Attorneys for Kobe Bryant’s widow today asked a judge to punish Los Angeles County for the alleged destruction of almost all evidence that sheriff’s deputies snapped and shared photos taken at the site of the helicopter crash last year that killed the NBA legend, the couple’s 13-year- old daughter and seven others.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced today that the department has entered into an agreement with Axon Enterprise Inc. to deploy body-worn cameras on deputies.
“This was a 20-month battle since the very first week I took office to get this program up and running, and it is very important to transparency (and) my commitment to reform the department,” Villanueva said.
The Los Angeles County sheriff said Monday he has concerns about tactics deputies used to detain three teenagers at gunpoint after the mother of one said the youths had been threatened by a man holding a knife. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a social media post that he had seen a video of the incident _ which was uploaded by one of the teens’ mothers to her Instagram profile last week _ and that the matter is being investigated. CBS Los Angeles reported that the trio were teenagers. Deputy Juanita Navarro, a spokeswoman for the department, said the youths were
The contract for the body-worn camera program that will ensure greater accountability of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been finalized, enabling the Department to now order cameras and equipment at its discretion starting today.
The data around the use of force is complicated because new reporting policies were instituted in 2013, which county officials have long said created a spike in reporting that wasn’t reflective of a jump in actual force incidents. On top of that, mismatched systems for reporting different kinds of force and violence have created inconsistencies and unreliability in the numbers over time.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced the launch of a mental health division — the first of its kind by a prosecutor’s office in California and possibly the nation — to seek opportunities to expand treatment and other services for mentally ill inmates in the criminal justice system.