Los Santos County Sheriff's Department
The Los Santos County Sheriff's Department (LSSD) is a faction based off of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), that seeks to emulate the often-overlooked facets of American Law Enforcement. The premier goal of the Los Santos County Sheriff's Department is to provide quality police and correctional roleplay.
The primary emphasis in membership with this faction is character development through realistic roleplay & portrayal, with a high standard to ensure quality retention. Further, it is imperative for one to understand that this faction seeks to improve the quality of the server's criminal justice atmosphere - by providing services directly related, or affiliated to items such as court services, civil process, warrants, detention & custody through the county jail, inmate services, and much more.
We hope to establish a long & productive partnership with all members of the GTAW roleplay community, and shall always strive to maintain a constant dialogue through the efforts of this faction.
History
The Los Santos County Sheriff's Department was established in 1850 shortly after the Mexican-American War. After the founding of the independent San Andreas Republic and the voluntary annexation by the United States, law enforcement was subsumed under the Los Santos Rangers (which became the Los Santos Police Department) and the Los Santos Sheriff.] The "frontier era" of Los Santos saw the worst era of organized crime in the county, as the gold rush brought a massive population explosion and crime. The Union Pacific Railroad Company brought another explosion, and it caused a string of 15 Sheriffs, several of which were killed in gunfights, to enter a veritable revolving door. Up until after the civil war, the Sheriff's Department consisted of the Sheriff and cronies as deputies.
In the early 1900s, the Sheriff's Department officially became an actual institution of permanent individuals rather than the Sheriff and his posse. It was not until 1930 when deputies formally adopted uniforms and jails were administered by the Sheriff's Department. During the 1930s, the Sheriff's Department assisted the Los Santos Police Department in the "red squad" era, notably attacking the Socialist Party of America and breaking up union-organized events.
In 1947, the Sheriff's Department hired the first female Deputy Sheriff within the nation.
The 1950s to the 1970s saw the most turbulent era of operation within the Sheriff's Department, especially during the infamous 1961 Davis Race Riots. The Sheriff's Department assisted the LSPD in quelling the large-scale civil unrest, but it was one of the most massive events of the era up until the 1992 Jim Queen riots.
Former Sheriff Peter "Pico" Collins headed the department from 2009 until his downfall in 2017. During Collins' reign corruption was rampant and close-knight deputy gangs were prominent. Within the ranks of the county's finest were individuals keen to oppress less fortunate individuals in the county jail system and rural towns. Following whistle-blower tips, an ACLU lawsuit brought down the Sheriff after the FBI took interest as part of their public corruption mandate. Pico and his Undersheriff were both sentenced to federal prison.
Following a brief hiatus mandated by the Federal Department of Justice, Patrick Machado won the seat as Los Santos County Sheriff after a special election was held. Almost immediately after swearing into office, Sheriff Machado ordered the re-opening of the Twin Towers Los Santos County Jail to massively aid the growing overcrowding issue of the region's detention facilities.
In August 2020, a massive public outcry demanded the resignation of Sheriff Machado following several days of demonstrations and riots after deputies were accused of racially motivated misconduct. Sheriff Machado stepped down from the position of Sheriff and was immediately replaced by acting Sheriff Richard Washington, the first African American Sheriff of Los Santos County. Following his swearing in as the interim Sheriff, Washington has promised to continue to root out corruption and misconduct in the Department, specifically targeting the rampant problem of "deputy gangs" who are allegedly involved in activities such as extortion, assaults, and extensive coverups of police misconduct.
Elections for the new Sheriff were held in September 2020 as planned before Sheriff Machado's resignation. Interim Sheriff Washington did not decide to run and instead urged his Undersheriff, Dale Kelly to run for office in his place. Dale Kelly was elected without any opposition and officially assumed the office at the 1st of October, 2020. After Kelly's promotion, Washington opted to stay around in his old position of Undersheriff.
Personnel
The Los Santos County Sheriff's Department is the second largest law enforcement faction on the server with an ever-growing number of both civilian staff and sworn employees. There are approximately 184 members; around 181 sworn deputy members and 3 non-sworn members as of the 15th of June, 2021.
LSSD deputies provide quality law enforcement role-play to a wide demographic and community in the server.
List of Sheriffs
Main article: List of Los Santos County Sheriffs
Rank structure
| Title | Insignia | |
|---|---|---|
| Sheriff | 
|
|
| Undersheriff | 
| |
| Assistant Sheriff | 
| |
| Chief (Division Chief) | 
| |
| Commander (Area Commander) | 
| |
| Captain | 
| |
| Lieutenant |  | |
| Sergeant |  | |
| Deputy Sheriff (Bonus II)
(Master Field Training Officer) |
 | |
| Deputy Sheriff (Bonus I+II)
(Field Training Officer + other assignments in Bureaus & Details) |
 | |
| Deputy Sheriff
(Patrol Deputy, Line Deputy + other assignments in Bureaus & Details) |
||
| Deputy Sheriff Trainee
(Non-sworn, academy rank) |
Service weapons
Members of the faction role-play using many types of service pistols such as the Glock 17, Berreta 92FS, and the Heckler & Koch HK45, however, the most common gun role-played is the Smith & Wesson M&P9 (Military & Police). This is due to the fact that the LASD, the real-life equivalent of what the LSSD is attempting to portray, uses that as their department-issued handgun. Additionally, there are many other guns used in various other scenarios such as the Colt LE6940, Heckler & Koch 416, Remington 870P, and the Mossberg 590A1.
Services provided
County Jail
The Los Santos County Sheriff's Department offers several county jails, also may be known as detention facilities. The current one that is in-game that is also based on the real-life equivalent is the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, however, there are many more county jails available that the Los Santos County Sheriff's Department roleplays running but they are role-played as offmap locations.
The Twin Towers Correctional Facility, also known as the Twin Towers Jail, is the primary facility for all individuals initially processed within Los Santos County. The facility is 1.5 million square feet and opened in 1997, making it one of the most modern facilities the Los Santos Sheriff's Department operates. After the North Los Santos Earthquake damaged the Halls of Justice, the project for a new county jail facility was started. Alongside the Men's Central Jail facility (offmap) in downtown Los Santos, the facility ranked as one of the ten worst jails within the United States by national magazines. The jail is utterly overcrowded due to state-wide mandates for court reorganizations, with many state prisoners staying in the jail system for prolonged periods of time while awaiting trial, release, or processing. The jail functions both as a pre-trial facility and state prison, as many inmates abuse the courts to stay in jail rather than enter the San Andreas Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (SADCR) institutions.
Special Weapons Team
WIP
Detective Bureau
WIP
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Controversies and misconduct
JULY, 2020 — Deputies Nathan Tavares and Ellis Kane were the main individuals responsible for erupting the Los Santos Riots of 2020. Allegedly Deputy Nathan Tavares had been asked by Davis locals to request a supervisor to a scene. Right after it was heard that Nathan Tavares had made a racist comment, which spiked huge controversy within the department. On July the fifth an Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) investigation had been posted on the duo. On July the sixth the investigation concluded by the Los Santos County Sheriff's Department's Internal Affairs Bureau and both deputies were discharged for gross misconduct and significantly harming community relations between the department and the citizens of Los Santos.
Following the conflict between law enforcement and the anguished citizens of Los Santos it had pressured then-Sheriff Patrick Machado to resign from his post, subsequently handing it to Richard Washington, the first African American Sheriff of Los Santos County.
