LAPD Ends Security Detail For Kamala Harris After Backlash
The Los Angeles Police Department has abruptly ended its brief assignment protecting former Vice President Kamala Harris, after internal backlash over diverting officers from crime suppression duties in one of America’s most dangerous cities.
Harris had been receiving help from LAPD’s elite Metropolitan Division, which was ordered to assist the California Highway Patrol (CHP) in guarding her Brentwood home after President Donald Trump revoked her Secret Service protection earlier this week.
Harris was originally granted an unusually long extension of Secret Service coverage by former President Joe Biden — until July 2026 — despite the standard six-month limit for former vice presidents. President Trump rescinded that order, restoring the long-standing practice. The Los Angeles Times reported.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass quickly directed LAPD to step in, but the move sparked intense criticism from both within the department and the city’s rank-and-file officers, who said police resources were being siphoned away from protecting working-class neighborhoods.
On Thursday, LAPD spokeswoman Jennifer Forkish admitted the department was “assisting the California Highway Patrol in providing protective services for former Vice President Kamala Harris until an alternate plan is established,” stressing the measure was temporary.
By Saturday, that assignment was terminated, leaving Harris’ security in the hands of the CHP alone. The agency has not said how it will handle the additional responsibilities or for how long.
At least a dozen LAPD officers had been reassigned since Monday, when President Trump formally ended Harris’ Secret Service detail. The city was footing the bill, but Harris — a multimillionaire — is expected to arrange private security in the near future. Local outlet Fox 11 first revealed the story after spotting LAPD officers outside Harris’ Brentwood residence.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League blasted the arrangement, accusing city leaders of wasting taxpayer dollars:
“Pulling police officers from protecting everyday Angelenos to protect a failed presidential candidate who also happens to be a multi-millionaire… and who can easily afford to pay for her own security, is nuts,” the union board said. “Mayor Karen Bass 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.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who authorized the CHP detail, has not confirmed specifics. His office only remarked, “the safety of our public officials should never be subject to erratic, vindictive political impulse.”
Bass, meanwhile, accused President Trump of retaliation. “This is another act of revenge following a long list of political retaliation in the form of firings, the revoking of security clearances, and more,” she said. Her office later thanked LAPD for its “temporary support” while acknowledging the plan had always been short-term.
Harris has leaned on LAPD security before. As a U.S. senator, she received plainclothes protection from January 2017 to July 2018 until then-Chief Michel Moore canceled it as unnecessary.
The development comes as Harris prepares to launch a 15-stop international book tour promoting her memoir, 107 Days, with events planned in the United States, London, and Toronto.