Last month, Robert Luna was sworn in as Los Angeles County’s new sheriff, replacing former Sheriff Alex Villanueva. Since then, Luna has hit the ground running, meeting with county leaders and ushering in a new era for the department. Lisa McRee spoke to Luna about his goals and the toughest challenges he faces.

Luna explained his approach to the homelessness crisis in LA County.

“It was obvious to me that we needed to do a better job of collaboration and that we needed to do a better job of finding out from our partners, both government partners and private partners: How does the sheriff’s department best fit in the challenge of homelessness? I can tell you that the status quo hasn’t been working. It is inspiring to see what Mayor Bass has been doing, the recent cleanups in Venice. I like the way they’re approaching it,” the sheriff said.

Luna shared that he has been working with LAPD Chief Michel Moore to address homelessness as well. Crime rates continue to rise in LA County. The sheriff spoke about why crime is increasing and his data-driven plans to curb it.

“It’s not acceptable. I have challenged my command staff here at the sheriff’s department to come up with a crime strategy. The crime strategy will involve a data-driven effort. It will involve partnering with our community, partnering with everyone across the board, and then looking at the best practices across the country, what’s working and what’s not. What people will not hear are excuses or the blame game. It’s this person’s fault. It’s that person’s. At the end of the day, we’re accountable to our community to reduce crime. But it’s going to take all of us to get it done,” Luna said.

Deputy gangs in the Sheriff’s Department have been widely reported on. Under Luna’s leadership, he said, the problem will be properly investigated and rooted out. 

“I’m not making any excuses. I am not saying they don’t exist. We’re looking at the very well-documented facts of what many other people have written down. I want everyone to know that one of the first things I did on my first day is I let the inspector general back into this building. And we started working on his list of things that, by law, we had to comply with. One of those many issues is the issue of deputy gangs because the Civilian Oversight Committee commission, the inspector general, they want to work in partnership with us to root this problem out,” he explained. 

While he could not confirm any outside partnerships in the deputy gang investigations, Luna said the department is “making some changes” and instituting an office to address several issues, including that of deputy gangs. 

Luna also spoke about the importance of maintaining positive relationships with county leadership and leading by example.

Watch the full interview above.

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