LA County Sheriff's Department set to lose 4K employees for vaccine noncompliance

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The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is pushing back ahead of a vote that could cost the department 4,000 employees who have yet to comply with COVID-19 vaccination rules.

"These are the same law enforcement professionals, fire professionals, medical & health care professionals, mental health professionals, and others who we called HERO’s just a short time ago," the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department posted on Twitter Monday. "Call the Board meeting tomorrow to share your public safety concerns and stop this social experimentation!"

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Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva

At issue is a vote being held by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to terminate the employment of 18,000 employees who have not complied with COVID-19 vaccination requirements, 4,000 of which belong to the Sheriff's Department.

Los Angles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has been a vocal critic of the county's vaccine mandate, arguing that the termination of so many Sheriff's Department employees would be a threat to public safety.

A vial of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

Over 3,000 of the 4,000 department employees who face termination are sworn deputies, a reality the Sheriff's department said "would be detrimental to the safety of residents of Los Angeles County."

The board of supervisors implemented the vaccination mandate in August, arguing that it was critical to "keep the public and employees safe" and an "essential public health measure intended to protect employees and the public we serve.''

The vote comes almost a month after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from 13 Los Angeles Police Department employees over the city's vaccine requirement, which required all city employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by October.

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Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

"The Supreme Court has long rejected a fundamental right to refuse vaccination," the judge in that case wrote. "There is also no fundamental right to continued governmental employment."