LAPD AUTHORS - Los Angeles Police Department History

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is the police department of the City of Los Angeles, California. It is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the United States, with over 9,000 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of 1209 km² (467 square mi) with a population of nearly 4 million people. The LAPD has had a rich and controversial history, including incidents of brutality and corruption. The agency's exploits have been heavily fictionalized in numerous movies and television shows.

For decades, the department has suffered from chronic underfunding. In comparison to most large cities, it has one of the lowest ratios of police personnel to population served; the current chief, William J. Bratton, has made enlarging the force one of his top priorities. (Bratton has been quoted as saying, "You give me 4000 more officers and I'll give you the safest city in the world.")

As a result, Los Angeles residents subscribe heavily to private security services, which in turn are a far more common sight in Los Angeles than in most other cities.

History

The first specific Los Angeles police force was founded in 1853 as the Los Angeles Rangers, a volunteer force that assisted the existing County forces. The Rangers were soon succeeded by the Los Angeles City Guards, another volunteer group. Neither force was particularly efficient and Los Angeles became known for its violence, gambling and "vice".

The first paid force was not created until 1869 when a force of six officers under City Marshal William C. Warren were hired. Warren was shot by one of his officers in 1876 and, to replace him, the newly created Board of Police commissioners selected Jacob T. Gerkins. Gerkins was replaced within a year by saloon owner Emil Harris, the second of fifteen police chiefs from 1876-89.

The first chief to remain in office for any time was John M. Glass; appointed in 1889, he served for eleven years and was a driving force for increased professionalism in the force. By 1900 there were 70 officers, one for every 1,500 people; in 1903, with the start of the Civil Service, this force was increased to 200, although training was not introduced until 1916. The rapid turnover of chiefs was renewed in the 1900s as the office became increasingly politicized; from 1900 to 1923 there were sixteen different chiefs. The longest-lasting was Charles E. Sebastian, who served from 1911-1915 before going on to become mayor.

In 1910 the department promoted the first sworn female police officer with full powers in the United States, Alice Stebbins-Wells. Georgia Ann Robinson became the first African-American female police officer in the country in 1916.[1] During World War I the force became involved with federal offenses, and much of the force was organized into a special Home Guard. In the postwar period, the department became highly corrupt along with much of the city government; this state lasted until the late 1930s. Two police chiefs did work within a mandate for anti-corruption and reform. August Vollmer laid the ground for future improvements but served for only a single year. James E. Davis served from 1926-1931 and from 1933-1939. In his first term he fired almost a fifth of the force for bad conduct, and instituted extended firearms training and also the dragnet system. In his second term Davis instituted a "Red Squad" to attack Communists and their offices.

With the replacement of Mayor Frank L. Shaw in 1938, the city gained a reformist mayor in Fletcher Bowron. He forced dozens of city commissioners out, as well as more than 45 LAPD officers. Bowron also appointed the first African American and the first woman to the Police Commission. The modernizer Arthur C. Hohmann was made chief in 1939 and resigned in 1941 after the notorious strike at the North American Aviation plant in Inglewood, in which he refused to use the LAPD as strikebreakers.

During World War II, under Police Chief Clemence B. Horrall, the force was heavily depleted by the demands of the armed forces; new recruits were given only six weeks training (twelve was normal). Despite the attempts to maintain numbers the police could do little to control the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots. War Emergency personnel were given a "WE" designation with their badge numbers to distinguish them from other officers.

Among the department's more notorious cases of the Horrall years was the January 15, 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, known as the Black Dahlia.

LAPD Academy

Horrall and Assistant Chief Joe Reed resigned in 1949 under threat of a grand jury investigation related to the Brenda Allen scandal. One of Horrall and Reed's more enduring actions was to approve a radio show about the LAPD titled Dragnet.

Horrall was replaced by a retired Marine Corps general, William A. Worton, who acted as interim chief until 1950, when William H. Parker was chosen in tight competition with Thad Brown. Parker advocated police professionalism and autonomy from civilian administration, especially as concerns internal affairs. The Bloody Christmas scandal in 1951 led to calls for civilian accountability and an end to police brutality.

Parker served until his death in 1966 from a heart attack, the longest period in office of any Chief. Fortunately for the LAPD, Parker was an excellent leader, reorganizing the LAPD structurally but also making demands of his force in areas of honesty and discipline. The motto "To Protect and to Serve" was introduced in 1955. During this period the LAPD set the standards of professionalism echoed in the contemporaneous TV series Dragnet and Adam-12. The most serious challenge in this period was the 1965 Watts riots.

Parker was succeeded by Thad Brown as acting chief in 1966, followed by Thomas Reddin in 1967. Following an interim term by Chief Roger E. Murdock, the outspoken Edward M. Davis became chief in 1969; despite his occasional lapses, he introduced a number of modern programs aimed at community policing as well as the SWAT unit (1972); he retired in 1978.

During the term of Chief Davis, the LAPD became notorious for its policy of routinely using chokeholds for any reason or for no reason at all during arrests, Terry stops, and even traffic stops. The holds were often applied until the suspect passed out. By the time the policy was halted in May 1982 by the Police Commission, 15 people had died. The U.S. Supreme Court blocked a lawsuit seeking an injunction to halt the practice permanently, because Adolph Lyons could not prove that there was a substantial and immediate likelihood that he personally would be choked again. City of Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95 (1983).

Under Davis, the LAPD and its vice squad were known for active policing against gays. Zealous officers are purported to have dangled a youth over a cliff to try to make him reveal names of a pedophile ring. On April 10, 1976, over a hundred officers, with Davis present, raided a charitable "slave auction" event and bragged to reporters that they had freed the slaves. Dozens of men were detained on charges of violating an 1899 anti-slavery statute, but the expensive raid was criticized by the city council and no one was convicted.

The successor to Davis, Daryl F. Gates, came into office just as Proposition 13 reduced the department's budget, cutting police numbers to less than 7,000 in seven years just as drug and gang crime reached unprecedented highs. To combat the rising tide of gang-related violence, Gates introduced Operation Hammer in 1987, which resulted in an unprecedented number of arrests, mostly of African-American and Hispanic youths. Gates retired in 1992, just after the Rodney King-related 1992 Los Angeles riots in April and May and the damaging Christopher Commission Report, and was replaced by Willie L. Williams, the fiftieth chief, the first black person to hold the office and the first non-internal appointee for almost 40 years. In 1997 Williams was replaced by Bernard Parks, during whose term the LAPD was rocked by the Rampart Division/CRASH corruption scandal. In 1997 one of the biggest challenges for the LAPD and LAPD SWAT was the North Hollywood shootout. Two robbers robbed a bank with AK-47s and shot twelve officers and seven bystanders, although none of the wounded actually died. In 2002, William J. Bratton replaced Parks.

In 2005, the LAPD began showing action-packed mini-movies online and at movie theaters to promote recruiting. The movies features real LAPD officers and what they do.

LAPD organization

Presently, the Los Angeles Police Department is divided into the Office of the Chief, the Office of the Chief of Staff (First Assistant Chief), Office of Operations (Assistant Chief), Office of Support Services (Assistant Chief), Professional Standards Bureau (Deputy Chief), Consent Decree Bureau (Police Administrator III), and the Criminal Intelligence/Counter Terrorism Bureau (Police Administrator III). The Office of Operations is comprised of the Director of the Office of Operations (Assistant Chief), Assistant to the Director of the Office of Operations (Commander), the Chief Duty Officer (Captain), Jail Division (Captain), COMPSTAT, Special Operations Bureau (Deputy Chief), Detective Bureau (Deputy Chief), and four geographical bureaus (Central, South, Valley and West) ,headed by Deputy Chiefs, divided into the following patrol divisions:

#	Division
01	Central
02	Rampart
03	Southwest
04	Hollenbeck
05	Harbor
06	Hollywood
07	Wilshire
08	West Los Angeles
09	Van Nuys
10	West Valley

#	Division
11	Northeast
12	77th Street
13	Newton Street
14	Pacific
15	North Hollywood
16	Foothill
17	Devonshire
18	Southeast
19	Mission

The Mission Division began operations in May 2005; the first new division to be deployed in more than a quarter of a century. The division covers the eastern half of the old Devonshire and the western half of the Foothill Divisions in the San Fernando Valley.

Force composition

During the Parker-Davis-Gates period, the LAPD was virtually 100% white, and much of it lived outside of the city. Simi Valley, the Ventura County suburb that later became infamous as the site of the state trial that immediately preceded the 1992 Los Angeles riots, has long been home to a particularly large concentration of LAPD officers, almost all of them white. The Santa Clarita area and the South Bay beach cities are also popular destinations. Hiring quotas began to change this during the 1980s, but it was not until the Christopher Commission reforms that substantial numbers of black, Hispanic, and Asian officers began to join the force. Minority officers can be found in both rank-and-file and leadership positions in virtually all precincts, and the LAPD is starting to reflect the general population. As of 2002, 16.5% of the LAPD is African American, 34.2% is Latino, and 6.9% is Asian or Pacific Islander.

The LAPD hired the first female police officer in the United States in 1910. Since then, women have been a small, but growing part of the force. In 2002, women made up 18.9% of the force.

The ranks of the LAPD are as follows: LAPD Ranks

Police Officer Class I, II, & III;
Police Detective Class I, II & III;
Police Sergeant Class I & II;
Police Lieutenant Class I & II;
Police Captain Class I, II, & III;
Police Commander;
Police Deputy Chief Class I;
Police Deputy Chief Class II (Assistant Chief);
Chief of Police

Some of the rank insignia shown at the above website aren't correct. The actual insignia are:

Police Officer Class I & II: No insignia
Police Officer Class III: Two silver chevrons
Police Officer Class III+I (also known as Senior Lead Officer): Two silver chevrons with a star underneath
Police Detective Class I: Two silver chevrons with a diamond underneath
Police Detective Class II: Three silver chevrons with a diamond underneath
Police Detective Class III: Three silver chevrons with a diamond and a curved rocker bar underneath
Police Sergeant Class I: Three silver chevrons
Police Sergeant Class II: Three silver chevrons with a curved rocker bar underneath

LAPD in the media

Books
The New Centurions, Joseph Wambaugh, 1972
The Onion Field, 1973
Helter Skelter, 1974
Boot: An L.A.P.D. Officer's Rookie Year, William C. Dunn, 1996
One Time: The Story of A South Central Los Angeles Police Officer, Brian S. Bentley, 1997

Novels
L.A. Confidential, 1990 (& 1997 motion picture)
White Jazz, 1993
Books by best-selling author Michael Connelly featuring Harry Bosch, the "rebel" LAPD Officer

Motion pictures
Assault on Precinct 13, 1976
The Choirboys, 1977
Blue Thunder, 1983
The Terminator (and sequels), 1984
Cobra, 1986
Lethal Weapon (and sequels), 1987
Colors, 1988
Die Hard, 1988
Dragnet, 1987
Lionheart, 1990
Boyz N the Hood, 1991
Deep Cover, 1992
Menace II Society, 1993
Last Action Hero, 1993
Speed, 1994
Heat, 1995
LAPD: To Protect and Serve, 1995
L.A. Confidential, 1997
Rush Hour, 1998
Blue Streak, 1999
Training Day, 2001
Dark Blue, 2002
44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out, 2003
S.W.A.T., 2003
Wonderland, 2003
Collateral, 2004
Hostage, 2005
Constantine, 2005
Crash, 2005

Television programs
Dragnet, 1951-1959, 1966-1970, etc.
Adam-12, 1968-1975
Columbo, 1971-1978
Hunter, 1984-1991
Mathnet, 1987-1996
LAPD: Life On the Beat, 1995-1998
Boomtown, 2002-2003
Fastlane, 2002-2003
The Shield, 2002-present
The Closer, 2005-present
Wanted, 2005-present
Punk'd, 20051

References

retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Police_Department"

The Los Angeles Police Department is committed to serving the community while protecting the rights of all persons

The Los Angeles Police Department is committed to serving the community while protecting the rights of all persons. Consistent with this commitment, the Departments Vision, Mission and Core Values, in concert with the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics and the Departments Management Principles, reflect the guiding philosophy of the Los Angeles Police Department.

It is the vision of the Los Angeles Police Department to, as closely as possible, achieve a City free from crime and public disorder

In February 1955, the Los Angeles Police Department, through the pages of the internally produced BEAT magazine, conducted a contest for a motto for the police academy. The conditions of the contest stated that: "The motto should be one that in a few words would express some or all the ideals to which the Los Angeles police service is dedicated. It is possible that the winning motto might someday be adopted as the official motto of the Department."

The winning entry was the motto, "To Protect and to Serve" submitted by Officer Joseph S. Dorobek.

"To Protect and to Serve" became the official motto of the Police Academy, and it was kept constantly before the officers in training as the aim and purpose of their profession. With the passing of time, the motto received wider exposure and acceptance throughout the department.

On November 4, 1963, the Los Angeles City Council passed the necessary ordinance and the credo has now been placed alongside the City Seal on the Departments patrol cars.

It is the mission of the Los Angeles Police Department to safeguard the lives and property of the people we serve, to reduce the incidence and fear of crime, and to enhance public safety while working with the diverse communities to improve their quality of life. Our mandate is to do so with honor and integrity, while at all times conducting ourselves with the highest ethical standards to maintain public confidence.

The Core Values of the Los Angeles Police Department are intended to guide and inspire us in all we say and do. Making sure that our values become part of our day-to-day work life is our mandate, and they help to ensure that our personal and professional behavior can be a model for all to follow.

We are dedicated to enhancing public safety and reducing the fear and the incidence of crime. People in our communities are our most important customers. Our motto "To Protect and to Serve" is not just a slogan - it is our way of life. We will work in partnership with the people in our communities and do our best, within the law, to solve community problems that effect public safety. We value the great diversity of people in both our residential and business communities and serve all with equal dedication.

We have been given the honor and privilege of enforcing the law. We must always exercise integrity in the use of the power and authority that have been given to us by the people. Our personal and professional behavior should be a model for all to follow. We will obey and support the letter and spirit of the law.

We believe the Los Angeles Police Department should be a leader in law enforcement. We also believe that each individual needs to be a leader in his or her area of responsibility. Making sure that our values become part of our day-to-day work life is our mandate. We must each work to ensure that our co-workers, our professional colleagues, and our communities have the highest respect for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Integrity is our standard. We are proud of our profession and will conduct ourselves in a manner that merits the respect of all people. We will demonstrate honest, ethical behavior in all our interactions. Our actions will match our words. We must have the courage to stand up for our beliefs and do what is right. Throughout the ranks, the Los Angeles Police Department has a long history of integrity and freedom from corruption. Upholding this proud tradition is a challenge we must all continue to meet.

Working with the Los Angeles Police Department should be challenging and rewarding. Our people are our most important resource. We can best serve the many and varied needs of our communities by empowering our employees to fulfill their responsibilities with knowledge, authority, and appropriate discretion. We encourage our people to submit ideas, we listen to their suggestions, and we help them develop to their maximum potential. We believe in treating all people with respect and dignity. We show concern and empathy for the victims of crime and treat violators of the law with fairness and dignity. By demonstrating respect for others, we will earn respect for the Los Angeles Police Department.

We will strive to achieve the highest level of quality in all aspects of our work. We can never be satisfied with the "status quo." We must aim for continuous improvement in serving the people in our communities. We value innovation and support creativity. We realize that constant change is a way of life in a dynamic city like Los Angeles, and we dedicate ourselves to proactively seeking new and better ways to serve.

The main thrust of a peace officers duties consists of an attempt to enforce the law. In our application of the law, we must do it within a legal spirit which was so clearly set forth by the framers of the Bill of Rights, an original part of our Constitution. That bill had as its purpose elevating the rights of each citizen to a position co-equal with the state which might accuse him. Its purpose was to provide for an enforcement of the law with fundamental fairness and equity. Because of the Bill of Rights, the dignity of the individual person in America was placed in an almost sacred position of importance.

A peace officers enforcement should not be done in grudging adherence to the legal rights of the accused, but in a sincere spirit of seeking that every accused person is given all of his rights as far as it is within the powers of the police.

In the discharge of our enforcement of criminal statutes, the peace officer must scrupulously avoid any conduct which would make him a violator of the law. The solution of a crime, or the arrest of a lawbreaker, can never justify the peace officer committing a felony as an expedient for the enforcement of the law.

We peace officers should do our utmost to foster a reverence for the law. We can start best by displaying a reverence for the legal rights of our fellow citizens and a reverence for the law itself.

The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder as an alternative to repression by military force and severity of legal punishment. When the police fail to prevent crime, it becomes important to apprehend the person responsible for the crime and gather all evidence that might be used in a subsequent trial.

The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police existence, actions, behavior, and the ability of the police to secure and maintain public respect.

The police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law in order to be able to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public.

The degree of public cooperation that can be secured diminishes, proportionately, the necessity for the use of physical force and compulsion in achieving police objectives.

The police seek and preserve public favor, not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to the law without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws; by readily offering individual service and friendship to all members of society without regard to their race or social standing; by the ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humor; and by readily offering individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.

The police should use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient to achieve police objectives; and police should use only the reasonable amount of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective.

The police at all times should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police; the police are the only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interest of community welfare.

The police should always direct their actions strictly toward their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary by avenging individuals or the state, or authoritatively judging guilt or punishing the guilty.

The test of police effectiveness is the absence of crime and the presence of public order. It is not the evidence of police action in dealing with crime and disorder.

The task of crime prevention cannot be accomplished by the police alone. This task necessarily requires the willing cooperation of both the police and the public working together toward a common goal.

Since the police cannot be expected to be on every residential or business block, every hour of the day, a process must be developed whereby each person becomes concerned with the welfare and safety of his neighborhood. When people are working with other people in their neighborhood, they can effectively reduce crime.

Only line police officers perform the tasks for which police were created. They are the operating professionals. Supervisors and managers exist to define problems, to establish objectives, and to assist line police officers in the accomplishment of the police mission.

The evaluation of a manager should be based on the improvement and excellence of his subordinates in the achievement of organizational goals. The lifes blood of good management is a thoroughly systematic, two-way circulation of information, feelings, and perceptions throughout the organization.

For many reasons, some specialization of work is necessary. Specialization should be created only when vitally necessary. When specialization is created, organization should be adjusted to ensure that the specialists and generalists who serve the same citizens work closely together on the common problems in as informal an organizational structure as possible. This will tend to ensure a unity of effort, resources, and the effective service to a common goal.

It must be recognized that the police and the people alone cannot successfully resolve the problems of crime. The criminal justice system as a whole, in order to properly serve the public, must operate as a total system with all of its various elements working together. The close cooperation of the police with prosecutors, courts, and correctional officers is necessary in order to ensure the development of a safer community.

One of the first and most fundamental considerations of this nations founders in drafting the Bill of Rights was to provide for a free press as an essential element of the First Amendment to the Constitution. They recognized that a well-informed citizenry is vital to the effective functioning of a democracy. Police operations profoundly affect the public and therefore arouse substantial public interest. Likewise, public interest and public cooperation bear significantly on the successful accomplishment of any police mission. The police should make every reasonable effort to serve the needs of the media in informing the public about crime and other police problems. This should be done with an attitude of openness and frankness whenever possible. The media should have access to personnel, at the lowest level in a Department, who are fully informed about the subject of a press inquiry. The media should be told all that can be told that will not impinge on a persons right to a fair trail, seriously impede a criminal investigation, imperil a human life, or seriously endanger the security of the people. In such cases, the minimum information should be given which will not impinge on the four areas and we should merely state that nothing more can be said.

In all other matters in our relationship with the media in dealing with current news, every member of the Department should make every reasonable effort consistent with accomplishing the police task in providing the media representatives with full and accurate material.

In order to effectively deal with the most important problems, objectives must be established. The establishment of objectives and the means used to ensure that they are reached must include the participation of those involved in the task. The setting of an objective has very little meaning without the participation of those involved.

Since employees are greatly influenced by decisions that are made and objectives that are established, it is important for them to be able to provide input into the methods utilized to reach these decisions. Employees should be encouraged to make recommendations which might lead to an improvement in the delivery of police services and assist in the furtherance of the Department meeting its objective.

Police work is one of the most personal of all personal services. It deals with human beings in life and death situations. The police officers and the people they serve must be as close as possible, and where possible must know one another. Such closeness can generate the police-citizen cooperation necessary for the involvement of the whole community in community protection. Organization of assignments should ensure that the police and the same citizens have an opportunity to continuously work for the protection of a specific community. Strength through interacting together and working together on common problems can be enhanced through officers and the people feeling at home with one another in an atmosphere of mutual cooperation. This may be described as a utilization of the "Territorial Imperative."

For police-public cooperation, there must be respect of the police by the public. This is best ensured by optimum openness of the Department in its operations. A general feeling and reality of openness must pervade the police organization. Above all, the police officer must be consistently open, honest, and trustful in all matters. A combination of honesty and openness will effectively develop respect in the community for the police and make it possible for citizens to come to them with problems and information. Where this trust does not exist because of a lack of honesty or openness, the channels of communication between the police and the public are clogged and the police must desperately struggle on alone.

reference: The Los Angeles Police Department, retrieved on May 19, 2006 from www.lapdonline.org

Los Angeles Police Department