News

WitnessLA2d
May your 4th of July weekend be a safe one, and may you find joy.
It’s already been an unusual July 4, weekend as LA County Parks and Recreation cancelled a number of celebrations out of concern for potential ICE raids. Organizers for the Gloria Molina Grand Park ...
WitnessLA16d
Three judges from the 9th Circuit weigh in on the Trump v. Newsom battle over CA’s National Guard
The matter came to the Ninth after District Judge Charles Breyer issued a temporary restraining order requiring the president to return control of approximately 4,000 California National Guard troops ...
Witness LA3mon
A controversial prosecution, a series of threats, & the struggle to provide genuine oversight for the nation’s largest sheriff’s department – Part 1
On Thursday, March 20, 2025, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna attended the monthly meeting of the county’s Sheriff’s Civilian Oversight Commission—or COC. The sheriff was scheduled to give a ...
Witness LA3mon
LA County Probation Presents “Global Plan” for Housing Youth in Halls and Camps
Two years ago, on March 7, 2023, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors directed the LA County Probation Department to develop what they called a “Global Plan” to reorganize and move incarcerated ...
Witness LA9mon
Don’t shield private foster care agencies from accountability for abuse
The “crisis” facing Foster Family Agencies is an opportunity for real reform Recent developments in California and New York make it clear: Foster care is now known to be so harmful to children—and ...
Witness LA11mon
Is it time for the feds to investigate wrongdoing in the LA County’s jails—again?
On December 9, 2013, slightly more than a decade from today, the The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, filed five criminal cases for a total of 18 indictments against ...
Witness LA1y
Why does LASD Lt. Eric Strong—now LA County Probation’s Chief of Safety & Security—appear to keep breaking the law?
When last year Los Angeles County Sheriff’s lieutenant Eric Strong was loaned to LA County Probation as their Chief Safety and Security Officer, not everyone was convinced it was a great idea to bring ...
Witness LA1y
LASD whistleblower takes her case to trial, while Villanueva testifies that deputy gangs don’t exist, & Sheriff Luna says there’s a new deputy gang
In May of 2022, WitnessLA reported in detail about how Walton was retaliated against for her unwillingness to go along with the provably false story that then Sheriff Villanueva told regarding a ...
Witness LA1y
A good California Supreme Court decision curbs the family police
A decision by the California Supreme Court sheds rare light on how family police agencies (a more accurate term than “child welfare” agencies) like the Los Angeles County Department of Children and ...
Witness LA2y
Punishing Families: The Need to Reimagine Child Welfare in LA County
Together, families of color made up at least 84.2 percent of the families whom DCFS decided needed intervention. Meanwhile, white kids comprised 20.2 percent of the county’s children, but made up 10.8 ...
Witness LA2y
Lack of Rural Lawyers Leaves Much of America Without Support, including some California counties
By Elaine S. Povich, staff writer, Stateline Editor’s note California, which has 168,000 lawyers, the second-most of any state in the nation, also has seven counties with less than one lawyer per ...
Witness LA2y
After Months of Uncertainty and Rising Jail Numbers, LA’s Office of Diversion and Reentry Gets Funding for 750 More Beds
For the past year and a half, the Los Angeles County Office of Diversion and Reentry’s housing programs have been operating at maximum capacity, meaning that ODR has been forced to turn away people ...