Los Angeles County Sheriff S Department

Amid an aggressive push to bolster its ranks with thousands of new deputies, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department loosened its hiring practices and gave jobs to recruits who in the past would have been rejected, according to a department watchdog report released Thursday. Among those hired were applicants with criminal records, drug and alcohol problems and financial woes. One recruit, for example, had been released from another police agency after using excessive force.

Out of cash and understaffed, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has suspended its faltering effort to analyze DNA evidence from thousands of rape and sexual assault cases. The department halted shipments of the genetic evidence to private crime laboratories at the end of May after funds allotted for the testing ran dry, according to a report submitted by Sheriff Lee Baca to the county Board of Supervisors late last week.

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.

Media law experts and journalism groups expressed outrage Thursday that Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies obtained phone records from a notable Hollywood gossip journalist during a leak investigation, calling the action a serious violation of the reporter's rights. Several said they believed that sheriff's investigators violated state and federal law when they obtained a search warrant for the records of TMZ founder Harvey Levin as they tried to identify who gave him details about Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade during a 2006 drunk-driving arrest.

It is a Sunday morning and there is still dew on the grass outside Faith Inspirational Missionary Baptist Church. Already, God has received a standing ovation. The thermometer on the wall claims it's only 75 degrees in here, but congregants are dancing in the aisles, some with their shoes kicked off and stashed under the pews. Their sweat mixes with their tears, and for once in Compton, they are tears of joy. "People of faith!" thunders the Rev.

An alleged Whittier gang member wanted in an attack on two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies nearly nine years ago has been arrested in Mexico, authorities announced Monday. Emigdio Preciado Jr., who had been listed as one of the FBI's 10 most wanted, was arrested Friday night in the rural town of Corral Piedras, officials said. The community is in Nayarit state, along Mexico's central coast. He was arrested by Mexican federal police after a tip by U.S. authorities.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has suspended three deputies and opened a criminal investigation into allegations that they assaulted a jail inmate and pepper-sprayed his genital area. The investigation started after Alejandro Franco, 23, alleged that jailers, upset because he swore at one of them, took him to an isolated place and assaulted him in November.

While homicides fell significantly, serious crime in the dozens of communities patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department rose 4% overall in 2007 -- prompting Sheriff Lee Baca to warn that a worsening economy could present a tough crime picture for 2008. An increase in robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries and other property crimes drove the crime uptick, according to statistics compiled by the department, which protects about 3 million people.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday launched an investigation into how the Sheriff's Department conducted a narcotics-search operation at Los Angeles Trade Tech College in which 33 students, all minorities, were detained. The Oct. 17 incident has fueled allegations of racial profiling from civil rights groups and sparked changes in the way the Sheriff's Department communicates with the Los Angeles Community College District.

A director of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Multicultural Advisory Council has been stripped of his reserve deputy status after Glendale police complained that he showed up at the scene of a suicide last week, flashing his badge and demanding access to a restricted area. The Glendale incident marks the latest in a string of cases in which reserve deputies or volunteers working for sheriff's departments around Southern California have been accused of overstepping their authority.