With gang violence soaring and homicides on a near-record pace in Compton last year, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca sent deputies door-to-door in the community.
They were not there to make arrests.
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A Quirky Sheriff Who's on the Move, Out in Front and Feeling Some Heat
As L.A. County's top cop for seven years, Lee Baca has endeared himself to his base and alienated detractors with his offbeat style of policing.
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They were delivering letters inviting gang members and their parents to meet with the sheriff to discuss the "ramifications" of their "decision-making process."
On the day of the meeting, Baca waited patiently at the Compton courthouse.
But no gang members showed up -- just three of their relatives. Two dozen deputies milled around, some rolling their eyes and grumbling about wasted time.
Only Baca seemed perplexed by the turnout.
In his seven years at the helm of the nation's largest sheriff's department, Baca's quirky, innovative approach to crime fighting has endeared him to those who traditionally mistrust the police and made him one of the county's most successful politicians.
He has tirelessly wooed the ethnic and religious groups that make up his potent power base. Despite four challengers, he is expected to win a third term so easily on June 6 that he has not sought endorsements or campaigned actively.
But within law enforcement -- where he is sometimes referred to derisively as "Sheriff Moonbeam" -- many see him as an ineffectual manager ill-equipped to lead his vast organization out of the deep troubles it faces.
High attrition and low morale pervade his 8,000-officer force, charged with the Herculean tasks of policing 2.7 million people over an area of more than 3,000 square miles as well as guarding 18,000 increasingly violent inmates in America's biggest jail system.
Between 2002 and 2005, as the city of Los Angeles experienced a significant drop in homicides and other major crimes, homicides rose by nearly 20% in sheriff's territories.
The Sheriff's Department continues to reel from painful budget cuts ordered by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors four years ago. To avoid taking deputies off patrol, Baca imposed a hiring freeze, shut his training academy and closed jails.
Baca's options were limited. His remedies, however, have left his department short by as many as 1,000 deputies and forced the early release of a flood of offenders, back on the streets because the sheriff no longer had the capacity to house them.
As his overstretched officers have struggled to cope, Baca often has focused on the county's social ills and being its ambassador to the world.
