Baca Warns of Losses if Budget Is Slashed

“The Heat’s Off” (Opinion, May 5) not only identified the need for adequate numbers of police officers in any given area, especially those with gangs, but it also identified the problem that occurs when those numbers fall woefully short: the increase in crime.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors is calling for a cut of more than $100 million in the Sheriff’s Department budget. If that drastic cut is approved, it is going to devastate public safety in the unincorporated areas for which we are responsible. Here’s a sampling of what we will be forced to close:

* The Century Regional Detention Center, which houses about 2,000 inmates daily.

* The Sheriff’s Academy, resulting in the suspension of all new hires and training.

* The Family Crimes Bureau.

* The community policing programs, including our VIDA program for at-risk youths.

* The hate crimes unit.

* The Safe Streets Bureau, which is our gang unit.

* The Asian Crime Task Force.

Today, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has a full complement of officers in all its units in the unincorporated areas of East Los Angeles. However, if this budget is passed I will have to make reductions across the board. For example, I will be forced to take specially trained deputy sheriffs assigned to our gang units and reassign them, leaving our streets more vulnerable to gangs as well as other criminal activities.

We need to do what is right for the nearly 10 million people who call L.A. County their home. We cannot allow the Sheriff’s Department budget to be cut.

Sheriff Lee Baca

Los Angeles County