The city of West Hollywood in Los Angeles County voted to take funding away from the sheriff's department amid a continued increase in crime in the area.
The cut in budget for the next two fiscal years means West Hollywood will have five fewer sheriff's deputies on patrol, while the city council approved more funding for a cultural arts festival. The vote was 3-2, with Mayor Lauren Meister voting against decreasing funding for the sheriff's department.
"I'm not going to vote for the budget if we cut the sheriff's [funds]," Meister said during the vote, according to WeHoville. "First of all, nobody has the gun problem that we have in this country. You can't expect us to have a public safety team where most of the people aren't armed in order to defend our citizens."
"Most of the residents and businesses I have heard from are opposed to cutting the Sheriff's budget," Meister told Fox News in a statement. "They are outraged that people and organizations from outside our city are dictating to Council how to run our city. The narrative that we can have 'either Sheriff's or social services,' or 'either Sheriff's or unarmed security teams' is false."
Mayor Pro Tem Sepi Shyne led the effort to slash the department budget in an effort to re-imagine policing.
"What we know now is our residents want foot patrols. We need to be fiscally responsible And we have all talked for two years. Reimagining policing means reallocating funding. You can't just say it without actually doing it. Period," she said.
The money will be going toward funding more unarmed security guards for the city's Block by Block program.
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