2018 primary election

Villanueva announced his campaign for sheriff of Los Angeles County on June 28, 2017,^[16] promising to "reform, rebuild and restore" the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department by "reforming the organization around the principles of community policing and ethical standards of conduct."^[15] He competed against incumbent Sheriff McDonnell and retired Commander Bob Lindsey. Villanueva received 33% of the vote, to McDonnell's 47%, and Lindsey's 19%. Villanueva and McDonnell advanced to the general election runoff.

2018 general election

Villanueva won the general election on November 4, 2018, with 53% to 47% for McDonnell. Villanueva was the first person in 104 years to unseat a sitting sheriff of Los Angeles County. Though the election is non-partisan, he was also the first Democrat to win the sheriff's seat in 138 years.^[17] He describes himself as "a Democrat of the party of JFK and FDR."^[18]

2022 general election

Villanueva lost his bid for reelection in 2022 to Robert Luna by a margin of 61% to 39%.^[19] The race focused on issues that included alleged deputy gangs, lack of oversight, and allegations of internal harassment and retaliation against purported whistleblowers.

Accountability and transparency

Numerous bodies in Los Angeles County and California have clashed with Villanueva over the accountability of the Sheriff's office. Following several occasions during which the sheriff refused to appear before them, the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission called on Villanueva to resign in October 2020.^[23] In January 2021, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra launched a civil rights investigation of the LA County Sheriff's Department which sought to determine whether the LASD has engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing, following allegations of excessive force, retaliation, and other misconduct.^[24]

In 2022, a LASD commander filed legal papers accusing Villanueva of obstructing an investigation into a 2021 incident where a police deputy kneeled on a handcuffed inmate’s head, as well as retaliating against whistleblowers.^[25] In response, Villanueva held a press conference and presented a graphic with arrows linking an LA Times reporter, a political rival, and the sheriff department's inspector general, stating that all were subject to a probe, later clarifying on Twitter that the reporter was not being criminally charged.^[26]

Deputy gangs

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has a long history with deputy gangs, some of which have been accused of violence.^[27] One of the most prominent such groups is the "Banditos" at East Los Angeles Sheriff Station.^[28][29] On his first day in office, Villanueva removed the captain of East Los Angeles Sheriff Station and transferred 36 deputies away from the station. Ultimately, 22 deputies were suspended for misconduct and four were terminated.^[28] Despite this, reports have surfaced from organizations like the RAND Corporation that deputy gangs persist, documenting at least four groups in the Sheriff's Department that still remain active as of 2021.^[30] In 2022, an investigation was launched into alleged gang activity within the LASD, by Inspector General Max Huntsman.

Handling of the Tiger Woods Crash

Within hours of Tiger Woods’ February 2021 crash in Rolling Hills Estates, Sheriff Villanueva announced that the crash was purely an accident. Woods was traveling twice the speed limit in the middle of a clear day when he totaled the SUV he was driving.^[31] He had an empty, unlabeled pill bottle in the vehicle. No blood or alcohol tests were performed at the scene of the accident nor at the hospital. Villanueva stated he was not under the influence of any substance, and so no tests were warranted.^[32]

Death of Kobe Bryant

In January 2020, former Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. Within several weeks, the department learned that a deputy at the scene had shared a photo of the accident scene with an unauthorized person at a local bar.^[33] Department policy at the time did not prohibit such an act. Villanueva created a new policy to ban such behavior, and supported Senate Bill 2655^[34] to ban and criminalize the unauthorized taking or distribution of photos at accident scenes by first responders.^[35][8][36]

COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Villanueva declined to enforce vaccine requirements for LASD staff.^[37]

Heliport

Department officials conducted a threat assessment in August 2020 to identify risks to the sheriff’s safety. They began work on an emergency helicopter landing pad on private property above his home in 2021 to be able to quickly extract him. County attorneys received a cease-and-desist letter from Southern California Gas that owned the property and had not given written consent for the grading and installation of the landing pad. The department also did not seek a required permit from the state for construction of an emergency use helipad.^[38]

Body cameras

In September 2020, Villanueva secured $35 million in funding from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to implement a body-worn camera program across the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.^[39] Though the LASD was one of the first law enforcement agencies in the nation to test body-worn camera technology, prior sheriffs had failed to implement such a system.^[40]

Removing immigration agents from Los Angeles County jails

In his first week in office, Villanueva followed through on a campaign promise^[41] to direct the removal of federal immigration agents from Los Angeles County jails, court facilities, and patrol stations.^[42]

During his 2018 campaign, Villanueva promised to end the "pipeline to deportation" built upon the sheriff's department's cooperation and financial ties with federal immigration authorities. In August 2018, Villanueva instituted a permanent moratorium^[43] on transferring undocumented immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.^[44]

From 2005 to 2018, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and Board of Supervisors accepted $122,189,627 from the United States Government in exchange for a database of inmates without proof of valid immigration status. Villanueva suspended the department's participation in this program immediately after taking office, describing the cash payments as "blood money".^[45][46]