The Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety (LACOPS), less formally known as the Los Angeles County Police, was a police agency for the County of Los Angeles. It was formed in 1998 by consolidating three Los Angeles County law enforcement agencies: the Department of Parks and Recreation Park Police, which was formed in 1969 as Los Angeles County Park Patrol, and the Department of Health Services and Internal Services Department’s Safety Police. OPS was the fourth-largest law enforcement agency in Los Angeles County, which employed 579 sworn peace officers and 140 civilian personnel, and utilized over 800 contract security guards. The agency had an annual budget of $100 million in 2009. OPS was initially a division of the Los Angeles County Department of Human Resources but was placed under the umbrella of the newly created Public Safety branch of the Chief Executive Office in 2007. History OPS originated from the consolidation of various County departments' security forces. These Security Officers attained peace officer powers in the early 1970s, and were gradually retitled into Safety Police Officers. In the 1990s, the Department of Health Services Safety Police, Parks & Recreation Department Park Police, and Internal Services Department Safety Police were merged into the Office of Public Safety; which was unofficially known as the County Police. OPS eliminated in workplace reduction. Los Angeles Sheriff's Department takes over all former OPS duties There were calls for OPS to be merged with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) in 1992 and 1997, but the attempts have been repeatedly rebuffed by its officers, the Board of Supervisors, or LASD for various reasons. The primary reason cited was the inability of the Executive/Command Staff to perform the Administrative functions necessary to effectively manage a modern law enforcement entity of this size. On August 8, 2007, the California State Supreme Court denied hearing the appeal of a discrimination lawsuit brought by County police officers. The officers prevailed at trial, convincing a jury that the predominantly minority force had been denied appropriate pay and benefits due to racial discrimination, but the jury's decision was then reversed by the Appellate Court. The high court's refusal to hear a final appeal appeared to make a merger with LASD more likely, as they restarted their take-over study just days after the decision was handed down (September 20, 2007). Supervisor Knabe commented to local media the force should be disbanded