Three California parole agents were placed on leave after they were stopped as part of rapper Snoop Dogg’s armed entourage at a Black Entertainment Television Awards ceremony in Hollywood. The Los Angeles Times says the action was part of a comprehensive investigation into off-duty employment of all state workers in the Los Angeles area. The parole officers apparently were working for the rapper, who was convicted of cocaine possession in 1990.
Snoop Dogg, whose given name is Calvin Broadus, was not detained. He had traveled in a three-vehicle caravan that included a customized armored van with multiple gun ports. Los Angeles police and federal agents said they confiscated a cache of weapons, including knives, batons, pepper spray, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and seven handguns, one with a laser-sighting device.
The Corrections Department has no specific policy prohibiting outside employment connected to people with criminal backgrounds. But parole agents are required to tell their superiors whom they work for in off hours and to provide other “vital information,” such as knowledge of criminal conduct by the employer.