Local News

Los Angeles wildfires: What is the DOJ’s Disaster Relief Task Force?

On an appearance on the KTLA 5 Morning News on Thursday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta made his first mention of a Disaster Relief Task Force as growing concerns around crime mount after the Los Angeles wildfires.

Bonta explained that the amount of reported crimes surrounding the blaze — including looting, price gouging, scamming and fraud — were stacking up, and his office was set to begin charging people for their crimes.

Such a task is a large undertaking, so the AG’s office announced the task force on Thursday that will look into such reports.

But what does the task force do?

Bonta’s office described the task force as a “cross-functional team of professionals” with backgrounds across different divisions of the Department of Justice. Those include the Division of Law Enforcement, Special Prosecutions Section, Cybercrime Section and the Consumer Protection Section.

“The task force is working closely in partnership with local officials, local law enforcement and local prosecutors,” the AG’s Office said. “DOJ has special agents actively in the field investigating leads that came directly from complaints sent to DOJ from victims and witnesses in the impacted areas.”

Those complains that the task force will investigate involve crimes that Bonta says take advantage of wildfire victims.

He says there’s already been hundreds of complaints for price gouging regarding the prices of rental homes — which is one of the issues the task force will take on.

According to the AG’s Office, “California law prohibits charging a price that exceeds, by more than 10%, the price a seller charged for an item before a state or local declaration of emergency.”

That law applies to both short and long-term rental properties.

For more information on the DOJ’s initiative or for reporting a crime, visit this link for more resources.

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