Los Angeles County’s public safety agencies — sheriff and fire departments — presented budgetary overviews on Tuesday, Feb. 17, that color their readiness for responding to future disasters as well as needs from the LA Olympic Summer Games in 2028.
At a special meeting of the Board of Supervisors, the heads of both departments expressed being hampered by a shortage of personnel, outdated equipment and inflationary pressures made worse by state and federal funding cuts.
Hiring more sheriff deputies and firefighter/paramedics remains a hindrance to fully effective public safety systems in LA County.
“As we are getting ready to welcome the world’s largest Olympics in the world, we as a county need to be prepared,” said Sheriff Robert Luna.
In documents giving a glimpse into the 2026-2027 departmental budget, Luna wrote his department is experiencing “a high number of vacant and impaired positions.” He told the board that about 23% of the sworn personnel are not available to work due to long-term injuries and workers’ compensation claims.
The gaps are filled with overtime, which adds to personnel costs, he said. The Sheriff’s Department’s current budget is about $4.2 billion. Luna is asking for a boost of $556.6 million. “Our employees are working double, triple and quadruple shifts,” Luna said. “A lot are working too much and it is affecting their families at home.”
Chief Anthony Marrone said the LA County Fire Department is down 150 employees. Also, 339 employees are out on injury, representing 7% of the fire department workforce, he said.
“We are losing qualified firefighter/paramedics,” said Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, which she said were going to neighboring counties and city fire departments. “I hope we do a better job recruiting our personnel.”
Luna is trying to stop the bleeding on both ends, by offering incentives to stop sheriff deputies from retiring, or at least keeping them on the job through the summer of 2028, when the Olympic and Paralympic games are played throughout LA County, attracting more than a million spectators.
To delay retirement, the department is offering bonuses and wellness programs.
On the front end, Luna asked the supervisors to double the number of academy classes, from four to eight. Each class has about 100 potential deputy recruits. Luna hired a marketing firm to bring in more recruits and said that recruiting of applicants has gone up 35%.
Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn said: “Law enforcement has become an unpopular career path.”
The Fire Department budget is about $1.8 billion and is mostly funded by property taxes from fire districts, not from the county’s general fund. Yet Chief Marrone is concerned about drops in state and federal funding, also revenue sources.
Marrone said so far, President Trump has not provided the county fire department with promised Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA) reimbursement of about $16.8 billion for firefighting, debris removal and infrastructure replacement from the massive Palisades and Eaton fires in January 2025 that destroyed 16,000 structures and claimed 31 lives.
Both agencies are asking for money to replace aging dispatch systems that route 9-1-1 calls.
Luna asked for $22 million for a new Computer-Aided-Dispatch (CAD) system, plus 99 new positions. Some studies and community groups have pointed to poor responses from the Sheriff’s Department to alert residents to fires for evacuations in Altadena, where nearly the entire town was destroyed. Eighteen of 19 deaths occurred in West Altadena, primarily a historical Black neighborhood.
“The CAD system would be at the top of my list because that impacts folks when they dial 9-1-1 or when we are dealing with fires and floods,” Luna said.
The Sheriff Department’s dispatch system is 40 years old, he said. “Over the past month it has gone down four times.”
LA County Fire Department’s dispatch system is 32 years old, said Marrone, but he said it has not broken down. Still, he’s hoping to piggyback onto the vendor supplying the new Sheriff’s Department system. But that still could take until early 2028, he said.
The Fire Department is asking to replace three aging helicopters, with one Bell helicopter and two new Sikorsky S-70i Firehawk helicopters. It also plans on replacing old engines and trucks — about 22% need replacing, he said. Marrone wants to add an air operations support position and enhance a vehicle locations system that will provide more accurate tracking.
Luna also is asking for $44.9 million for 17 new buses to transport inmates to and from court, additional squad cars, patrol helicopters and body cameras.
Other departments also talked about reductions in the workforce:
• Probation Department listed about 42% of its workforce unavailable, due to workers compensation cases or other causes.
• District Attorney’s Office: The number of prosecutors went down from 950 in 2020 to 800. DA Nathan Hochman has asked for 35 more prosecutor positions.
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