Lee Baca

Despite the tough economic times, both violent and property crimes are down significantly in areas patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department so far in 2009, Sheriff Lee Baca said Monday. The biggest drop in any major crime category is in homicides, down 23.5% through Sept. 18 this year compared with the same period in 2008, according to Baca. Crime has decreased despite an economic downturn that has hit particularly hard in some relatively poor neighborhoods patrolled by the Sheriff's Department, including Compton and unincorporated South L.A. Baca predicted more than a year ago that the ailing economy could result in crime increases, but that has so far not materialized.

When it came time to make his endorsement in the hot race to succeed Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, Sheriff Lee Baca didn't pick just one candidate to fill the 2nd District seat. He picked two. His selection of both state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks -- widely considered the two leading contenders -- was not a matter of hedging his bet in the June 3 race, a Baca spokesman said.

Los Angeles' two top lawmen are increasingly at odds over the extent to which gang violence is being fueled by racial hatred. Police Chief William J. Bratton and his top deputies have long cautioned that race-motivated violence remains fairly rare and that gang feuds over turf and drugs are the leading cause of such violence. But over the last few months, Sheriff Lee Baca has publicly voiced a more ominous view of violence between Latino and black gangs.

Sheriff Lee Baca said Thursday that he supported legislation that would make it a federal offense for anyone to flee the country after killing a peace officer in the United States. The matter is significant to Baca because the man accused of killing Sheriff's Deputy David March in 2002 managed to avoid prosecution for more than four years by fleeing to Mexico. Legislation introduced recently by Rep.

Sheriff Lee Baca has decided to stop using overtime to increase staffing in the Los Angeles County jail system, a move that a deputies union warns could put guards, inmates and civilians at risk. Baca said he used overtime over the last year to add the equivalent of about 300 deputies and nonsworn custody assistants to his jail staff -- a response to inmate violence and a federal judge's concerns about conditions in the overcrowded Men's Central Jail.

Reporters and paparazzi were already setting up Friday outside the County Jail in an industrial section of Lynwood. Inmates on work crews were busily posting "No Cellphone Camera" signs around the 1950s-era facility. Officials opened a new media parking area. It was all in preparation for what Sheriff Lee Baca on Friday called a jail sentence like no other, which is supposed to begin Tuesday when Paris Hilton arrives.

Sheriff Lee Baca's decision to let Paris Hilton out of jail after she served only three days of a planned 23-day stay sparked outrage Thursday, prompting an emergency court hearing today that could send the hotel heiress back behind bars. Infuriated prosecutors asserted Thursday that Hilton had received special treatment from the Sheriff's Department, which they accused of contempt of court.

The sheriff who sprang Paris Hilton is no stranger to Hollywood. He has attended the Academy Awards and Golden Globes shows. He's golfed with actor Michael Douglas, given a concealed weapons permit to Ben Affleck, hired Lou Ferrigno as a reserve deputy, taken campaign contributions from Sylvester Stallone. Serving as sheriff in Hollywood's home county makes the spotlight difficult to avoid.

A sobbing Paris Hilton was shipped back to jail Friday, culminating a high-stakes legal showdown between a judge and Sheriff Lee Baca over who controls how long and where inmates serve their jail sentences. The questions have loomed large over the Los Angeles County justice system for years as judges watched in frustration as the sheriff slashed the sentences they handed down, often by 90%, to alleviate chronic overcrowding in his jails.

A former Los Angeles County employee launched a campaign Monday to recall Sheriff Lee Baca, citing last week's early release of Paris Hilton as an example of gross mismanagement of the nation's largest Sheriff's Department. Andrew Ahlering conceded that recalling Baca would be costly and time-consuming but said the public frenzy about Hilton's release could generate the necessary interest.