Los Angeles Police Department

Los Angeles Police Department
File:LAPD Seal.jpg
Motto	To protect and to serve
Operational structure
Sworn members	9,500
Facilities
Stations	19

"LAPD" redirects here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is the police department of the City of Los Angeles, California. With over 9,500 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of 473 square miles with a population of more than 3.5 million people, it is the third largest law enforcement agency in the United States (trailing behind the New York Police Department and Chicago Police Department). The agency is famous world wide and has been heavily fictionalized in numerous movies and television shows.

Throughout its modern history, the department has suffered from chronic underfunding and understaffing. In comparison to most large cities, the LAPD has historically had one of the lowest ratios of police personnel to population served and thus 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."). The LAPD's own web site illustrates the challenges faced by the department [1]. For example, New York City boasts one officer for every 228 residents. In Chicago, the ratio is one officer per 216 citizens and in Philadelphia there is one officer for every 219 persons. By contrast, the Los Angeles Police Department protects its city with only one officer for every 426 residents. For Los Angeles to have the same ratio of officers as New York City, the LAPD would need nearly 17,000 officers. Also, the city has three specialized police agencies separate from LAPD. Port of L.A., or Harbor Dept. Police, Los Angeles World Airports Police, and Dept. of General Services Office of Public Safety Police, which police city owned properties, parks, zoo, libraries, and convention center.

Organization

Clearing street in front of LA City Hall.

Resources, mobility and technology

Main articles: Los Angeles Police Department resources and Los Angeles Police Department § Official links

The LAPD has vast resources...

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. A 1994 ACLU study of officer's home zip codes, concluded that over 80% of police officers lived outside city boundaries.

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. [2]

The LAPD hired the first female police officer in the United States in 1910, Ms Alice Stebbins Wells. Since then, women have been a small, but growing part of the force. Up through the early 1970s, women were classified as "policewomen" on the LAPD. Through the 1950s, their duties generally consisted as working as matrons in the jail system, or dealing with troubled youths working in detective assignments. Rarely did they work any type of field assignment and they were not allowed to promote above the rank of sergeant. However, a lawsuit (Fanchon Blake) by a policewoman from that period instituted court ordered mandates that the Department begin actively hiring and promoting women police officers in its ranks. The Department eliminated the rank of "Policeman" from new hires at that time along with the rank of "Policewoman." Anyone already in those positions were grandfathered in, but any new hires were classified instead as "Police Officers" which continues to this day.

In 2002, women made up 18.9% of the force. Women have made significant strides within the ranks of the Department since the days of the Fanchon Blake lawsuit. The highest ranking woman on the Department today is Assistant Chief Sharon Papa, who came to the LAPD as a commander from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Transit Police Department in 1997. Chief Papa was the last Chief of Police for the MTA.

The LAPD also hired the first known African American Police Officer in America.

History

Main article: History of the Los Angeles Police Department

The history of the LAPD... (one to two paragraphs)

Board of Police Commissioners

The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners is a five-member body of appointed officials which oversees the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The board functions like a corporate board of directors and is responsible for setting policies for the department and overseeing its operations.

Reference

• Board of Police Commissioners

Demographics

• Male: 82%
• Female: 18%

• White: 46%
• Hispanic: 33%
• African-American/Black: 14%
• Asian: 7%

• Reference: Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics, 2000: Data for Individual State and Local Agencies with 100 or More Officers

LAPD chiefs of police

Name	Term
Jacob F. Gerkens	December 18, 1876–December 26, 1877
Emil Harris	December 27, 1877–December 5, 1878
Henry King	December 5, 1878–December 11, 1880
George E. Gard	December 12, 1880–December 10, 1881
Henry King	December 11, 1881–June 30, 1883
Thomas J. Cuddy	July 1, 1883–January 1, 1885
Edward McCarthy	January 2, 1885–May 12, 1885
John Horner	May 13, 1885–December 22, 1885
James W. Davis	December 22, 1885–December 8, 1886
John K. Skinner	December 13, 1886–August 29, 1887
P.M. Darcy	September 5, 1887–January 22, 1888
Thomas J. Cuddy	January 23, 1888–September 4, 1888
L.G. Loomis	September 5, 1888–September 30, 1888
Hubert H. Benedict	October 1, 1888–January 1, 1889
Terrence Cooney	January 1, 1889–April 1, 1889
James E. Burns	April 1, 1889–July 17, 1889
John M. Glass	July 17, 1889–January 1, 1900
Charles Elton	1900–1904
William A. Hammell	1904–1905
Walter H. Auble	1905–1906
Edward Kern	1906–1909
Thomas Broadhead	1909
Edward F. Dishman	1909–1910
Alexander Galloway	1910–1911
Charles E. Sebastian	1911–1915
Clarence E. Snively	1915–1916
John L. Butler	1916–1919
George K. Home	1919–1920
Alexander W. Murray	1920
Lyle Pendegast	1920–1921
Charles A. Jones	1921–1922
James W. Everington	1922
Louis D. Oaks	1922–1923
August Vollmer	1923–1924
R. Lee Heath	1924–1926
James E. Davis	1926–1929
Roy E. Steckel	1929–1933
James E. Davis	1933–1938
D. A. Davidson	1938–1939
Arthur C. Hohmann	1939–1941
Clemence B. Horrall	1941–1949
William A. Worton	1949–1950
William H. Parker	1950–1966
Thad F. Brown	1966–1967
Thomas Reddin	1967–1969
Roger E. Murdock	1969
Edward M. Davis	August 29, 1969–January 16, 1978 [3]
Robert F. Rock	January 16, 1978–March 28, 1978
Daryl F. Gates	March 28, 1978–June 27, 1992
Willie L. Williams	June 30, 1992–May 17, 1997
Bayan Lewis	May 18, 1997–August 12, 1997
Bernard C. Parks	August 12, 1997–May 4, 2002 [4]
Martin H. Pomeroy	May 7, 2002–October 26, 2002 [5]
William J. Bratton	October 27, 2002–present [6]

In popular media

Main article: Los Angeles Police Department in media

See also

• Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
• 1992 Los Angeles riots
• Police patch collecting
• CRASH
• LAPD: Life On the Beat

References

• Corwin, Miles (1997). The Killing Season . New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80235-X.
• Corwin, Miles (2003). Homicide Special: A Year With the LAPD's Elite Detective Unit. New York: Henry Holt and Co. ISBN 0-8050-6798-1.
• Domanick, Joe (1994). To Protect and to Serve: The LAPD's Century of War in the City of Dreams. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 0-9727625-5-8.
• Gates, Daryl F. (1992). Chief: My Life in the LAPD. New York: Bantam. ISBN 0-553-56205-3.
• Sjoquist, Art R. (1984). History of the Los Angeles Police Department. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club.
• Starr, Kevin (2004). Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003. New York: Knopf.
• Stoker, Charles (1951). Thicker'n Thieves. Sutter.
• Wambaugh, Joseph (1973). The Onion Field. Delacorte.
• Webb, Jack (1958). The Badge: The Inside Story of One of America's Great Police Departments. New York: Prentice-Hall.

External links

• Official web site
• Official LAPD blog
• LAPD History of the LAPD
• LAPD list of movies and TV programs
• LAPD Recruitment
• LAPD Jobs
• LAPD Radio History

Official links

• LAPD Organizational Chart
• LAPD Citywide-Bureau Map
• Current Command Staff
• Citywide CompStat Statistics

Currently, the Los Angeles Police Department is organized as follows:

Central Patrol Division Building

• Office of the Chief of Police
• Chief of Staff
  • Employee Relations Group
  • Public Information Office
  • Use of Force Review Division
  • Community Relations Section
  • Governmental Liaison Section
  • Department Events, Photo & Graphics Section
• Director, Office of Operations
  • Assistant to the Director, Office of Operations
    • Chief Duty Officer
    • Jail Division
    • Evaluation & Administration Section
    • Labor Liaison Section
  • CompStat Unit
  • Special Operations Bureau
    • Assistant Commanding Officer, Special Operations Bureau
    • Metropolitan Division
    • Air Support Division
    • Emergency Operations Division
    • Real-Time Analysis & Critical Response Division
  • Detective Bureau
    • Assistant Commanding Officer, Detective Bureau
    • Narcotics Division
    • Robbery-Homicide Division
    • Commercial Crimes Division
    • Gang & Operations Support Division
    • Detective Support & Vice Division
    • Juvenile Division
    • Investigative Analysis Unit
  • Operations-Central Bureau
    • Central Area
    • Hollenbeck Area
    • Newton Area
    • Northeast Area
    • Rampart Area
    • Central Traffic Division
  • Operations-South Bureau
    • 77th Street Area
    • Harbor Area
    • Southeast Area
    • Southwest Area
    • South Traffic Division
  • Operations-Valley Bureau
    • Devonshire Area
    • Foothill Area
    • Mission Area
    • North Hollywood Area
    • Van Nuys Area
    • West Valley Area
    • Valley Traffic Division
  • Operations-West Bureau
    • Hollywood Area
    • Pacific Area
      • LAX Field Services Division
    • West Los Angeles Area
    • Wilshire Area
    • West Traffic Division
• Director, Office of Support Services
  • Executive Officer
    • Planning & Research Division
  • TEAMS II Development Bureau
  • Behavioral Sciences Services
  • Ombuds Office
  • Transit Liaison Unit
  • Information & Communications Services Bureau
    • Assistant Commanding Officer
    • Communications Division
    • Emergency Command Control Communications System Division
    • Information Technology Division
    • Records & Identification Division
  • Administrative & Technical Services Bureau
    • Assistant Commanding Officer
      • Property Division
      • Motor Transport Division
      • Scientific Investigation Division
    • Personnel Group
    • Facilities Management Division
    • Fiscal Operations Division
  • Training Group
    • Training Division
    • Police Education & Training
• Professional Standards Bureau
  • Internal Affairs Group
    • Administrative Investigation Division
    • Criminal Investigation Division
  • Special Operations Division
  • Force Investigation Division
• Consent Decree Bureau
  • Risk Management Group
  • Civil Rights Integrity Division
  • Audit Division
• Counter Terrorism & Criminal Intelligence Bureau
  • Assistant Commanding Officer
  • Major Crimes Division
  • Emergency Services Division

Note: The Mission Area 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.

Note: The Real-Time Analysis & Critical Response Division began operations in March 2006; It is comprised of the Emergency Operations Section, which includes the Department Operations Center Unit, Department Operations Support Unit and the Incident Command Post Unit; Detective Support Section and the Crime Analysis Section.