The LA Times is reporting that D.C. has requested that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department send 350 officers to Washington to help out with the presidential inauguration, at an estimated cost of $1.6 million, but has only offered to reimburse about $600,000 of that amount. Naturally, the county’s Board of Supervisors isn’t too keen on being asked to give the District a big handout, and apparently the Sheriff’s Department has already told the MPD it will only send as many officers as the District can afford to pay for. But the story makes you wonder: why is the city asking for help all the way from Los Angeles? Are there really not enough officers available closer by?