Sheriff's Politics, Organized Crim & More - L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca talks about the challenge

June 25, 2005 -- According to Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca the politics of being Sheriff in one of the nation's largest counties is one where he often is challenged by elected officials from some 40 contract cities, the Metropolitian Transit Authority and nine Community Colleges when ever problems happen. On this Part-one of a two part Full Disclosure Network™ interview Baca tells Emmy Award winning host Leslie Dutton that unlike an appointed Police Chief he has flexibility as Sheriff to change policy, because he does not have to go through a chain of command, to a police commission or even a city council and mayor whenever problems happen.

The Baca interview, is to be released on cable channels & the Internet on Monday, June 27, 2005 A five minute streaming video preview will be featured on www.fulldisclosure.net .

Sheriff Baca was questioned about Russian organized crime in West Hollywood where the FBI has targeted investigations of Medi-Cal fraud and money laundering operations. Baca told Full Disclosure Network™ organized crime is a concern because L. A. County has the largest immigrant population in the United States. “Thus there is organized crime among the Russian communities, the Armenian, Middle Eastern and certainly in the Asian communities”.

Other issues discussed in-depth in this interview are:
- Federal Court mandates for hiring more women deputies
- Voluntary racial and ethnic data collection to deter racial profiling by deputies
- Special Order 40 and enforcement of Federal immigration laws
- Federal Government fails to pay for Sheriffs and Police incarcerating illegal immigrants

Part-two of this interview will be released the week of July 4 th on the Internet and on 40 cable systems. A listing of channels and airtimes can be found by community on the website.

The Full Disclosure Network™ cable and Internet television programs have focused on law enforcement policy at the local, state and national level for the past thirteen years. In 2002 a Special Series featuring Sheriff Baca, LAPD Chief Bernard Parks entitled “ L.A.'s War Against Terrorism” received a local Emmy Award for public affairs/informational programming from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.