Municipal Police Departments
Los Angeles County

Los Angeles Police Department vehicle on street in Downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles Almanac Photo.

In 2024, 17% of sworn municipal police officers in Los Angeles County are female. In the LAPD alone, 19% of officers are female. The departments with the largest percentage of female officers is San Marino PD and Whittier PD, each boasting with 21 percent of their officers being female. In the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, 19% of deputies are female.

For cities not listed below, see Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

* Law enforcement employee counts (as of October 31, 2024), submitted by agencies.
(1) Based on 2024 population estimates. See General Estimated Population by City in Los Angeles County.
(2) Officers are assigned from Whittier Police Dept., as agreed in contract with the City of Whittier for police services.
(3) Of this number, 34 officers are assigned to contracted police duties in the city of Santa Fe Springs.
(4) Assuming that 34 Whittier PD officers are assigned to full-time duties outside the city as part of the police services contract with Santa Fe Springs.

Source: California Office of the Attorney General, Open Justice Data (Law Enforcement Personnel)

All Los Angeles County municipalities not listed above contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for police services. The only city without its own native police department listed above is the City of Santa Fe Springs, which contracts with the neighboring City of Whittier for police services. It was in 1995 when Santa Fe Springs became the first municipality in Los Angeles County to contract with a neighborhing city for police services.

In 2010, in an unprecedented move by any California city, the City of Maywood disbanded almost all municipal departments and services, including the Maywood Police Department. The city council was forced to do this in response to cancellation of the city's workman's compensation and commercial insurance coverage by the California Joint Powers Insurance Authority (JPIA), due to a poor claims history from 2005 to 2010. These claims included a number of expensive lawsuits against the police department (the department was reported to hire officers fired by other law enforcement agencies). After dismissing the police department, the city had to contract with the the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for police services. Incidentally, Maywood Police Department itself had been contracted to provide police services contract to the neighboring City of Cudahy since 2003, after Cudahy cancelled its own contract with the Sheriff's Department. With the disbanding of the Maywood Police Department, Cudahy again had to contract with the Sheriff.

In July 2000, after long, bitter contention between Compton City Council and the Compton Police Department, the council voted to disband the department and contract with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for police services. The council cited financial savings. Members of the department attributed the move to a vendetta against the department.

In 1997, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department, responsible for police services for much of the bus and rail public transit in Los Angeles County, was disbanded and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority contracted with the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Of the more than 300 police officers working for MTA, 60 percent were then absorbed by the LAPD and the remaining number absorbed by the Sheriff's Department. LAPD assumed police services for transit lines within the city of Los Angeles and the Sheriff's Department for MTA lines operating outside Los Angeles.

In 1995, the City of Hawaiian Gardens discontinued its contract with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to form Los Angeles County’s newest police department, beginning with 20 officers. A few years later, however, faced with a budget crisis, the City Council voted, over objections of residents, to disband the department and re-establish a contract with the Sheriff.

Many police departments in Los Angeles County use reserve officers -- officers who perform part-time law enforcement duties.