Los Angeles County now has fewer than 120 probation officers left to supervise nearly 22,000 probationers as a result of the redeployment of most of its officers to the county\u2019s troubled juvenile hall and a controversial policy decision to force others with medical restrictions to stay at home.<\/p>\n
In an effort to offset the dwindled workforce, the county has signed an agreement with L.A. Impact, a regional law enforcement task force focused on drug traffickers and gangs, to use police officers<\/a> from around the county to conduct home visits and compliance checks traditionally handled by the Probation Depaartment.<\/p>\n Probation also is reconsidering a policy in place for more than a year that left significant portions of its employees sitting at home while the number of cases handled by the remaining officers in the field offices skyrocketed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know the challenges our field offices are under but redeployments have been necessary to staff the juvenile facilities to appropriate levels,\u201d said Vicky Waters, L.A. County Probation\u2019s spokesperson, in an email. \u201cWe are taking steps to try to stabilize staffing through targeted recruitment and hiring and workload redistribution. Our light-duty rotation policy is designed to meet operational needs while complying with medical and labor guidelines, and we are reviewing it to see if changes could further boost field capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n Probation has set aside $1 million per year to reimburse police departments that conduct checks on probation\u2019s behalf. L.A. Impact will handle the payments, but will not send any of the officers who are part of the task force to assist, according to Waters.<\/p>\n Any municipality in L.A. County can participate, but a list of the agencies that have signed up so far was not available. The police officers will be assigned liaisons from the Probation Department, Waters said.<\/p>\n A training session is scheduled for mid-September to teach the police officers how to handle the home visits.<\/p>\n Dwight Thompson, vice president of the L.A. County Deputy Probation Officers\u2019 Union, called the request for mutual aid \u201cmisguided\u201d and \u201cfar more expensive than simply allowing experienced field deputies to continue performing their duties.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMany of these Deputies have been placed on home assignment due to the Department\u2019s refusal to honor long-standing, well-documented physical work restrictions \u2014 restrictions that have never interfered with their ability to effectively serve in the field for the past 30 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Probation Department began redeploying field officers last year to try to bolster staffing levels<\/a> at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall enough to meet the state\u2019s minimum staffing ratios. The redeployments did stabilize Los Padrinos briefly, but it was short-lived and the facility was deemed \u201cunsuitable\u201d by the end of the 2024 and ordered to close by the state.<\/p>\n The county refused to comply. Eventually, a judge agreed to allow Los Padrinos to stay open, but only if it could reduce the facility\u2019s population to a more manageable level by transferring youth from the juvenile hall to other facilities.<\/p>\n Those efforts, however, have been hampered at every step and the population at Los Padrinos has only grown. Now, the California Department of Justice has asked a judge to place a receiver in charge<\/a> of the county\u2019s juvenile facilities. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for Sept. 16.<\/p>\n When nearly 40% of the juvenile detention officers scheduled to work<\/a> at Los Padrinos on Easter Sunday this year called out, the county mandated that even more officers be redeployed from the field.<\/p>\n The redeployments and forced leaves have left the field offices, particularly those handling adult clients, struggling to keep up with the increased workloads per officer. The department now has a 36% vacancy rate among its sworn positions and most of its new hires leave within a year<\/a> of completing the academy.<\/p>\n In April, one field office in the San Gabriel Valley reportedly had only officer managing 715 adult clients<\/a> alone, records showed. Alex Nieto, acting deputy director for the L.A. County Probation Department, acknowledged that ratio is not \u201csustainable\u201d during a presentation at the Probation Oversight Commission\u2019s meeting Thursday, Aug. 14.<\/p>\n \u201cThat ratio is sky high,\u201d he said. \u201cAs we speak, I\u2019m trying to get staff over there by whatever means possible.\u201d<\/p>\n The American Probation and Parole Association recommends a case-to-staff ratio of 20 to 200 per officer, depending on the risk score of the clients involved. Officers overseeing the highest risk probationers are recommended to have the fewest number of cases.<\/p>\n