Capt. Sergio Aloma, the head of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, has been promoted to the rank of commander and on Sunday will be charged with overseeing the Sheriff’s Department’s Custody Division in downtown Los Angeles.
Aloma’s promotion is one of many changes being made by newly elected Sheriff Alex Villanueva. His replacement has not yet been announced.
Aloma was named to the head the WeHo station in March 2017, replacing Holly Perez, who herself was promoted to commander at the Central Patrol Division after 12 months heading the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station.
Aloma had worked as operations lieutenant at the West Hollywood Station before being appointed as acting captain in October 2015 upon the resignation of Capt. Gary Honigs. At that point Aloma had spent 15 of his 30 years with the Sheriff’s Department working at the West Hollywood Station.
“West Hollywood is home to me; this station and this community, it’s home,” Aloma said when he was officially named captain. “I am beyond excited and humbled at the same time because I know this is not necessarily the normal progression. The fact that I get to stay here and command a station that is very special to me in a community that is very special to me is incredible. I’ve spent most of my career here. I feel very fortunate; my heart is here in West Hollywood . . . I’m looking forward to the challenges here.”
During his tenure as captain, Aloma continued to stage the monthly Coffee with Cops events, where residents were invited to meet with deputies at local coffee shops and restaurants. He also implemented efforts to step up engagement with homeless people, with Sheriff’s deputies working closely with other agencies as part of West Hollywood’s “Homeless Initiative.” Aloma also invited the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s Mental Evaluation Team to house some of its staff members at the West Hollywood Station, making it easier for Sheriff’s deputies to effectively respond to an issue involving a homeless person who apparently is mentally ill.
Aloma increased the Sheriff’s Station’s focus on crime on West Hollywood’s Eastside, where residents expressed concern about an increase in minor crimes that they attributed to homeless people.
Aloma is a graduate of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks and attended Cal State L.A. He was promoted to lieutenant in 2012. He lives in Simi Valley and is known for his skill as a runner. In recent years he has participated in a dozen races, include the San Francisco and Boston marathons, the Santa Monica Classic and the Rock ‘n Roll Los Angeles race.
Aloma also has worked as an off-campus coach with the Pioneer cross country team of Simi Valley High School, which his two sons have attended. His work with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department has included serving as a transit services officer and conducting searches with a drug-sniffing dog as well as educating students about the dangers of drug possession.
The new sheriff had a long time to “make his list of who’s naughty and who’s nice” and I do not trust his choices. We lost a good cop and good administer in the last election. As for the new captain – I sat on two orals boards in the distant past to choose captains for West Hollywood. In each case our recommendations were overridden by HQ. Politics everywhere. This station is a choice placement but we must remember who is the servant and who is the master(citizen) and demand the best service under the contract.
West Hollywood City Hall has final say on the Dept’s choice for Captain. Definitely a longer process than one that would be entirely internal to the Dept. And, it says a lot about the challenges of running the West Hollywood Station that 4 of our recent Captains have been promoted to Commander (Buddy Goldman, Kelly Frazier, Holly Perez, and now Sergio Aloma). Some of the largest events in L.A. County take place here (Pride, Halloween), and the Sheriff’s Dept is charged with keeping 300-500,000 people safe. No other area of the County has events of this scale, with the possible… Read more »
Its hard to have a community-oriented sheriff department when we get a new captain every two years. As soon as they settle in they get transferred. Our sheriff contract should allow for some basic continuity so the community and the sheriff department can build a trusting relationship and we don’t have to begin anew every couple of years breaking in a new sheriff to our very unique community needs.
Given the challenges of custody I wonder if this is a promotion. But if the new Sheriff wants to make changes, custody is a great place to start and he would need someone aligned with his goals and outlook. So best of luck to Captain Aloma. Given the shooting on Palm and the botched Gemmel Moore crime scene we have to start focusing on having a WeHo captain whose focus is professional rather than the usual glad-handers who have been historically popular in our City. We as citizens can’t depend on the City Council to ask hard questions so we… Read more »
This news is problematic in two ways:
1) Has a replacement already been named, or is WeHo low on the new Sheriff’s priority list?
2) Who at city hall knew this was happening and why didn’t the public find out until mere days before the change?
Unacceptable. Who’s managing this contract?
In the second paragraph, it says his replacement has not been made.