The Next Chapter

We now begin the next chapter in “As LASD Turns.” We welcome the new Sheriff and hope for his success. I have received several calls about what is going on, and so far it seems to be a tempered transition. The Sheriff has a huge uphill battle with hiring and staffing, internal strife and COVID management, to say the least. I hope he brings in experts who are not self-serving to ensure the right decisions are made.

One thing I would talk about, which has been taboo in the past, is an idea to attack several problems at once: attrition, hiring, injuries, policing, morale and budget. It’s a bad word — a four-letter word — but other people use it, and it has evolved to not be as bad a word as it used to be. It’s a word hated by the Board of Supervisors, but they may not understand it. It’s a word other agencies love and are allowed to use freely — they even expanded it! Their people love the word. They use the word. They understand the word.

I am wondering how many have guessed the word. OK, here it is: DROP. 

Several years ago, we looked into DROP as an option to attack the coming attrition, hiring and staffing issues. At that time, it was believed to be bad because you could go IOD and collect DROP at the same time, which has been addressed.

LAPD has used it openly, to continued success. They even expanded it, I heard, with something called BOUNCE, which I have no idea about, but I heard it’s a good word, too. Imagine if IOD cases went down and hiring increased at the same time attrition slowed. It may not be perfect, but maybe we can tweak it so it is perfect for our Department. The idea of it simply being called double-dipping is crazy if it saves money and helps the Sheriff make the county safer. I think an honest study should be done to see if it is viable. If so, deal with the political issue, educate the public and go for it!

We are now hearing rumors of safety issues being caused by exhausted personnel and short-staffing across the county. Hiring has been severely impacted by the political climate and PEPRA. It’s not going to get better until some outside-the-box thinking is implemented. I hope the new team reaches out to experts in all fields to solve the problems we have. Promote those wit demonstrated ability, not for nepotism or loyalty. Implement checks and balances to weed out any criminal activity within the LASD, and put the question of LASD gangs to rest once and for all. Either they are here or they aren’t, and if they are, handle it. If they aren’t, stand by that firmly, once and for all. Work with the Board to deal with the COVID issue based on science (not fear) and demonstrate to employees that leaders will be chosen based on what you do and what you learn.

The LASD is such a transient organization, to a fault. Managers stay in a position for a year or so before promoting or transferring, before they even learn the job. I hope they seek advice from the professional staff managers who have been in those units for years, to at least understand and get up to speed quickly.

This is running long and I could talk about it for pages, but in a nutshell, the Sheriff has an uphill battle for sure, and I’m not sure he even knew how big the LASD was. I hope people speak truth to him without fear of being sent to the cornfields or turned into a jack-in-the-box (Twilight Zone reference), because that is the only way he will succeed. I wish him the best of luck moving forward. Keep the emails coming to jschallert@ppoa.com. I love reading them.