L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna announced the rollout of body-worn cameras, and with it a new Taser across the Sheriff’s Department’s custody facilities, although Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic does not appear to be part of the initial rollout.
“We operate the largest jail system in the nation,” Luna said during a news conference Wednesday streamed on social media, “and this advancement represents a significant step towards ensuring a safer custodial environment for both our staff and those that we are entrusted to care for.”
The system with more than 13,200 inmates has been heavily criticized in recent months and in September the California Department of Justice filed a lawsuit over “inhumane conditions” at Men’s Central Jail.
On Oct. 1, deputies with the Men’s Central Jail, Twin Towers Correctional Facility, the Inmate Reception Center and the Century Regional Detention Facility began using body-worn cameras, Luna said. There are more than 1,000 deputies now trained in the LASD’s Custody Division, he said, with the goal to train 70 to 100 more each week, throughout its facilities.
A Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman shared a statement Thursday that indicated Pitchess and its more than 4,300 inmates would be a part of the next wave of implementation, which also would include the L.A. County General Medical Center jail ward and all custody support units. “Construction and infrastructure upgrades to support this expansion are already underway and are expected to be completed by mid-2026,” according to an LASD statement shared by Nicole Nishida, the agency’s director of communications.
The increased transparency had an initial price tag of approximately $14 million, Luna said during the livestreamed announcement, with an annual cost of approximately $26 million.
He also said during the news conference that in-custody use-of-force incidents were down 20%, which was before the camera implementation.
Luna said he believes that number will continue to go down with more cameras acting as a further deterrent, with more than 102 incidents reported for the month of July and 69 in October, the first month they were implemented.
While the jails currently have closed-circuit video, they don’t have audio, and their elevated perspectives and limited vantage points can lead in an incomplete picture for investigations, Luna said. He also said the body-worn camera has the ability to pick up audio.
The rollout of the Taser 10 into custody facilities also started at Men’s Central Jail, with 40 units, and 10 units at the Inmate Reception Center.
“During the first month of deployment, the warning alone successfully mitigated three out of five potential force incidents,” according to an LASD statement. “Additional safety enhancements include automatic activation of (body-worn camera) when the Taser 10 is unholstered, and improved accuracy over previous Taser models.”
A recent CalMatters story on the state’s lawsuit said that almost 40% of the deaths in Los Angeles County jails have been caused by “preventable circumstances,” despite years of court monitoring.
A suspect in a Santa Clarita Valley murder described violent conditions in Men’s Central Jail in an attempt to convince a judge he needed bail, which ultimately was denied.
In the notes shared from Jack Terry, he said his fellow inmates at Men’s Central Jail thought “staff negligence was so pervasive that inmates had established their own emergency medical system” for distributing Narcan.
“Fights were allowed to occur without intervention, even when in full view of cameras, unless ‘serious bodily harm’ was reported by inmates,” according to his notes.
