West Hollywood Slashes Law Enforcement Budget Despite Escalating Crime

West Hollywood in Los Angeles County, California, is slashing its budget and cutting the number of sheriff’s deputies by five, despite a crime rate that was up 137 percent earlier this year.

The public opposes the move, according to a Fox News report that said the budget was approved by a 3-2 vote. West Hollywood Mayor Lauren Meister and council member John Erickson voted against it.

Fox News reported:

Over the past few months, residents and business owners have voiced opposition to cutting the police budget amid a crime wave across the county.

Two deputies will be withdrawn in the fall and the program will be evaluated over six months. By then, the city’s law enforcement presence could be reduced by three more. An entertainment policing team will be restored.

Mayor Pro Tem Sepi Shyne amended the budgets to re-allocate funds for sheriff’s deputies to the Block by Block program, which staffs unarmed security ambassadors who provide the city with supplemental law enforcement services.

”We have all talked for two years about re-imagining policing and reimagining policing means reallocating funding and that’s exactly what that means – you can’t just say it without actually doing it. Period,” Shyne said.

Fox News spoke to several people about the development, including the mayor. Meister told Fox News in a statement:

Most of the residents and businesses I have heard from are opposed to cutting the Sheriff’s budget. They are outraged that people and organizations from outside our city are dictating to Council how to run our city. The narrative that we can have ‘either Sheriff’s or social services,’ or ‘either Sheriff’s or unarmed security teams’ is false.

“In my mind, this is an increase of safety services with 60 additional eyes on the street working directly with the residents and the sheriff and code compliance and our social services providers and two fewer deputies this fall,” Councilman John D’Amico told Fox News in a statement. 

Fox News also reported the budget will fund a cultural arts festival.

The crimes on the rise in West Hollywood include murder, rape, burglary, aggravated assault, arson, and human trafficking.

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