Alex Villanueva

Villanueva served in the United States military for 10 years. After graduating from high school in Puerto Rico, Villanueva served in the United States Air Force and California Air National Guard from 1983 to 1985. He was stationed at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California and March Air Force Base in Riverside, California. It was at this time that Villanueva was hired by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Villanueva remained in the military, however, for another seven years, serving in the California Army National Guard from 1985 to 1992 where he was commissioned as a lieutenant (2nd Battalion, 144th Field Artillery Regiment, 40th Infantry Division).

- Army Good Conduct Medal

- National Defense Service Medal

- Air Force Basic Training Military Training School Honor Graduate

- Air Force Training Ribbon

- Army Training Ribbon

Villanueva joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in 1986 and eventually settled in La Habra Heights, California. After completing the Sheriff's Academy (Class 232), Villanueva was assigned to the Inmate Reception Center, the processing center for the nation's largest jail system.[7]

In 1988, Villanueva initiated the drive to ban smoking in the Los Angeles County jail system, a bold move during the national effort to ban second-hand smoke. His efforts were successful when the ban was implemented in 1990.[8][9]

He went on to patrol in the community of East Los Angeles, California. While at East Los Angeles Station, Villanueva volunteered to lead one of the first community policing teams in the nation made possible by the Community Oriented Policing (COPS) grant program launched by President William Jefferson Clinton. The team Villanueva led was located at the Maravilla Housing Project. Villanueva later said this experience helped him appreciate the importance of building relationships with the community and deputies feeling invested in the communities they partner to serve.

In a departure from typical police chiefs and sheriffs whose careers typically advance through administrative roles, Villanueva stayed close to community by serving in patrol, as well as in training the next generation of deputies. Later, as Sheriff, Villanueva would require that deputies work a minimum of four years patrol in the same community before they could advance to other assignments.

After his time at East Los Angeles Sheriff Station, Villanueva transferred to the Training Bureau where he served as a Drill Instructor at the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Academy. He promoted to the rank of Sergeant, where he worked Lennox and Carson Sheriff Stations, the Community College Bureau, as well as the Advanced Officer Training unit. Villanueva promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and served at the Century Regional Detention Facility, which primarily houses female inmates. In 2014, Villanueva moved on to the Pico Rivera Sheriff Station where he served as Watch Commander. Villanueva retired from the Sheriff's Department in 2018.

From 2006 to 2010, Villanueva was an adjunct professor at California State University-Long Beach assigned to the criminal justice department.

In 2014, former Sheriff Lee Baca, Undersheriff Paul Tanaka and numerous other department employees were indicted for various federal corruption charges and sentenced to prison.[10] Former Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell was elected as the 32nd Sheriff of Los Angeles County in 2014. As he neared his retirement, Villanueva felt McDonnell had failed to make the reforms necessary to restore public trust. "Everyone expected Jim McDonnell to clean house. But he didn't do that."[11] "It was 'management by gotcha'," he told the Los Angeles Times.[12]

Villanueva announced his campaign to be Sheriff of Los Angeles County on June 28, 2017,[12] promising to "reform, rebuild and restore" the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department by "reforming the organization around the principles of community policing and ethical standards of conduct."[11] He competed against incumbent Sheriff McDonnell and retired Commander Bob Lindsey. Although Villanueva's campaign organization and budget were far smaller than those of McDonnell and Lindsey, Villanueva received 33% of the vote, to McDonnell's 47%, and Lindsey's 19%. As a result, Villanueva advanced to a general election runoff against McDonnell on November 4, 2018.

On November 4, 2018, Villanueva became the first person in 104 years to unseat a sitting Sheriff of Los Angeles County by defeating incumbent Sheriff Jim McDonnell. Villanueva's election was also historic because he was also the first Democratic candidate to win the sheriff's seat in 138 years and the first Spanish-speaking sheriff in 140 years.[13]

Villanueva was sworn in to office as Sheriff of Los Angeles County on December 3, 2018. Major priorities and incidents of note during his first term in office included:

Sheriff Villanueva inherited a Department that was understaffed by 1,500 sworn personnel, with historically low morale,[14] and which was facing a "mass exodus" of deputies transferring to other departments.[15] In the first year of taking office, Sheriff Villanueva successfully revamped the hiring process, hiring a record 1,100 deputies and increased the morale of the Sheriff's Department.[16] Sheriff Villanueva also streamlined the hiring process, reducing the average processing time from over one year to an average of six months. He also banned the recruitment and hiring of out of state applicants for deputy sheriff, believing deputies should be hired from the communities they will serve.[17]

Sheriff Villanueva has championed community groups by creating variations of the department's official shoulder patch to honor them and raise money for their causes. Examples include the LASD Veterans Patch (with funds going to the Salvation Army), LASD Pride Patch (with donations going to the LGBT Homeless Youth Shelter) and LASD Pink Patch (with donations going to organizations battling cancer). Deputies were also authorized to wear the patches on duty during specific periods of time.

- Murder of Deputy Solano: On June 10, 2019, Deputy Joseph Gilbert Solano was murdered while off-duty at a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant in East Los Angeles.

- Lancaster Hoax Shooting: In August 2019, Deputy Angel Reinosa falsely claimed to have been shot at while in the parking lot of the Lancaster Sheriff Station.[18] It was later determined that Reinosa staged the incident to distract from his poor work performance. The Sheriff's Department investigated the incident, arrested Reinosa, and filed criminal charges against him. Of the incident, Sheriff Villanueva stated, “As sheriff, I am responsible for my deputies and am embarrassed and incredibly disappointed at what this deputy did. I apologize to our community and our elected officials who rallied in our support."[19] Reinosa's hoax ultimately cost the County of Los Angeles approximately $500,000 in mobilization of resources.

- Saugus School Shooting: On November 14, 2019, Saugus High School student Nathaniel Berhow shot five schoolmates, killing two, before killing himself. Sheriff Villanueva led the local law enforcement response, including bringing attention to the fact that Berhow used a 3D-printed "ghost gun".[20] After this incident, Sheriff Villanueva led a national effort to denounce ghost guns and prohibit their manufacture and sale.[21]

- Death of Deputy Amber Joy Leist: In January 2020, Deputy Amber Leist was struck by a vehicle and killed while helping an elderly woman cross the street.[22]

- Crash of Kobe Bryant's Helicopter: On January 26, 2020, former Laker basketball player Kobe Bryant's helicopter crashed in Calabasas, California, and all aboard were killed. Sheriff Villanueva led a multi-agency response to the incident, in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Los Angeles County Coroner, and Federal Aviation Administration. A controversy also emerged after a deputy was found to have taken photos of the crash scene and shared them at a local bar (see the "Reforms" section below).[23]

- COVID-19 Pandemic: Sheriff Villanueva's response to the COVID-19 pandemic sought find the appropriate role for law enforcement in protecting public health while maintaining the department's relationship with the community. The department's position was that it encouraged compliance with mask recommendations but that deputies would not enforce them using force of law. However, Sheriff Villanueva took a zero tolerance stance toward "super-spreader events", such as one which occurred in Lancaster on December 5, 2020.[24] When deputies raided that event, 158 people were arrested, one victim of sex trafficking was rescued, and several illegal firearms were recovered.[25] Sheriff Villanueva also initiated a 30% reduction in the population of the Los Angeles County jail system to enable social distancing to safeguard the inmate population and department employees. This became a model for other departments nationwide. The pandemic also severely impacted the department from a financial and operational perspective: lockdowns reduced spending and sales tax revenue, and numerous deputies and inmates tested testing positive for the virus.[26] Sheriff Villanueva launched a COVID-19 dashboard for community members to see regularly updated statistics.

- Summer 2020 Civil Disturbance: Sheriff Villanueva led[27] a countywide response to civil unrest across the County of Los Angeles during 2020, including assisting the police departments in the City of Los Angeles, the City of Long Beach, City of Santa Monica, and City of Beverly Hills.[28] Sheriff Villanueva also deployed California National Guard assets throughout the county.

- Bobcat Fire: The September 2020 Bobcat Fire was the second largest fire in Los Angeles County history, after the Station Fire in 2009. The Sheriff's Departments's primary responsibility was in facilitating evacuations, anti-looting patrols, and traffic control.

- Deputies Ambushed in Compton: On September 13, 2020, two deputies assigned to the department's Transit Services Bureau were ambushed and shot at point-blank range while seated in their patrol car while parked at the Compton Metro Station.[29] The brazenness of this ambush drew national condemnation, including from both 2020 presidential candidates Joseph Biden and Donald Trump. The Sheriff's Department launched a massive manhunt and arrested the suspected shooter, Deonte Murray, was arrested days later.[30] Both deputies survived their wounds.

Sheriff Villanueva held 29 in-person town hall meetings with community members across Los Angeles County during his first year in office.[31] During this time, Sheriff Villanueva also began holding monthly press conferences and weekly public Q&A sessions on Instagram and Facebook Live.[32] This practice accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic and based upon breaking news events. Sheriff Villanueva also fulfilled a "Transparency Promise" campaign pledge by creating a unique public website that made transparent all departmental statistics regarding use of force, deputy-involved shootings, body-worm camera footage, employee discipline, public complaints, and other topics.[33]

In September 2020, Sheriff Villanueva secured $35 million in funding from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to implement a body-worn camera program across the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.[34] Though the LASD was one of the first law enforcement agencies in the nation to test body-worn camera technology, prior sheriffs had failed to implement such a system.[35] Implementing body-worn cameras was one of Villanueva's early campaign promises and a process he began during his first week in office. On December 9, 2020, Sheriff Villanueva stated that the department was half-way through its deployment of body-worn cameras with the addition of 1,000 more Axon Body II cameras which will be deployed at four more stations during the first week of January 2021.[36]

Sheriff Villanueva inherited a budget deficit of $101.8 million from former Sheriff Jim McDonnell's administration.[37] This deficit was compounded by the Bobcat Fire, civil unrest, the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Board of Supervisors both freezing $143.7 million in the department's services and supply budget, as well as its defunding the department's operating budget by $145 million. Sheriff Villanueva eliminated executive positions, consolidated 14 units into seven, reduced administrative overhead, and cut overtime in half.[38] After these budgetary reductions and efficiencies generated, Sheriff Villanueva successfully reduced the deficit to $35 million.[39]

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has a long history with informal deputy groups, some of which have been accused of violence.[40] One of the most prominent such groups was "The Banditos" at East Los Angeles Sheriff Station. On his first day in office, Sheriff Villanueva removed the captain of East Los Angeles Sheriff Station and transferred 36 deputies away from the station. Ultimately, 22 deputies were suspended for misconduct and four were terminated.[41] Villanueva also created a new department policy manual to ban the creation and participation in deputy subgroups that harm community or department members.[42]

In his first week in office, Sheriff Villanueva followed through on another campaign promise[43] to direct the removal of federal immigration agents from Los Angeles County jails, court facilities, and patrol stations.[44]

Moratorium on ICE in County Jails

During his 2018 campaign, Villanueva promised to end the "pipeline to deportation" built upon the sheriff's department's cooperation and financial ties with federal immigration authorities. In August 2018, Sheriff Villanueva instituted a permanent moratorium[45] on transferring undocumented immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.[46]

State Criminal Alien Assistance Program ("SCAAP Grant")

From 2005 to 2018, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and Board of Supervisors accepted $122,189,627 from the United States Government in exchange for a database of inmates without proof of valid immigration status. Sheriff Villanueva suspended the department's participation in this program immediately after taking office, describing the cash payments as "blood money".[47][48]

In January 2020, former Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. Within several weeks, the department learned that a deputy at the scene had shared a photo of the accident scene with an unauthorized person at a local bar.[49] Department policy at the time did not prohibit such an act. Sheriff Villanueva created a new policy to ban such behavior and sponsored Senate Bill 2655[50] to ban and criminalize the unauthorized taking or distribution of photos at accident scenes by first responders.[51][6][52]

The Los Angeles Times reported in 2016 that it was common for the Sheriff's Department to terminate deputies only for them to be reinstated through the civil service process.[53] During the 2018 campaign, Sheriff Villanueva observed that many terminations were executed without due process and raised concerns that such management practices were immoral and opened the department to significant liability. He also observed that many deputies were being terminated with the knowledge they would be reinstated, that this was often done for political reasons, and the county would be liable for back pay and other penalties.[54][11] "If you fired them properly, they're not coming back," Villanueva said at a May 2019 town hall in Carson, California.[54]

Sheriff Villanueva has authorized 74 terminations of department employees since taking office.

While terminations under prior sheriffs had been delegated to subordinates, Sheriff Villanueva began the practice of personally reviewing and signing each decision of termination to ensure each employee received due process and their rights were honored.

Sheriff Villanueva campaigned on the importance raising deputy hiring and educational standards. Starting January 1, 2021, all applicants for deputy sheriff are required to have earned a minimum of an associate degree.[48] All applicants are also required to be residents of Los Angeles County.

Upon entering office, Sheriff Villanueva promoted the most diverse command staff in department history, including the first two Latinas to hold the position of Assistant Sheriff and four female Division Chiefs. In October 2020, Sheriff Villanueva stated that "for the first time in the history of the department, the leadership ranks are now a truly accurate reflection of the rich diversity of our community."[48]

Dissertation

Leadership Diversity in Law Enforcement (2005)

Academic Works

In Pursuit of Equity and Excellence in Law Enforcement Leadership ("Leadership in Education Corrections and Law Enforcement: A Commitment to Excellence, A. Normore & B. Fitch eds., Emerald Group Publishing, 2011)

Police Exams and Cheating: The Ultimate Test of Ethics ("Law Enforcement Ethics: Classic and Contemporary Issues", B. Fitch ed., Sage Publications, 2014)

Anatomy of an Organizational Train Wreck: A Failed Leadership Paradigm ("The Dark Side of Leadership: Identifying and Overcoming Unethical Practices in Organizations", A. Normore & Jeffrey Brooks eds., Emerald Group Publishing, 2017)