When It Comes to the LA Sheriff’s Department, Don’t Confuse Quiet with Change

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna and former sheriff Alex Villanueva

Los Angeles County didn’t vote for a quieter version of the same problem.

But that’s exactly what we got.

Let’s be honest about something folks in power are hoping you won’t say out loud: Sheriff Robert Luna is not meaningfully different from former Sheriff Alex Villanueva. The tone changed. The posture softened. The press conferences got less combative.

But when it comes to accountability? Transparency? Respect for oversight?

Same playbook. New volume setting.

Because here’s the part that matters: if you are suing the Civilian Oversight Commission — the very body created to ensure the Sheriff’s Department answers to the public — then you are not leading a transparent department.

You are actively fighting transparency.

And I don’t care how politely it’s done.

We all remember the chaos under Villanueva. The open hostility. The defiance. The headlines that made Los Angeles County a national case study in what happens when a sheriff refuses to be accountable.

Voters were promised a reset.

What we got instead was a rebrand.

Sheriff Luna may not yell at the Board of Supervisors. He may not dominate the news cycle with public feuds. But when it comes time to make a choice — transparency or control — he has shown us exactly where he stands.

And it’s not with the public.

You cannot claim to support oversight while simultaneously dragging that oversight into court. You cannot say you believe in accountability while using taxpayer dollars to avoid it.

That’s not leadership. That’s strategy.

And the strategy is clear: keep the system intact, just make it less noisy.

But communities across Los Angeles County are not asking for quiet. They are asking for honesty. They are asking for accountability that is real, not performative. They are asking for a Sheriff’s Department that understands it works for the people — not around them, not above them, and certainly not against them.

This isn’t about personality. It’s about power.

And right now, that power is still being used to resist the very oversight that voters demanded.

If we truly want a Sheriff’s Department that is transparent, accountable, and worthy of public trust, then we have to stop confusing a lower volume with real change.

Because silence doesn’t equal progress.

Sometimes, it just means the same thing is happening — just quieter.

And Los Angeles County deserves better than that.

With over 30 years of law enforcement experience, Chief Eric Strong is running for Sheriff in Los Angeles County.