The Los Angeles Police Department has stopped providing protection to former Vice President Kamala Harris amid backlash from a police organization.
After President Donald Trump ended Secret Service protection for the former vice president earlier this year, LA Mayor Karen Bass extended Harris protection via the LAPD, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which says its mission is to “vigilantly protect, promote, and improve the working conditions, legal rights, compensation, and benefits of Los Angeles police officers,” complained that officers who were assigned to crime suppression tasks were pulled away to guard Harris.
“Pulling police officers from protecting everyday Angelenos to protect a failed presidential candidate who also happens to be a multi- millionaire with multiple homes and who can easily afford to pay for her own security is nuts,” the board said in a statement.
The board continued lashing out and pulled California Governor Gavin Newsom into its criticism.
“The mayor should tell Governor Newsom that if he wants to curry favor with Ms. Harris and her donor base then he should open up his own wallet because LA taxpayers should not be footing the bill for this ridiculousness,” it said.
It’s standard protocol for former vice president to receive protection from the Secret Service for six months after they leave office.
President Joe Biden extended Harris’s protection period to 18 months, which would have kept a detail on her until July 2026. But Trump canceled that extension in August.
“The Vice President is grateful to the United States Secret Service for their professionalism, dedication, and unwavering commitment to safety,” Kirsten Allen, one of Harris’s senior advisors, told CNN at the time.
When Harris had security through the Secret Service and later the LAPD, she had 24-7 surveillance at her home and the constant presence of officers at her Los Angeles home.
Newsom, through a spokesperson, condemned Trump’s actions at the time.
“The safety of our public officials should never be subject to erratic, vindictive political impulses,” the spokesperson, Bob Salladay, told CNN.
Harris has a book tour planned to promote her memoir. It’s unclear who is going to be providing her security during those visits, but it is likely that she or her publisher will need to hire private security.
According to a report from the LA Times, the California Highway Patrol has also offered to provide security for Harris.
The former vice president isn’t the only official to have their protection revoked by Trump.
Both former national security adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had their protections withdrawn, even as both were reportedly under threat from Iran.
More recently, Trump ended the Secret Service protection for former President Biden’s children, Hunter and Ashley, after Biden extended their Secret Service protections.
