LA County Sheriff's Department faces budget cuts, controversies, calls for change

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is the nation’s largest sheriff’s department, overseeing more than 150 unincorporated areas and more than 40 cities. It also does courthouse security, and it handles all inmate transport in and out of county jails.

But the department is facing big cuts — not because of protests but because of a large budget shortfall this year.

That plays into the future of a department that’s also embroiled in several controversies at the moment. Those include the killing of 18-year-old Andres Guardado, a Salvadoran American security guard in Gardena; and the killing of Terron Boone, the brother of the Black man who was found hanging from a tree in Palmdale. Boone was shot by LA Sheriff’s deputies outside their jurisdiction in Kern County during what they described as a shootout with them.