Surveillance Today← Back to Issue No. 4: the deputy gangs

An imagined candidate, drawn by Surveillance Today. Not on the November 3 ballot. This is the plan the record calls for, which neither candidate has offered.

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The Sheriff for the People

With the People. For the People.
SHERIFF
The uniform, in full. The face is left blank: no one on the ballot has filled it.

I’m not on your ballot. I’m the sheriff the record says Los Angeles needs.

I know how the gangs happened. A young deputy walks into a station that already has its name and its mark, and learns that the tattoo is how you get backed up on a call. Nobody built that culture alone, and I won’t treat every deputy as its enemy.

I would change it: an independent, confidential channel for any deputy pressured to join, tools that answer to the law instead of the station, and a Department that finally tells the truth about what is inside it. Tap an issue to see the promise, the date, and the record behind it.

— The Sheriff for the People

The plan, issue by issue

Six months. Every promise has a date, and every date can be checked.

Deputies pressured to join

If you were pushed to join, harassed, or punished for saying no, I want to hear from you. No one should have to join a gang to be backed up on a call.

State law already counts retaliation against officers who get in the way as gang conduct (Penal Code §13670). Until there is an independent way to report it, outside the Department and its chain of command, Surveillance Today will take your account.

Write to:editor@auditveritas.ai

Both candidates on Tuesday’s ballot, Sheriff Robert Luna and former Sheriff Alex Villanueva, were sent these questions on October 30. Their answers, or their silence, are in the gangs story in Issue No. 4.

Starting now

An Independent, Confidential Channel

I back an independent, confidential channel for deputies pressured to join, harassed, or punished for saying no. It sits outside the Department and its chain of command. No one has to give a name, and nothing goes back to the station.

The recordPenal Code §13670 counts retaliation against officers who get in the way as gang conduct. Until an independent channel exists, Surveillance Today takes accounts. How to reach us →
Month 1

Protection for Deputies Who Speak Up

A deputy who reports pressure or retaliation is protected from it: no punitive transfers, no lost shifts, no being left alone on a call for telling the truth.

The recordState law already names retaliation against officers who get in the way as gang conduct (Penal Code §13670). The promise is to enforce it, so no deputy has to choose between safety and the truth.
Month 2

Every Search Logged

Every plate-reader and database search is audited by someone outside the station, with a summary published each month. That protects the public, and it protects every deputy who uses the tools by the book.

The recordCivil Code §1798.90.52 requires a record of every plate-reader search: the date and time, the plate, the username of the person searching, and the purpose. Surveillance Today asked for those logs on October 30. Read the story →
Before December 18

The Fusion Center in the Open

Before the General Dynamics contract is renewed, I publish who works at JRIC, what they produce, who receives it, which stations and users can log in to its systems, and which outside data sources feed it. The renewal goes before the Oversight Commission first.

The recordThe contract pays General Dynamics up to $39.5 million and ends December 18, with four one-year options. The contractor’s own job posting calls its manager the “Executive Director of JRIC.” Read the story →
Month 3

A New Normal at the Stations

No station belongs to a clique. Assignments rotate, backup is assigned by dispatch, and new deputies train under officers chosen for their record, not their mark. The Oversight Commission’s 27 recommendations are carried out, with their status posted monthly.

The new normal is built with the community, and it supports the recruits who arrive in stations still living with what came before them:

In the academy. The families of people killed or injured by deputies speak to every class, as a standing part of training. They are paid as instructors and chosen independently of the Department.

On patrol. Every week, at every station, community members and local officials ride along with deputies.

For recruits. Confidential counseling with clinicians outside the Department, paid for by the County, with nothing reported back to the station.

This is a beginning. The families, the neighborhoods and the deputies who live with this will add to it.

The recordAs of April 2025, six of the 27 were fully carried out. The tattoo ban and moving deputies between stations have been held in talks with the deputies’ unions for more than two years. At the Commission’s June 2022 hearing, H.J., whose son died in Men’s Central Jail in 2009, described the Department “threatening families not to sue by taking their money from them.” Read the story →
By November 10

The Truth About the Culture

I support the Board’s review of the culture, station by station: the names the groups use, their marks, the patterns. The goal is to understand it and change it, not to hunt individuals.

The recordOn November 10 the Board takes up Supervisor Mitchell’s motion to identify the groups’ recurring names, symbols and allegations by station. In December 2025 the Department told its Inspector General it had found none. Read the story →