A report published by the Los Angeles Civilian Oversight Commission found that it is “indisputable” that gangs and cliques have existed within the LA County Sheriff’s Department for decades. The commission recommended that LA County Sheriff Robert Luna prohibit tattoos that “depict violence, the use of deadly force or any iconography that might reasonably be found offensive to the public.”
“Inside the Issues” host Alex Cohen spoke with Luna — who just recently passed 100 days in office — about deputy tattoos after it was recently revealed that Undersheriff April Tardy has a tattoo on her ankle.
Tardy described her tattoo to journalist Cerise Castle as a V or the roman numeral five. She said she got it because the station she once served at, Temple, was the fifth station ever built in the department’s history.
The top of the tattoo reportedly says “TEM” for Temple and the bottom reads “LASD” for the LA County Sheriff’s Department.
But some colleagues dispute the significance of her ink, telling Castle that the tattoo is the emblem for the Temple Station V Boys, an alleged sheriff’s gang that sprouted up at the Temple Station in the 1990s.
The undersheriff says she never heard of any nefarious behavior related to any tattoos while serving at Temple. Luna, at a Civilian Oversight Commission meeting in March, acknowledged employees that have “station tattoos.”
“I think we’re gonna find the difference between a station tattoo and a gang tattoo and there is a difference,” he said.
About the Civilian Oversight Commission recommendations, Luna told Cohen that one of the things he’s done as sheriff was form the Office of Constitutional Policing.
“I came in, not as a dictator, but somebody who wants to see long-term change,” he said. “Everybody said to me, ‘How are you going to be able to change this culture if no one else has in the last 50 years?’ You do it by substantive change, by creating policies and procedures that affect people long term.”
When asked about crime in the county during his first months in office, Luna says that through the end of March, violent crime is down a little over 7%, while property crime is up about 2%.
“We obviously have a lot of work to do,” he said. “But when I came in, part of my expectations for my command staff is to develop a prime strategy that incorporates driven effort, and more importantly, a partnership with our communities.”
Luna said he also wants to work with the Board of Supervisors on upgrading facilities at the Men’s County Jail.
In February, The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge to find the county, the Board of Supervisors and Luna in contempt for not fixing “appalling” conditions in the jails.
In March, three inmates died in the county’s jails during a nine-day period.
“Any one death is too many deaths,” Luna said. “I believe as we move forward, we’re going to be able to find short-term solutions to improve some conditions, but make no mistake about it, those short-term [solutions] aren’t going to fix the long-term issues.”
Luna added that long-term, the county jails need upgraded facilities to deal with health care, mental health care, recreation, education and rehabilitation services.
Let Inside the Issues know your thoughts and watch Monday through Friday at 8 and 11 p.m. on Spectrum News 1.