Los Angeles County District Attorney Election, 2024 (March 5 Nonpartisan Primary)

Gascón said he would reduce crime rates while also working to hold members of law enforcement who broke the law accountable for their actions. Gascón said he had reduced violent crime rates while also reducing racial disparities in sentencing and making less use of prison time in every leadership position he had held.

Gascón said he was part of a larger reform movement built on shared values including opposition to the death penalty, prohibiting the prosecution of minors as adults, and ensuring accountability when corporations or members of law enforcement break the law.

Gascón said his policies during his first term had promoted public safety: "The reality is that having thoughtful policies that hold people accountable, as we have, sending people to prison when they need to be locked up, but recognizing that prison cannot be the only one answer is what public safety is all about."

Public safety is the number one priority of the District Attorney. I will be seeking tougher sentences on individuals who commit serious and violent crimes. I will impose bail as well as appropriate enhancements for weapons and hate crimes on an individualized basis to more effectively deter repeat offenders from harming communities across Los Angeles County. We are not safer now than we were 3 years ago when the current DA took office, which is why I have decided to run to replace him.

Under my administration, victims will receive their day in court in a fair and timely manner. I will seek to restore critical law enforcement partnerships so that these agencies will respond to calls and present cases to the DA's Office for filing consideration. I will restore the Office's headcount to clear the backlog of 14,000 cases that currently leaves both victims and defendants in limbo. DAs will once again be allowed to advocate on behalf of victims including, but not limited to, appearing at parole board hearings, if necessary. I will work to eliminate blanket policies because the current "one-size-fits-all" approach to criminal justice does not work.

It is inhumane to allow people to live under tarps and tents on the streets of LA County, particularly when many homeless Angelenos are women and children. As DA, I pledge to meaningfully address crime committed both by and against people living on the streets. “Justice for all” means swiftly intervening when violent criminals commit armed assault, human trafficking, sex crimes, and more within homeless encampments, just as the DA would for crimes committed in wealthy neighborhoods. Further, I will advocate for mandatory drug treatment programs when appropriate, and I will prosecute drug dealers. I will also advocate for treatment that better serves the needs of mentally ill defendants, including alternatives such as CARE Court.

My top priority is keeping our communities safe, and to prosecute serious crimes to increase public safety and accountability, including: - Prioritize the prosecution of gun crimes and firearm trafficking to keep our neighborhoods safe. - Use the role of District Attorney to promote strong and sensible gun policies nationwide. - Prosecute "smash and grab" robberies to protect the public, workers, and businesses. - Ensure zero tolerance for public corruption. - Enhance the office’s civil rights prosecutions. Ensure constitutional treatment of those who have law enforcement encounters, and of those who exercise the right to protest.

I will also prioritize criminal justice reform, because mass incarceration does not work. That includes: - Promoting alternative sentencing options, when appropriate, including restorative justice courts and diversion programs. - Increasing education and rehabilitative programs in the jails to provide an off ramp away from the criminal justice system to those who want and need it. - Advancing policing reforms and ensure law enforcement is held accountable when there is misconduct. - Promoting community safety partnerships between law enforcement and neighborhood leaders and institutions. - Bringing together stakeholders in the criminal justice system to find common ground to address the biggest challenges we face, including mental health.

I elected, I will bring new leadership to the DA's office, by: - ending the infighting and dysfunction in the DA’s office, by providing new leadership, and advance guidelines, policies and initiatives in a collaborative way with the office’s talented and experienced prosecutors and staff. - improving hiring and retention to fill the hundreds of vacancies of prosecutors and improve office morale. Ensure the DA’s office and its leadership reflects the diversity of LA County. - Promoting cooperation between federal and local law enforcement in the county, and among all local prosecuting offices in the county, including the U.S. Attorney’s office and the LA City Attorney’s office, in order to ensure fair prosecutions and efficiency.

Public Safety: I will be a DA who prioritizes public safety, prosecutes violent crime, but also has a heart for our community. I will protect children, families and vulnerable victims; provide equal justice for all; follow and enforce the law; fairly charge allegations, special circumstances, and enhancements which we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt; case-by-case thorough and fair analysis of criminal cases instead of blanket policies or a one size fits all approach; prosecute fentanyl dealers, gun violence, organized retail theft and street takeovers; non-violent mental health, addiction, homeless and veteran’s issues will be towards rehabilitation first by supporting veteran’s court, collaborative courts, diversion and care courts.

2. Transparency, Accountability and Real Reforms. A truly transparent DA’s office that holds wrongdoers accountable for their crime, but also works for the community, holds politicians and law enforcement equally accountable if they commit crimes, prioritizes public safety, prosecutes violent crime, collaborates with law enforcement and includes them on our justice team, and also institutes and promotes rehabilitation and reforms for our mental health community, drug & alcohol disease community, homeless & veteran’s community and the juvenile justice system.

Support Victims and Survivors and Ensure professional opportunity and a stable and caring workplace for all employees of LADA by: • Hiring more Prosecutors, DA Investigators and Support staff • Promoting more Prosecutors, DA Investigators and Support Staff • Obtaining more employee parking, better working conditions, and work-from home accommodations, • Hiring a more diverse workforce • Hiring more victim advocates and supporting victims of crime and Marsy’s Law by fully attending parole hearings • Creating more programs for mental health issues, drug and alcohol disease issues, juvenile justice, diversion, homeless and veterans.

Crime & Public Safety: Under DA Gascón, Los Angeles County has become a haven for criminals. When the DA won’t do his job, criminals take note, and the law-abiding citizens, typically those in more vulnerable and minority communities, suffer the most. I want to restore accountability, justice, safety, and security in LA County, and restore the people’s trust in the DA’s office to get the job done. I will reverse Gascon’s pro-criminal blanket policies with the “hard middle” approach. This approach focuses on individualized analyses of cases to determine appropriate action, given the evidence and law. I would also reverse policies prohibiting prosecutors from accompanying victims at parole hearings.

Fentanyl: Fentanyl, a drug 50 times stronger than heroin, is responsible for over half of drug overdose deaths in LA County and is murdering hundreds of children a year. It kills indiscriminately across political, geographic, racial, ethnic, religious, and socio-economic lines. Gascón has failed to treat fentanyl poisoners, including serial offenders, as murderers or even adopt the “Alexandra warning” to be given to convicted fentanyl dealers that if they do the crime again and someone dies, they may be charged with murder. On Day One, I will launch a massive local-state-federal task force to combat fentanyl poisoners and simultaneously launch a huge educational effort targeted to children and their parents on the perils of fentanyl.

Homelessness: The homelessness crisis is one of the most visible failures of leadership. The DA’s Office needs to change the trajectory of addressing LA’s homeless challenges by partnering with law enforcement, municipal agencies, the CARE courts, non-profit organizations, as well as local stakeholders and community leaders, to work on effective programs to help break the spiraling downward cycle of the homeless, over 70% of whom suffer from serious mental illness, substance abuse disorder, or both.

Drop the hammer on all property crimes including robbery and burglary.

Make LA County residents feel safe again in LA.

Get LA safe and clean for the 2028 Olympics.

Secure LA's Future: Restore Public Safety

Prioritize Victims' Rights

Ensure Accountability and Promote Proportional Justice

Public safety is my highest priority. Dangerous and violent perpetrators of crime must be removed from the community. Criminals whose criminality is rooted in addiction and mental illness, provided the community is not endangered, must receive effective treatment.

Sanctions for criminal conduct must be imposed after a careful review of the facts that gave rise to a case, the characteristics of the perpetrator, and the impact the crime had upon the victim. No two crimes are identical. No two perpetrators are identical. Repeat offenders obviously need to be treated differently than those with no criminal history.

Addiction and mental illness must be addressed. These conditions are at the root of most5 property crimes and many crimes of violence. These conditions also account for the high recidivism rates that exist. I will work tirelessly to ensure that effective programs and monitoring take place to break the cycle of criminality.

The current district attorney has lost the public’s trust and support. From day one, I will work to earn it back. That begins with public safety. I will implement an actionable violence reduction strategy focused on evidence-based practices. I will build a division within the Bureau of Investigation, the D.A.'s law enforcement arm, to act as clearinghouse to collect and analyze information and coordinate resources to prosecute the drivers of crime. This strategy recognizes that a small fraction of criminals cause a disproportionate percentage of violent crime. By concentrating resources on those individuals, we can drastically reduce violence while minimizing negative community impacts associated with increased incarceration.

We will expand the homeless court model developed by Redondo Beach City Attorney Mike Webb. This model provides a path to ensure that the unhoused receive the necessary resources from the most basic, like identification cards so that they can apply for services, to tacking more complex problems like mental health and drug rehabilitation, and providing supportive housing. The final goal is permanent housing. While this will not eliminate our homelessness crisis, this model is a manner in which the DA's office can proactively engage in a productive way.

If we want to effectively deal with the mentally ill who are violent, we need to build a mental health infrastructure. For more than a decade, a plan to build critical and safe treatment facilities has gone nowhere because no one has shown the political courage to move it forward. As a result, Los Angeles County does not have the infrastructure to humanely treat the mentally ill. I will make this a priority and lead the charge to build a new County facility 3500-bed facility to house and treat violent individuals with mental health conditions, instead of relying on jails or releasing them back into the community.