Alex Villanueva

Villanueva was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1963 to a Puerto Rican father and Polish-American mother.

His family moved to Rochester, New York at an early age.

When Villanueva was nine years old, his family moved to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, where he learned Spanish and walked to school while reading books along the rural back roads beside sugar cane fields.

After graduating from high school in Puerto Rico, Villanueva served in the United States Air Force and California Air National Guard from 1983 to 1985.

He was stationed at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California and March Air Force Base in Riverside, California.

It was at this time that Villanueva was a Senior Airman in the USAF and was hired by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Villanueva remained in the military, however, for another seven years, serving in the California Army National Guard from 1985 to 1992 where he was commissioned and served as 1st Lieutenant (2nd Battalion, 144th Field Artillery Regiment, 40th Infantry Division).

He began his college education while in Puerto Rico, Villanueva earned an associate degree in Liberal Arts from San Bernardino Valley College in 1986 and a Bachelor of Liberal Studies from the University of the State of New York, Regents College, now known as Excelsior College.

Villanueva then earned a Master of Public Administration from California State University, Northridge and a Doctorate of Public Administration from University of La Verne.

Villanueva's dissertation was on the subject of leadership diversity in law enforcement.

Villanueva served in the United States military for 10 years.

Villanueva joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in 1986 and eventually settled in La Habra Heights, California.

After completing the Sheriff's Academy (Class 232), Villanueva was assigned to the Inmate Reception Center, the processing center for the Sheriff's Department's jail system.

In 1988, Villanueva initiated the drive to ban smoking in the Los Angeles County jail system as part of a national effort to ban second-hand smoke.

The ban was successfully implemented in 1990.

While he was on patrol in the community of East Los Angeles, California, Villanueva volunteered to lead one of the first community policing teams in the nation made possible by the Community Oriented Policing (COPS) grant program launched by President Bill Clinton.

The team Villanueva led was located at the Maravilla Housing Project.

After his time at East Los Angeles Sheriff Station, Villanueva transferred to the Training Bureau where he served as a Drill Instructor at the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Academy.

He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant, where he worked Lennox and Carson Sheriff Stations, the Community College Bureau, as well as the Advanced Officer Training unit.

Villanueva was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and served at the Century Regional Detention Facility, which primarily houses female inmates.

From 2006 to 2010, Villanueva was an adjunct professor of criminal justice at California State University, Long Beach.

In 2012, the ACLU exposed widespread abuses in the Sheriff's Department, prompting an FBI investigation.

Sheriff Lee Baca, Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, and numerous other department employees were caught in the scandal and were later convicted of various federal charges.

In 2014, Villanueva moved on to the Pico Rivera Sheriff Station, where he served as Watch Commander.

Former Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell was elected Sheriff in 2014, with the expectation he would fix the problems.

However, Villanueva, then close to retirement, stated that he decided McDonnell had failed to restore trust, saying "everyone expected Jim McDonnell to clean house. But he didn't do that."

McDonnell removed only a few upper-rank staff, instead focusing on catching lower-rank personnel in infractions.

Villanueva called it "management by gotcha."

Villanueva announced his campaign for sheriff of Los Angeles County on June 28, 2017, promising to "reform, rebuild and restore" the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department by "reforming the organization around the principles of community policing and ethical standards of conduct."

He competed against incumbent Sheriff McDonnell and retired Commander Bob Lindsey.

Villanueva received 33% of the vote, to McDonnell's 47%, and Lindsey's 19%.

Villanueva and McDonnell advanced to the general election runoff.

Alejandro Villanueva is an American law enforcement officer who served as the 33rd sheriff of Los Angeles County, California from 2018 until 2022.

He defeated incumbent sheriff Jim McDonnell in the 2018 L.A. County Sheriff's race, making him the first to unseat an incumbent in over 100 years.

Before becoming Sheriff, he was a lieutenant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The first member of the Democratic Party to be elected Sheriff in 138 years, Villanueva campaigned as a reformer and appealed to some progressive values, but has received notoriety for more conservative policies during his tenure,

as well as high levels of corruption.

Villanueva lost his bid for reelection in 2022 by a wide margin of 61.3% to 38.7% against former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna.

Villanueva retired from the Sheriff's Department in 2018.

Villanueva was sworn into office as sheriff on December 3, 2018.