The allegations are the latest for a department that has struggled for years to address numerous examples of deputies in stations and county jails that form secretive, gang-like societies accused of committing abuses against inmates, fellow deputies and while on patrol. In July last year, then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell launched what he said would be a comprehensive study of cliques after a Compton station deputy involved in the fatal shooting of a black man testified he and as many as 20 of his colleagues had matching skull tattoos.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 07, 2019 18:43 UTC