Robert Olmsted, a 32-year sheriff's veteran who was the top jail commander when he retired late last year, tells the Los Angeles Times that he told superiors about shoddy deputy use-of-force investigations.
He also told them he was concerned about deputies forming aggressive cliques.
Olmsted says he was rebuffed by two superiors who told him it was impossible to change the deputy culture in the downtown jail.
The FBI is now investigating allegations of jailhouse brutality and misconduct.
Now, one of the department's top commanders says he did attempt to warn Baca that deputies were using excessive force against inmates, but was ignored. Robert Olmsted, a retired 32-year veteran, told The Times' Robert Faturechi and Jack Leonard that he tried to talk to Baca about his concerns twice in 2010 with little success. Olmsted was so troubled by the violence that he ordered an audit of use-of-force reports. He said he also alerted his bosses, but was told that jail culture couldn't be changed.
It's no surprise, then, that Baca is now blaming Olmsted for not doing more to address the violence. He didn't need to "ask for permission to solve the problem," Baca says. Never mind that a quasi-military organization like the Sheriff's Department is all about following the chain of command. Or that Baca is trying to have it both ways, suggesting that his command staff failed him by shielding him from the truth, and at the same time blaming Olmsted for not taking care of the problem on his own.
How many times can Baca plead ignorance? This is just the latest in a series of objectionable responses that calls into question whether he is capable of running, let alone reforming, the nation's largest jail system.
For the public to have confidence that Baca can improve the jails, he must take consistent responsibility for what goes on inside them. This is his crisis, not that of his subordinates. And its resolution will be his legacy, not theirs.
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