Uploaded April 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
As April comes to a close, we at @LSDHQ Celebrate our 173rd Anniversary.
From our humble beginnings in 1850, the department functioned with minimal personnel consisting of the elected Sheriff, one Deputy Sheriff, and one Jailer.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was responsible for law enforcement from as far North as Santa Barbara to as far South as San Diego.
At the time, the official Sheriff’s Office was not in any type of official building, rather the Sheriff’s Office operated out of a single room located at the Bella Union Hotel. Which today would be located near Main and Temple streets of downtown Los Angeles.
The L.A. County Jail was nothing more than a small adobe building which sat atop Fort Moore Hill.
The first decade of the Sheriff’s Department were some of the most turbulent times in department history.
Sheriff Barton and Sheriff Getman were both killed in the line of duty trying to keep the peace in Los Angeles. The City of L.A. was then known as one of the most violent cities in the U.S.
By the 1920’s the Sheriff’s Department progressed from a frontier town style office to one of the most modern and well-respected Law Enforcement Department’s in the United States.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department became and still maintains its status of innovators in police science, aviation, and investigative techniques.
The Department has continued to build on its original foundation from 1850, and currently stands as the largest Sheriff’s Department in the world
As April comes to a close, we at @LSDHQ Celebrate our 173rd Anniversary.
From our humble beginnings in 1850, the department functioned with minimal personnel consisting of the elected Sheriff, one Deputy Sheriff, and one Jailer.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was responsible for law enforcement from as far North as Santa Barbara to as far South as San Diego.
At the time, the official Sheriff’s Office was not in any type of official building, rather the Sheriff’s Office operated out of a single room located at the Bella Union Hotel. Which today would be located near Main and Temple streets of downtown Los Angeles.
The L.A. County Jail was nothing more than a small adobe building which sat atop Fort Moore Hill.
The first decade of the Sheriff’s Department were some of the most turbulent times in department history.
Sheriff Barton and Sheriff Getman were both killed in the line of duty trying to keep the peace in Los Angeles. The City of L.A. was then known as one of the most violent cities in the U.S.
By the 1920’s the Sheriff’s Department progressed from a frontier town style office to one of the most modern and well-respected Law Enforcement Department’s in the United States.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department became and still maintains its status of innovators in police science, aviation, and investigative techniques.
The Department has continued to build on its original foundation from 1850, and currently stands as the largest Sheriff’s Department in the world
