It lays out the legal basis for such a probe, citing a 2021 state law that gave inspectors general the authority to investigate law enforcement gangs by specifying that agencies “shall cooperate” with inspector general investigations. The five-page letter from the inspector general, the county’s watchdog, opens by explaining the recipient is “directed to appear in person to participate in an interview to be conducted by the Office of Inspector General concerning the presence of law enforcement gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.” County Sheriff’s deputies and supervisors said in an anonymous survey they’ve been asked to join a secret clique. County Sheriff’s Department likely growing, study findsĪ new study finds that 16% of L.A.

We’re using that authority to complete the investigations by directing deputies to show their tattoos and tell us who else has them.”Ĭalifornia Deputy cliques in L.A. “California’s new gang law addresses discrimination based on race and gender and gives inspectors general enhanced authority to collect evidence. “The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department conducted incomplete internal affairs investigations into the Banditos and Executioners, failing to identify all members,” Huntsman told The Times this week. The names of the deputies have not been released to the public, but Huntsman said they were a subset of the 41 deputies he identified as suspected gang members last year. The demand came Friday in a letter sent by county Inspector General Max Huntsman to 35 deputies suspected of being members of either the Executioners, which operates out of the Compton station, or the Banditos, which operates out of the East L.A. Nearly three dozen deputies have been ordered to come in for questioning, show their tattoos and give up the names of any other deputies similarly sporting ink connecting them to two of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s most notorious deputy gangs.

Corrections in ink by keri blakinger