By Keri Blakinger | LA Times
The city of Lancaster has sued Los Angeles County, saying the Sheriff’s Department is raking in an “illegal profit” of more than $10 million by overcharging dozens of cities for its policing services.
Like more than 40 other cities in the county — including Palmdale, Compton, Carson and West Hollywood — Lancaster pays for sheriff’s deputies to police its area. But amid a staffing crisis, the Sheriff’s Department isn’t assigning as many deputies to Lancaster as the city has paid for, says the suit, which was filed in March.
Instead, existing deputies are working more overtime to make up for it. But more overtime costs less than more deputies, and the county allegedly isn’t passing along the savings, according to the lawsuit.
Mayor R. Rex Parris said Lancaster’s lawsuit aims to hold the county accountable, but stressed that the city still supports the sheriff’s deputies who patrol its streets.
“Let me make this crystal clear: Our deputies are our community’s guardians,” he wrote in an emailed statement to The Times this week. “It pains us to see them pushed to their limits, short-staffed, and scheduled to work overtime, compromising their ability to protect and serve.”
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