PPOA Needs to Hear From You — What Are Your Priorities?

Greetings, fellow members. As the public safety pendulum continues to swing from safety in our communities to soft on criminal activity, 2023 is promising to be another challenging year. Unit 612 members are once again at the forefront of an attack from the L.A. County Civilian Oversight Report on Department Gangs and SB 2 implementation. These issues are no longer sitting on the doorstep, and PPOA needs to maintain a strong voice and continue to fight for and protect our members’ bargaining rights, Peace Officers Bill of Rights and civil service protections.

We cannot allow our members to be painted with a broad, sinister brush. Rather, we have to help the public grasp the fact that 99.99% of our members come to work every day, risking their lives to serve the community.

PPOA Board leadership needs to place our members first. We need to speak for our members regardless of whether the Sheriff or our elected representatives are pleased with the issues we present. I can speak for myself and say that in the last week, I was given the opportunity to participate in two such conservations. I found the Sheriff and a government representative to be open to listening. Now, more than ever, we should ask for their support and monitor their actions as we support them in our mutual goal of public peace. We need to find common ground with our administrations and work with them to find solutions for better, safer working conditions and stand against some of the illegal suggestions and rhetoric from those who want to destroy our safe communities and law enforcement.

In carrying out this task, we need to make membership the priority, but PPOA needs to hear from you. What are your priorities? Obviously, we cannot stand idly by while personnel are transferred, denied promotion, demoted, or dual track is recreated (twice tried and twice failed in the last 25 years) for an alleged association with a group or having a tattoo.

I will continue to stand up against these attempts to violate our rights.

If you were hired after the 2012 PEPRA law, know where you stand in the future. If you are in LACERA Plan C, there are steps you can take to protect your retirement nest egg, and PPOA is still fighting to assist you. It’s never too early to plan for your future.

Recruitment and retention issues are strangling the Department again. You may recall that 21 years ago, we were losing Department members to other police agencies in and outside of the state, and the retirement rate was higher than usual. In the competition to hire the best, we were losing to other agencies with better pay and benefits. History is now repeating itself — personnel are leaving for better pay and benefits at other departments and retirements are at an all-time high, including early retirements due to the continued attack on peace officers and the defund movement. I am committed to working with the Sheriff and the Board of Supervisors to find a way to stop the bleeding out of our Department.

Being a peace officer is still an honorable profession, no matter what the critics say, and we will never be completely compensated for the job and sacrifices we and our families make every day. But we should be fairly compensated with our sister agencies.

Help PPOA help its members: Sign up to be a delegate, attend a meeting of the PPOA Board, stay informed and stay involved. As always, PPOA is only as strong as its active membership. Don’t be part of the silent majority — we need to become the vocal majority.

Until next time, stay safe.