SHERIFF PEPE LEPEW (3)

Trey asks: How much do you have to donate to be trained on a yacht?
　
The defecating stench of catering to the rich and famous arising from Sheriff Lee Baca’s department continues unabated. When are the voters of Los Angeles County gonna come to their senses and give this sorry excuse for a lawman the old heave-ho?
　
SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT INADEQUATELY TRAINED RESERVE DEPUTIES, AGENCY CONCLUDES
By Robert Faturechi and Richard Winton
　
Los Angeles Times
May 27, 2010
　
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department provided inadequate training to 99 reserve deputies, according to a state agency.
　
The agency, which oversees law enforcement training in California, found that some of the deputies received no testing. Others were trained at a Westside hotel and possibly on a yacht rather than at a traditional law enforcement academy.
　
The reserves were mostly businesspeople and at least one celebrity who were issued badges and are assigned various tasks in the department such as transporting evidence and parking enforcement, officials said. It’s the latest problem for Sheriff Lee Baca's reserve and training program, which has hit trouble in the past for handing out badges to supporters.
　
The department declined to release the names of the 99 deputies. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said it’s unknown how many, if any, are fundraisers.

The Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training said the 99 reserves will have to be retrained.
　
Two internal affairs investigations directly related to the 99 deputies are currently being conducted on two department officials involved with operating the reserves program, Whitmore said.
　
"We made some mistakes, we fixed them and we’re moving forward," he said. "If any disciplinary action is determined to be necessary, it certainly will be made."
　
The 99 reserve deputies in question were certified and given badges around June 2008. They were removed from duties in February 2009 but were allowed to keep their badges until the audit was completed. The decertification process began this week, Whitmore said.