WeHo Times – 3.9.26
by Paulo Murillo
Meet Lieutenant Ashley Turner of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. She joined the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station in June 2024 after nearly two decades with the department, bringing experience from a wide range of assignments across the county.
A graduate of Pepperdine University, Turner joined the department in 2006 and has served in custody, patrol, detective and supervisory roles, including assignments in community crime suppression, counterfeit investigations and internal affairs. She has worked at several stations, including Santa Clarita, Marina del Rey and Lost Hills, where she supervised operations and seasonal beach patrols.
Now serving as both operations lieutenant and service area lieutenant in West Hollywood, Turner helps oversee patrol operations and community policing efforts in one of the county’s most visible and active jurisdictions.
Lieutenant Turner sat down with WEHO TIMES to discuss crime trends, challenges related to homelessness, her role at the West Hollywood Station and working under Captain Fanny Lapkin.
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Where did you grow up? Are you an original Angelino?
No. I’m an original Californian, but not native to Los Angeles. I grew up in Kingsburg. It’s a little like a 10,000-person town in Central California. It is known as a Swedish village–I’m not Swedish. It’s on the Kings River and it’s right between Fresno and Visalia. It’s a big farming community.
Do you have any West Hollywood History before you started working here?
No…other than, you know, visiting in my 20s. I have some history. I used to come here for fun.
How did you end up at the West Hollywood station?
When you test for something like lieutenant or sergeant, you’re put into bands–band one, band two, band three. Being that I was in band one, I tried to interview at places that I was interested in. So I did interview here. It was one of just two places that I interviewed in. I did want to come here. I interviewed with the captain, and luckily was able to start working here.
What drew you specifically to the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station?
I mean, I’m part of the community, so I think obviously, I’m drawn here, and I have an interest in the community. I also have never worked the station before, so I always wanted to come work here. I think there’s a lot of value when you have an interest, whether it be if you’re working in the community you live in, or you identify with the community. It just means that much more when you go to work.
When you say you’re part of the community, are you referring to the LGBT community?
I identify as gay.
Are you married or single?
I’m married. We have four dogs. My wife teaches at Cal State Northridge. She was a probationary officer for about seven years, and her heart just really wasn’t into that. She wanted to teach so she teaches sociology and criminology in both departments there. I would say that she has had probably the biggest impact on my career in the sense that we have discussions about work and crime and the unhoused, and she’s always been able to provide that other perspective for me. I think it’s just made me a better person and a more empathetic person to different situations when it comes to crime and criminals. There’s always a bigger picture to things. I think law enforcement can tend to be, unfortunately, very black and white and that’s not how the world is. We don’t always grow up with the same set of family and circumstances. I know my wife didn’t grow up similar to how I grew up, so she’s been very instrumental in shaping my perspective in what I take to work and take away from work.
How long have you been married?
We’ve been together for so long, but we got married in June 2019.
West Hollywood is a unique and diverse community. How do you approach serving a city with such a strong LGBTQ+ identity and vibrant nightlife scene?
I think, like from a lieutenant perspective, it’s just very important to me that our deputies are educated about our population and who resides and visits our city. The police force can have a reputation of being a certain way when it comes to diversity, so I do not have a problem with pulling someone aside and educating them about how something they may have said can be offensive. Most of the deputies that come here understand that this is a diverse community.
What are the top safety priorities for you as Lieutenant?
I think the top safety priorities are obviously keeping the community safe and always focusing in on what the crime trends are and what neighborhoods are being hit. Right now, those things are armed robberies that are occurring on the street, as well as residential burglaries that are occurring in various areas of the city, unfortunately.
Crime aside, what other challenges are you facing in West Hollywood right now?
I think a big challenge is dealing with the unhoused. There’s a large amount of people that are very upset that they’re still seeing unhoused people out on our streets. I know business owners are upset about the unhoused being in front of their businesses. But just just crime overall, I think is the biggest challenge. Obviously, we would not want to have any in a perfect world, but unfortunately, this is a city that is transitory in nature. We have a large influx of people that come here on the weekends to our bars and clubs. And we’re also kind of a thoroughfare to get to other places. When we’re hit, it’s not the people from here that are generally committing the crime. We’re always being preyed upon by people from the outside, and it’s always a challenge.
How do we combat that?
We come up with new ideas to stop crime before it happens. We try to solve the problem by being proactive instead of being reactive after the fact. That’s what we’re focused on. We adjust our teams and our burglary suppression units to target those areas. We’ve recently had the deputies out on bicycles. That way they can really get in there and have a better vantage point than just, you know, driving by in a car, they can get up into the sidewalks and a closer look at what’s going on.
When it comes to the unhoused, how do you balance enforcement with compassion?
I think compassion definitely comes in when dealing with the unhoused, because we have these municipal codes. Our goal is to not take the unhoused to jail if they’re not committing any crimes. Even if they are violating a simple municipal code, it’s about bringing the care team out here to help and have those interactions with them on a personal level. They eventually see that we are trying to help them, and they get into some type of housing that ultimately gets them off the street. Writing them a citation for sleeping on the sidewalk, that doesn’t solve the problem. I think most of our deputies, if not all, really understand that and do have that compassion. That’s also what’s exciting about the newer generation. They haven’t become prey to that black and white mentality, because there’s no one solution for the homeless. It’s going to be an individual investment in someone and their unique walk of life, what they’ve been through, or whatever trauma they might have experienced, to really try and ultimately help them get off the street.
What do you want residents to understand about the day-to-day work happening at the station that they might not see?
It would be nice for community members to come out and ride with us and kind of see everything that goes on in a ten hour shift; everything that goes on during their shift, and everything they have to do. It’s not grabbing coffee and a donut and then hanging out. They’re constantly going to calls. A DOJ requirement is that every contact they have with someone out on the street, they have to report back on a multitude of factors, whether it be the time and date of the stop, race, the perceived sexual orientation–there are all these things–were they put in handcuffs, were they put in the backseat? Then there are their own logs that they have to clear with that same information. Then there is every single camera activation that they have documenting every contact with the public–that has to be tagged with metadata. Then they have crime reports they got to write. If they don’t have time to write those during their shift, they’re staying over to make sure those reports get written and finished when I’m sure they’d rather be home with their families. There are so many intricacies of what goes on in police work that are not understood, so that’s why I think ride alongs would be great for everyone to see the day in and day out.
The West Hollywood Station has a woman captain and woman lieutenant, what’s it like working for Captain Fanny Lapkin?
The captain and I go back probably like 17 or 18 years when we both worked patrol at Santa Clarita. She’s always been the same person. Working for her has been the best, by far. She lives at the station. She’s so invested in the line, and her first priority is making sure that her staff, her deputies, are cared for. They’re taken care of. She knows them on a one-on-one basis. She knows what they’re going through. If something comes up, she’ll pass it down to lieutenants and the sergeants, saying she wants us paying attention to our personnel if something’s not right with them, because we have personal issues too. She wants us to be able to recognize that. She addresses it before it becomes a problem. Outside of the station, the captain is the most down to earth, and a genuine person who cares. Working for her is amazing. I know I have very big shoes to fill, taking over her service area lieutenant spot. Any meeting she walks into, everyone gravitates towards her, all the community members, they’re always thanking her for everything she’s done for them. I think that’s extremely special. Working for her is great.
Is it true the two of you are neighbors?
We coincidentally live like just like three or four blocks from each other. We often carpool to work. It helps because we talk about stuff that’s going on at the station, how are we going to tackle this, and how we’re going to tackle that. So there is this the communication, like, is there, and I share a lot of her sentiments.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I know everyone’s name here. I know who works here. I could tell you a little bit about every person here, minus maybe some trainees that just got here. I think that’s important. I grew up in a time where you didn’t walk into operations and you definitely didn’t walk into the captain’s office. We’re really trying to change that culture and make sure that the deputies know that we do care about them and we’re not in a business where you’re just a number. They matter, and that translates on how they conduct themselves out in the public. If they’re treated right here, they’re gonna go out and give better service. So that’s what we want. We want that to translate out into the community.
If you could send a message directly to the West Hollywood community, what would it be?
This community is very unique in the sense that it’s 1.9 square miles. Everyone knows a commissioner or a council member, and it’s great, because I feel like everyone’s voice is heard, and change actually happens here. I mean, what other city has a Holloway House? Last night at the council meeting there was a very long discussion on pickleball courts and it may sound silly, but it’s great. If that’s what people want, they’re getting it done. If there’s a coyote issue, people are voicing concerns, and there’s a meeting about coyotes. I want to tell the community to just keep on doing what they’re doing, keep this city unique in that way. Keep showing up. I live in Santa Clarita, and I’ve never been to a council meeting. That’s what’s so great about here, people are actually involved. Keep engaging. If you have a problem, whether it be with what Council is doing or what we as a sheriff’s department are doing, bring it to us. We want to hear from you.