LA County's Inspector General insists the Sheriff's Department is back-sliding on reforms and it's hurting public safety.
IG Max Huntsman points to increases in shootings by sheriff's deputies and in-custody deaths.
He reports deputies fired at people 11 times in the fourth quarter of last year. Seven were hit. Six died.
And shootings by deputies have gone up in the past two years, or since Sheriff Alex Villanueva took office.
Huntsman says in-custody deaths have been on the rise even longer.
"I'm not a big proponent to jumping to statistical conclusions from a small amount of data but over the past four or five years it is up and up. Even if you leave out COVID deaths, this year had more deaths than previously and is past where we were in 2013, so that's very troubling," he says.
There were 41 in-custody deaths reported last year, compared to 34 in 2013.
The department denies any "unusual increase" in in-custody deaths "outside of COVID" and says in a statement that while homicides have more than doubled, compared to the same time last year, there have been only two deputy-involved shootings so far this year.
