LA County Sheriff candidates discuss the election's top issues
Candidates hoping to unseat Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva had their opportunity to criticize the incumbent's control of the second-largest law enforcement agency in the country.
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"I respect Alex Villanueva for the man that he is, but as far as the performance as Sheriff he's been a dismal failure," said candidate Matt Rodriguez, former interim Chief of Police for the city of Santa Paula.
The top candidates unleashed a barrage of attacks against Villanueva, with former Long Beach Chief of Police Robert Luna claiming that he could "do a much better job."
Villanueva defended his record claiming that there was a concerted effort by the Board of Supervisors to defund the department.
"When we don't have cops, we can't have any plans to do anything about crime, if we're just struggling to meet the bare necessities of answering 911 calls," he said.
In addition to Rodriguez and Luna, four other candidates: 32-year LASD veteran Eli Vera, 35-year LASD veteran Captain Britta Steinbrenner, Chief of LAX airport police Cecil Rambo and Lieutenant Eric Strong, who spent the last 11-years with LASD, challenged Villanueva, who is hoping to win another four-year term.
"I have experienced many of the negative contacts with law enforcement that many of our communities are crying out about," said Strong. "But I'm also in law enforcement and I've been doing it for 30 years and I know that I can do it better."
Amid the criticism, Villanueva claimed that he is constantly trying to help his department evolve into a more modern and collaborative agency and listed the many different units under his commands such as the reserve forces bureau, anti-terrorism unit and community advisory council.
"Over the course of my career I've seen the good and the bad of the department," said Steinbrenner. "We lack leadership. We lack vision and we lack a moral compass and that's all under his command."
He also fired back at the criticism behind the rise in certain crime statistics, claiming the pandemic, stay-at-home orders and civil unrest created unforeseen challenges. Despite the challenges, Villanueva said he kept the promises he's made throughout his tenure.
"I've been in office now for one term, almost one term — everything I've campaigned on I've executed," he said. "We added body-worn cameras, the ultimate act of transparency and accountability. We've kicked ICE out of the county jails... We created the most diverse Sheriff's department in the history of the nation."