LA Police Union Official Tells Officers To Leave Crime-Ridden City: 'Go Somewhere That Understands Your Worth’

Jerretta Sandoz, vice president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL), the jurisdiction's police union, encouraged the officers he represents to leave the city and find work elsewhere following a raft of unsuccessful negotiations with city officials in a now-deleted Facebook comment.

According to a screenshot of the comment posted a few weeks before the LAPD contract expired June 30th and reportedly obtained by The Los Angeles Times, Sandoz wrote, 

"Go somewhere that respects the work you do and you don’t have to beg for a great contract. Go somewhere that has a city council or city manager that openly acknowledges the great work you do, go somewhere that doesn’t have Two or more City Council members who hate you (no exaggeration)."

The outlet reported that the post alarmed some within the LAPD who subsequently questioned if Sandoz would support the mass departure of police when the department is already suffering a serious manpower shortage with the number of sworn officers down to 9,027, a decrease of approximately 1,000 from 2019 staffing levels.

The LLAPL tweeted about the alarming attrition in June, writing, "One thousand fewer officers, hundreds more slated to retire or go to other agencies. The staffing crisis is real, and it is dangerous. Fewer police officers mean less community policing, less intervention and prevention programs, and more guns on our streets."

Reviewing the departures of fiscal 2022-2023, totaling 43 officers compared to 12 in 2017-2018, Police Commissioner Erroll Southers said the situation was "very, very discouraging."

Los Angeles Magazine tweeted, "With 30% of the country's homeless population, California tops the charts as the state with the highest number of homeless people," noting, "These comments and departures highlight the need for improving the relationship between police officers and city officials"

Sandoz told reporters that the Facebook post was "much ado about nothing."
 

“My comments were part of a larger online thread about officers who stated they already decided to leave the LAPD,” she explained. “And I stand by every word I wrote to those who decided, or are strongly considering leaving the LAPD for another agency.”

In an email follow-up to the LA Times, Sandoz said that she hopes LAPD will make "improvements" and officers choose to stay with the department. However, she added that “criteria I advise officers to evaluate when they are choosing to work for another agency is, in many respects, the same criteria officers are using to determine if they are going to stay with the LAPD.”

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