Report 2021-105 Recommendation 28 Responses
Report 2021-105: Law Enforcement Departments Have Not Adequately Guarded Against Biased Conduct (Release Date: April 2022)
Recommendation #28 To: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
To ensure that it adequately investigates possible biased conduct and implements effective corrective actions, Los Angeles Sheriff should ensure that by January 2023 it has formalized policies - such as through discipline matrices or broader discipline guidelines - specifying options for corrective actions beyond punitive discipline that are designed to change officer behaviors associated with biased conduct. The department should require that, when appropriate, these corrective actions—such as training and education—be part of the discipline that officers receive when they are found to have engaged in biased conduct.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2023
No update at this time.
- Estimated Completion Date: None
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
1-Year Agency Response
The Department has established the Guidelines For Discipline and Education Based Alternatives designed to assist in deciding when and how to impose discipline. The guidelines are, designed to ensure that discipline should be corrective in nature and impressed upon the employee the necessity for proper conduct and performance. The imposition of proper discipline stems from a determination of the facts, an evaluation of whether the facts reflect the employee misconduct, a judgement on the significance of the misconduct and the proper disciplinary action response.
- Completion Date: March 2023
- Response Date: May 2023
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending
The department has not provided updated discipline guidelines demonstrating that it has developed guidelines for corrective actions specific to biased conduct.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
6-Month Agency Response
There is no change to the status of this recommendation from the previous response.
- Estimated Completion Date: Unknown
- Response Date: October 2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending
60-Day Agency Response
The definition of Bias behavior in policing has been fiercely debated in the past, and to date, a clear and exhaustive definition of actions or behavior considered to be bias have not been identified by the state or any other governmental entity. Therefore, independently modifying or establishing an obtainable, realistic, and all-inclusive investigative process and discipline matrix would be difficult at this time.
- Estimated Completion Date: TBD
- Response Date: June 2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
Los Angeles Sheriff raises the same objection to this recommendation as it did to our recommendation 24. We disagree that the present lack of a statewide definition of bias prevents it from improving its investigations into biased conduct or its disciplinary procedures consistent with our recommendations. We summarize the reasons for our disagreement in our assessment of Los Angeles Sheriff's response to recommendation 24, and describe them more fully in the text of the report.
All Recommendations in 2021-105
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.