Compton Mayor, Council To Call for State and Federal Investigations into Compton Sheriff’s Station and Deputies
The request follows media reports depicting a band of deputies with matching tattoos that wields vast power at the Compton station known as the Executioners and is a direct response to resident’s continuous calls to reform the Sheriff’s Department in Compton and the lack of concern, action, accountability, and transparency from L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and the Sheriff’s Department to the City Council and residents regarding their complaints.
The mayor will be joined by Taco Mell restauranteur Jermelle Henderson who was recently pulled over by the sheriff’s deputies in Compton at gunpoint.
Compton taxpayers currently pay $22 million a year to the Sheriff’s Department with only Lancaster coming in higher at $24 million for a city of 94 square miles and 150,000 residents. At 10 square miles and 100,000 residents, Compton is paying the most money per resident and geographic area.
“Compton residents deserve and demand equitable treatment. We are tired of dodging sheriff’s cars that have no regard for traffic laws or personal property, being snatched out of our cars, having our vehicles illegally searched, being threatened and intimidated, beaten and in some cases murdered,” said Mayor Aja Brown. “We demand the same treatment that deputies provide to the residents of Malibu, Rancho Palos Verdes and other affluent communities. And, according to the size of our contract with the Sheriff’s Department, we have $22 million reasons to expect it.”
“The City currently contracts with Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement services at a price tag in excess of $22 million but incidents like what occurred with Dalvin Price are unacceptable and we will not tolerate it,” said Compton City Attorney Damon Brown. “The taxpayers of this City will not fund our own destruction and dehumanization. We expect our tax dollars to be used for our protection and for law enforcement to work cooperatively with City leadership to improve safety and quality of life. For this relationship between the Sheriff’s and the City to continue, there must be accountability.”
In 2000, led by then-Mayor Omar Bradley, the five-member city council voted 4-to-1 to disband the Compton Police Department in hopes of getting a handle on the high homicide rate that had gripped the city and kept residents indoors in fear of their lives. At the time the $12.3-million contract with the city of Compton was the most expensive among the 41 cities patrolled by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.
