to all motions submitted by the Board of Supervisors, within applicable legal requirements, and this motion will be no different.”
Critics, including government watchdog groups and advocacy organizations, have been ringing alarm bells about deputy gangs for years. They argue that Luna has done too little to root out deputy gangs, though most agree that he has been more effective than his predecessor Alex Villanueva, who came under heavy fire during his tenure for denying the existence of deputy gangs, minimizing the issue, and defying subpoenas to testify about it.
Watts resident Helen Jones urged the board on Tuesday to approve the deputy gang motion. Jones, who now works as a community organizer for the organizations Dignity & Power Now and Justice LA, told the board about the death of her son John Horton in 2009.
Horton died in solitary confinement inside Men’s Central Jail that March. Jones has alleged ever since that he was killed by members of a purported deputy gang called the 3000 Boys. No criminal charges were filed but she sued the county over his death and settled it for $2 million.
“Y’all will never understand what it feels like to go to a mortuary and see your baby laying on the iron pad when deputy sheriffs beat him to death,” Jones told the supervisors. “Please eradicate these deputy gangs and pass this motion.”
Over the past decade, deputy gangs have been linked by government watchdogs to an increased likelihood of deputies being involved in shootings and a series of troubling incidents of violence, including by deputies accused of being members of sub-groups called the Executioners operating out of the Compton sheriff’s station and the Banditos at the East Los Angeles station.
Mitchell’s measure also directs the department to allow the Office of Inspector General and the Sybil Brand Commission to inspect all sheriff’s stations, county jails, patrol vehicles and other spaces for unofficial “logos, badges, seals, or other insignia,” and report their findings to the county supervisors. The Sheriff’s Department has been heavily criticized in the past for having images believed to be associated with deputy gangs displayed in its facilities.
And there have been questions about the department’s approach to eliminating deputy gangs, including whether deputies under investigation for being members of such groups are made to show their legs and forearms to determine if they have any associated tattoos.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger asked Luna on Tuesday to provide statistics about deputy gang investigations by the Sheriff’s Department.
By the end of September, Luna said, the department had opened 47 deputy gang-related “inquiries.” Of those, he said, 32 have been closed, 20 were referred to internal affairs,12 required no further action, and 15 were still pending.
“There has been discipline imposed on several of these cases, all the way up to dismissal,” he told the supervisors.
The financial stakes are high for the Sheriff’s Department to address deputy gangs and other issues associated with misconduct. The county paid about $112 million in settlements defending the department in the 2024-25 fiscal year alone.
“We cannot simply continue to pay settlements to limit exposure,” Mitchell said during the September meeting. “We have to be better at preventing the conduct that leads to them.”
Luna said Tuesday that his department has seen a marked decrease in lawsuits related to deputy gangs, stating that only two were filed against the department last year and zero so far this year — up from 19 in 2020.
The sheriff described a range of steps he has taken to address deputy cliques, including instituting a no-tolerance policy, requiring new and existing deputies to sign pledges and acknowledgments stating they will not engage in deputy gang activity, and creating the department’s Office of Constitutional Policing in 2023.
“Since I was sworn into office almost four years ago, I have been working on this issue,” Luna said Tuesday. “I take a very hands-on approach to this issue. I have set very clear expectations at every level within our department.”
Mitchell said that while she was heartened by the fact that such lawsuits are being filed less frequently, there is still work to be done, hence the necessity of the motion approved Tuesday.
“While the lawsuits may have reduced, people are still experiencing retaliation and negative consequences [from] what they believe are deputy gangs engaging in inappropriate behavior,” she said. “Lawsuits may be down, but not the complaints from everyday county residents.”
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