{"id":89353,"date":"2025-12-10T17:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T17:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/89353\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T17:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T17:53:08","slug":"la-county-inspector-general-blasts-sheriffs-department-in-retirement-announcement-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/89353\/","title":{"rendered":"LA County inspector general blasts Sheriff’s Department in retirement announcement \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published by LAist<\/a> on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department has mostly blocked efforts to investigate misconduct within its ranks, according to the county inspector general, who announced his retirement Tuesday after 12 years on the job.<\/p>\n

In an open letter, Max Huntsman cited examples of how the county has thwarted his efforts to watchdog the department, which in the past has been plagued with accusations that deputies use excessive force and lie on the job.<\/p>\n

Huntsman said one example is former Sheriff Alex Villanueva\u2019s misuse of criminal enforcement powers to discredit critics, such as opening an investigation into former County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.<\/p>\n

Villanueva was sheriff from 2018 to 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy requests for investigation were rejected,\u201d Huntsman\u2019s letter reads. \u201cEven after receiving an official subpoena, the Sheriff\u2019s Department has failed to turn over records regarding the improper surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cSometimes members of the public wonder if frightening new surveillance techniques will be used for improper purposes under the guise of criminal investigation. Sadly, the answer is yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before becoming inspector general in 2013, Huntsman, 60, was a deputy district attorney who specialized in public corruption. He told LAist on Tuesday that the inspector general job wasn\u2019t something he wanted initially.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to go work for politicians,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the need to provide some kind of independent reporting and analysis was significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Department issued a statement saying it valued the Office of the Inspector General and all county oversight bodies and that it wished Huntsman and his family well in his retirement.<\/p>\n

The department said it \u201ccontinues to make great strides in advancing the department in a transparent manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

LAist also reached out to the county CEO and county counsel for comment, but they declined.<\/p>\n

After George Floyd<\/p>\n

In the letter, Huntsman says the state of California has come a long way in strengthening the power of local law enforcement oversight bodies, in part because of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

After widespread protests \u2014 and lobbying by Huntsman \u2014 the state provided authority to inspectors general to enforce subpoenas requiring law enforcement agencies to hand over documents and authorized external investigation of police misconduct, including deputy gang conduct.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Department \u2014 backed by county lawyers \u2014 has resisted.<\/p>\n

\u201cLos Angeles County may not follow those laws, but it will not be able to avoid them forever,\u201d Huntsman wrote. \u201cThe county refuses to require the photographing of suspected gang tattoos in secretive groups that the undersheriff has identified as violating state law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a few weeks ago, we requested some information regarding an investigation, and a pair of commanders refused to give it to us,\u201d Huntsman said in an interview with LAist.<\/p>\n

Origin of the office<\/p>\n

The Inspector General\u2019s Office was created by the county Board of Supervisors in 2013 in response to a scandal that included former Sheriff Lee Baca covering up the abuses of jail inmates.<\/p>\n

Baca went to federal prison.<\/p>\n

Since then, the office has issued dozens of reports with recommendations for improving living conditions inside jails that some have described as \u201cfilthy,\u201d stopping abuses of juveniles inside juvenile halls and providing shower privacy for inmates as part of the requirements under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these abuses were reported by the Office of Inspector General and recommendations were ignored,\u201d Huntsman wrote. Often, it took court orders to enact change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first blew the whistle on the torturous chaining of mentally ill prisoners to benches for 36 hours at a time, it was only a court order that ended the practice,\u201d he wrote. \u201cTime and time again, this pattern repeated itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huntsman wrote the county has permitted the Sheriff\u2019s Department to block oversight and defunded the Office of Inspector General by removing a third of its staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not surprising the county has driven out two successive chairs of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment always claims to value transparency and accountability, but shooting the messenger is still the most common response to criticism,\u201d Huntsman wrote.<\/p>\n

Despite setbacks, Huntsman values work<\/p>\n

Huntsman told LAist on Tuesday that he was proud of his career as a public servant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve really enjoyed the work and I\u2019m sad to have it end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sentiment he echoed in his letter, adding that despite the setbacks and roadblocks, he was proud of the people with whom he shared the office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been my honor to work with a talented, brave and tireless group of public servants to ensure that the public knows what its government is doing,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

He noted the inspector general\u2019s reports are fact-checked by the office and public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen government abuses occur, they are sometimes kept secret, but that is no longer the case for much of what is happening in Los Angeles County,\u201d Huntsman wrote. \u201cWhat you do about it is up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huntsman\u2019s last day is Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was originally published by LAist on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. The Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-89353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}