Skip to main content

Do Inspectors and Lawyers Need to Pack Heat?

Support Provided By
KCEToffgun.jpg

A state Senate investigation finds over 100 members of the state Office of Inspector General, charged with investigating state prisons, armed and perked as full-fledged "peace officers" for no apparent good reason.

Details on the costs of this practice from the Sacramento Bee:

The Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes found that two-thirds of the OIG's 150 employees carry a badge and gun. New lawyer and inspector hires go through 150 hours of law enforcement training and each receive $2,000 worth of equipment, including a gun and body armor. No one at OIG has fired a gun or arrested anyone while on assignment in five years.The peace officer jobs come with state-paid cars that the report says have been used mostly for work commutes. Inspector General David Shaw said that the perks, including the enhanced pension benefits that peace officers receive, help recruit employees to distasteful jobs evaluating prison conditions. Still, in a cost-cutting move, the office has ordered some staffers to turn in their guns and cars. The job classifications - and pensions that go with them - aren't changing.

More details from California Watch on the expense and the pointlessness:

The state's top prison watchdog has spent tens of thousands of dollars arming its auditors and lawyers with semiautomatic weapons and body armor under a "questionable" rationale that "presumes gun-toting auditors and lawyers will engage in police functions such as hand-to-hand combat and high-speed pursuits," according to a report released yesterday by the state Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes....Among other things, the report found that although no OIG peace officer has fired a gun or made an arrest in five years, the office spent more than $36,000 last year on ammunition, plus thousands more on weapons and training. One OIG staffer shot himself while putting in required time at the firing range.....

The state Attorney General's office, meanwhile, classifies fewer than five of its 1,150 or so lawyers as peace officers, and only one is armed.

The L.A. Times has the specifics on the pension benefits of being a peace officer vs. a mere lawyer for the state:

The biggest benefit of peace officer status is the pension. Most public employees are eligible to collect 2% of their annual salary, multiplied by the number of years they worked, starting at age 55. As an acknowledgement of the risks inherent in their jobs, police and firefighters can start collecting 3% of their annual salary, multiplied by the number of years worked, at age 50.

The full reportfrom the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes.

Past City of Angles blogging on the California's general overgenerous pension problems.

Image taken by Flickr user Alexis Reilly. Used under user Creative Commonslicense.

Support Provided By
Read More
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.