Blog: Rehiring an alleged stalker and domestic abuser could not be a worse look for L.A.’s new sheriff

But law enforcement officers are not like other public employees. They wear badges, carry guns and can arrest and even kill civilians, so they must be held to more exacting or at least more particularized standards than, say, civil engineers or office administrators. They have to set an example. A sheriff must have power to raise performance standards when necessary and to weed out deputies who run afoul of the rules, for example by falsifying reports.