This article was co-published in collaboration by L.A. TACO and LA Public Press.
Los Angeles County supervisors postponed a vote on Tuesday over a proposal to formally identify gangs and “secret subgroups” operating within the sheriff’s department.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) implemented a policy in 2024 prohibiting deputies from participating in gangs and hate groups, to comply with state law. Yet Supervisor Holly Mitchell identified deputy gangs as a “persistent issue” in her motion on Tuesday.
Mitchell’s motion drew the support of more than 50 community organizers and families affected by deputy gang violence, who rallied outside the board of supervisors building in Downtown L.A. and later packed into the meeting.
Wearing a shirt with a photo of her son’s face, bloodied and beaten, Vanessa Perez spoke at the rally before the vote, calling the motion a step in the right direction to bring transparency to the existence of deputy gangs.
In July 2020, her son, Joseph Perez, was stopped by sheriff’s deputies on suspicion of breaking into a car. In attempting to arrest him, seven deputies beat Joseph Perez to the point that his face and neck required 30 staples to close his wounds. Two of the seven deputies were later identified as members of the “Industry Indians.”
The gang, based out of the City of Industry, was publicly unknown until 2024. It wasn’t until the department’s investigation into a brawl between off-duty deputies and a group of teenagers outside a Montclair bowling alley that a deputy and a sergeant in the group identified themselves as members of the gang.
Despite two deputies self-identifying themselves as tattooed members of the “Industry Indians,” a 2024 report by the Los Angeles County Office of the Inspector General (OIG) into the department’s compliance with state law found that the sheriff’s department “didn’t meaningfully attempt to identify membership of the group or investigate whether the group has engaged in a pattern of conduct that violates the law.”
In December 2025, the department told the OIG that no deputy gangs or subgroups have been identified within the department.
“Deputy gangs cannot continue to be a conversation that only happens behind closed doors — because we all know what comes from those closed conversations is nothing,” Vanessa Perez said. “I know this because this is our real lives.”
Deputy gangs have operated in L.A. County for decades.
Since 1973, at least 27 gangs or subgroups have been identified through lawsuits and reports compiled by the department’s independent oversight bodies. The gangs have operated out of patrol stations and inside the county’s jails, giving themselves names like the “Banditos,” “Regulators,” and “Lynwood Vikings.”
Members often don tattoos with their gang’s logo. The “Compton Executioners” tattoo depicts a skeleton sporting a helmet and holding a rifle with flames in the background. The tattoo is reportedly earned when a deputy kills a civilian while on duty.
In February 2025, the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission subpoenaed the department, requesting use-of-force reports from the Perez incident, along with personnel records and other documents related to a shooting and another beating from the department, but the county counsel refused. In June 2026, the oversight commission sued the department to release the records.
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna told the board Tuesday that he acknowledged the existence of deputy gangs and that his administration has “done more about this challenge in the last three and a half years than anyone else in our history.”
“At all levels, I have been very clear: I do not and will not tolerate gang like behavior or participation in a law enforcement gang,” Luna said.
The board voted 5-1, with Supervisor Mitchell casting the lone "no" vote, to delay the motion for another 45 days while it awaits a report from the Los Angeles County CEO.
The report would include information on which provisions in the motion require LA County to meet with Sheriff’s Department employee labor associations.
Mitchell’s motion would require the sheriff, County Counsel, the Office of Inspector General, and the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission to identify any patterns that identify deputy gangs and cliques. This includes recurring names, symbols, and allegations or investigations within specific locations or units.
It would also require multiple county departments and commissions to collaborate on a framework to hold deputies in gangs or subgroups accountable.
Janet Asante, who leads Justice L.A., a coalition of organizations and individuals working to close the county’s jails and reallocate the money into the community, said the motion is long overdue. It’s a problem that's plagued the department for years but little has been done.
“There has not been a single deputy gang member who’s been held accountable despite us seeing tattoos, despite us having this evidence,” Asante said. “It’s not just about knowing them. It’s about doing something about them.”
