As most readers know, in early January, 2021, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors announced that, after a nationwide search, the board had hired a new chief to run the nation’s largest, and arguably most complicated probation department.
New LA County Chief of Probation Adolfo Gonzales
Adolfo Gonzales, the new chief, was previously the head of San Diego’s probation department, where he was known as a strong reformer, particularly when it came to the youth side of probation.
Probation staff members in Los Angeles who have met Chief Gonzalez tell WitnessLA that they are optimistic about the department’s new leader. Yet, in the past two weeks, those same probation sources expressed concern that many of the new chief’s biggest challenges will be dealing with problems that are still being created by some of the members of probation’s upper management.