Eunisses Hernandez, a prominent Los Angeles lawmaker known for advocating a reduction in police funding, is making moves to take over the budget oversight of the LAPD.
Hernandez, alongside fellow councilor Hugo Soto-Martinez, is pushing to reallocate key auditing and accounting tasks from the LAPD to the city’s controller, who is aligned with socialist policies. This initiative aims to redefine how police expenditure is perceived and managed in the city.
This proposal comes on the heels of Hernandez consistently opposing the City Budget for the past three years, arguing that the allocations for the LAPD were excessively high.
As part of the plan, the City Attorney has been tasked with drafting legislation to shift these responsibilities from the LAPD to the Controller’s office.
Approved unanimously on Tuesday, the initiative will establish a “Bureau of Police Oversight” within the Controller’s Audit Services Division. This new bureau will grant Controller Kenneth Mejia significant authority to review and monitor the LAPD’s financial activities.
Both the LAPD and the police union have been reached out to for their perspectives on this development.
But the department would lose accountants and a team of “police performance auditors” tasked with reviewing department operations, spending patterns and internal reporting.
The plan would roll out in phases, mapping out staffing, setting priorities, and detailing how the Controller’s office would probe LAPD operations, all under the banner of “transparency” and “oversight.”
Los Angeles already has layers of police oversight in place, including LAPD’s own audit division, the independent Inspector General and the civilian Police Commission, all tasked with reviewing performance, spending and compliance.
Even the Controller already has the authority to audit LAPD finances.
The Controller’s office is traditionally responsible for auditing city departments, tracking spending, rooting out waste and issuing financial reports meant to keep City Hall accountable.
Under Mejia, that office has taken an aggressive approach, launching high-profile audits and public dashboards scrutinizing city spending, including police overtime.
Hernandez has built her political brand on slashing police presence and funding, a record the Post laid out on Sunday, detailing her long history of defunding rhetoric while still relying on LAPD officers for her own security at public events.
Police officials were present in council chambers as the motion advanced, but no councilmember called them up to testify, question the proposal or defend their department.
The proposal requires additional analysis on staffing, feasibility and cost before it comes back for a vote.
