Click here to read Los Angeles Magazine Story
Gretchen Deutsch / May 21, 2025
As overtime spending soars past half a billion dollars, LA County Sheriff’s Deputies face exhaustion, severe understaffing, and growing concerns over public safety.
LA County sheriff’s deputies are stretched thin, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is on track to spend over $500 million in overtime this year.
In the last fiscal year alone, the LA Sheriff’s Department spent $458 million on overtime. With $131 million already spent in just the first three months of 2025, the department is on pace to break its own record.
County data shows that more deputies are leaving the force than being hired, due in large part to the plummet in recruitment during the Covid-19 pandemic – a decline that the agency has yet to recover from. There are currently 1,530 unfilled deputy positions, in addition to a significant number of deputies out on leave. Despite the decrease in filled deputy positions, the job’s demands persist. The remaining deputies are picking up the slack, shouldering the workload of the thousands of vacant positions.
“I have seen firsthand the physical and mental fatigue our deputy sheriffs are experiencing due to excessive overtime,” Rosemead Mayor Margaret Clark said in a concerned letter to the Board of Supervisors.
Some deputies work up to 100 hours of overtime each month–a grueling pace that raises serious safety concerns. The physical exhaustion and mental strain can leave them ill-equipped to make the split-second, life-or-death decisions the job demands. Even those who benefit financially from the overtime admit the toll is too high, and they would rather have a break.
“It is almost like Los Angeles County is running an experiment to see how far they can push their first responders without catastrophic consequences,” Richard Pippin, president of the deputy union, told ABC News.
The issue is not primarily about money–deputies got a raise last year and the funds to train new deputies have been approved–but rather a matter of staffing and time. There simply are not enough people or hours in a day to expect peak performance from the existing force.