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“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. Image:May Day Immigration March LA66.jpg Clearing street in front of LA City Hall. 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.
Police Stations
01 Central Police Station. 02 Lincoln Heights Police Station. This station was closed by the 1940s and its number deactivated. The number was reactivated in 1966 for Rampart Police Station. 03 University Police Station. Name changed to Southwest Police Station. 04 Boyle Heights Police Station. Name changed to Hollenbeck Police Station. 05 San Pedro Police Station. Combined in 1962 with Wilimington Substation and renamed Harbor Division. 06 Hollywood Police Station. 07 Wilshire Police Station. 08 Sawtelle Police Station. Renamed West Los Angeles Police Station. 09 Valley Police Station. Renamed Van Nuys Police Station. 10 Wilmington Substation. This station was deactivated and its number later reassigned to West Valley Police Station. 11 Eagle Rock Division. This station's name was changed when moved to Highland Park (approximately 1920's) and then again to today's Northeast Police Station. 12 77th Street Police Station. 13 Newton Street Police Station. 14 Venice Police Station. Renamed Pacific Police Station. 15 Georgia Street Police Station. This station was deactivated in the 1930s. Its number was later reassigned to North Hollywood Police Station. 16 Foothill Police Station. 17 Devonshire Police Station. 18 Southeast Police Station. 19 Mission Police Station. The City's largest growth period was from approximately the late 1800s through the 1930s when the City grew at a geometric rate. Approximately 100 smaller portions were added to the original five square mile Pueblo. Of these, about 90 were formerly unincorporated county lands. The remaining ten portions had been their own incorporated cities. These included the cities of: Watts, Venice (originally Ocean Park), Hollywood, San Pedro, Wilmington, Barnes, Hyde Park, Eagle Rock, Sawtelle and Tujunga. Generally when the City consolidated another existing city, its police officers became LAPD officers with corresponding ranks and titles at the LAPD, per the City charter. LAPD would create a new Division, named after the city that had been consolidated and would continue using the prior city's police station, usually replacing these facilities with larger police stations within a few years. HistoryImage:Parkercenter.jpg Parker Center-LAPD's Headquarters 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 created in 1869, when six officers were hired to serve under City Marshal William C. Warren. Warren was shot by one of his men in 1876 and, to replace him, the newly created Board of Police Commissioners selected Jacob F. Gerkens. The latter was replaced within a year by saloon owner Emil Harris, the second of fifteen police chiefs from 1876 to 1889. 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.[2] 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 a 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. 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. Image:LAPD chopper.jpg LAPD's Helicopter Horrall was replaced by a retired Marine 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. 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. Image:Prkrctrfront.jpg Headquarters Image:Sealmotto.jpg "To protect and to serve" Image:LAPDacademy.jpg LAPD Academy 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; Chief Davis introduced a number of modern programs aimed at community policing, special street gang control units, as well as the SWAT unit (1972); he retired in 1978. The street gang control units were structured by Deputy Chief Louis Sporrer who commanded Operations South Bureau which was the Headquarters for the South Central Los Angeles police divisions. In 1972 street gangs were becoming a growing problem and initially were made-up of the best known gang structures of the Crips and the Bloods. A Gang Intelligence unit was set up in 77th Street Division headed by a Sergeant Robert Michael. A uniformed team was set up and given the acronym of TRASH, or Total Resources Against Street Hoodlums, headed by Sergeant Beno Hernandez. It was from this time on that the flattering term gang was dropped and the term 'hoodlums' was adopted. Intelligence indicated that each gang had a 'leader', a few close 'associates' and follower 'acquaintances' and when the 'leader was removed by arrest and detention that crime in the groups area of control went down significantly, and when the leader returned, crime returned to its previous level. To address this phenomenon, and to give courts a better understanding of whom they were dealing with, a joint task force of police, probation, parole, schools, and others formed an entity with an acronym of DDCP, or Disposition Data Coordination Project. This entity was housed in the South Bureau, and coordinated by the Intelligence Sergeant II Robert Michael. DDCP was a pre-sentence gathering of reputation information in the community, allowed under California law to be considered by the Court. The DDCP was a repository of sources for the court to consider in its sentencing disposition. Soon, however it was dubbed the Alpha File by several attorneys and the ACLU filed suit against the City of Los Angeles. The DDCP project was later terminated at the discretion of the City of Los Angeles. At about the same time complaints began being made, from activists outside the City and South Bureau area, that TRASH was demeaning to the group members. Chief Sporrer renamed the units CRASH, or Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, and it remained operational as it had been before the name change. These very effective police specialists are still policing today as they began in 1972 and still under the CRASH acronym. Also, during the term of Chief Davis, the LAPD pioneered tactics and procedures that would serve as the blueprints of modern community-policing. Known as the "basic car plan" or "team policing" the department sought to build strong ties to the community through the permanent assignment and deployment of teams of officers - patrol, detectives, and supervisors - to identified geographic areas. This allowed the officers to develop a working knowledge of their community and fostered familiarity, trust and respect on the part of the community toward its police. 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 African-American officer 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 in which two bank robbers armed with automatic rifles and wearing body armor shot twelve responding officers and two bystanders. The suspects were eventually defeated by SWAT units after a gun battle that lasted nearly an hour. In November of 1997, the Department did something for the first time in forty years in taking over another police department - the MTA Transit Police. Originally touted as a merger process, this became a political football with members of the City Council fighting the mayor's "one city - one police department" plan to eliminate all of the smaller, specialized police forces (Transit Police, Airport Police, School Police, Park Rangers, etc.). In the end, only about 130 of the originally slated 200 officers of the MTA Transit Police came to the LAPD, with about the same number going to the LASD. After less than five years, the MTA removed LAPD from the transit policing contract it had established with LAPD and LASD, and LASD was given the entire MTA contract. As of 2006, only 96 of those officers remained with the LAPD. In 2002, after a loss of approximately 1,700 officers in two years, mostly to other Southern California police departments and in the face of an unprecedented homicide rate, Mayor Hahn moved to have the Board of Police Commissioners refuse to accept Parks' application for another five year term. Parks appealed to the City Council who refused to take up his cause. Parks initially threatened a lawsuit, but thought better of it and considered a run for City Council in the near future instead. Parks promptly left office, several months before his five year term was up. Former Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy was selected as an interim Chief until a permanent replacement could be found. Also in 2002, voters in the City passed the Proposition Q - Citywide Public Safety Bond to expand, renovate and replace existing police and fire facilities. This 600 million dollar bond program included replacement of the West Valley, Rampart, Hollenbeck and Harbor Police Stations; adding a new Emergency Operations Center; replacing the Parker Center Jail; adding a new Operations Valley Bureau/ Valley Traffic Division; and adding two new Area Police Stations - 20th Area and 21st Area Police Stations. Chief William J. Bratton came to the LAPD after having prior experience as Chief of Police for the NYPD, the NY City Transit Police, The Boston Police and the MBTA Transit Police. Bratton came in a manner very different from his most recent outsider predecessor, Chief Williams. Prior to his arrival, Bratton requested all captains and above submit resumes and biographies for consideration in his new administration. Bratton made his initial goals to fully implement the Federal Consent decree (left from the Parks administration), to implement a dramatic reduction in Part I crime and to create a world class counter-terrorism Bureau within LAPD (during Parks' tenure, a year after 9/11, officers still had no WMD's training nor equipment, however to his credit, Parks had successfully implemented a "no US flag pin" policy for wear on officer's uniforms). Bratton later added community oriented policing to his list of goals. In 2005, the LAPD began showing action-packed mini-movies online and at movie theaters to promote recruiting. The movies feature real LAPD officers and what they do. On May 17, 2005, Los Angeles voters rejected a plan that would have merged LAPD and the Los Angeles Airport Police. The argument against this proposal was that officers of the Los Angeles Airport Police, a specialized police department, had more extensive training in Airport Security and LAPD officers would have needed more training in this new function. LAPD officers are still assigned to terminals in the LAX airport. In 2006, the Department temporarily relocated two LAPD stations, Hollenbeck and Harbor, to Temporary Stations, while the existing stations were demolished and new ones built on the same sites. Also in 2006, a long time goal of the Department, to replace Parker Center began moving towards fruition with demolition of the old CalTrans building at 2nd/ Spring Streets to make way for a new Police Administration Building. The Department broke ground for two new Community Police Stations as well as a replacement of three older stations. The groundbreaking for the 20th Area Station (Mid-City) Police Station, was on May 4, 2006. Groundbreaking for the 21st Area Station (Northwest) Police Station, was on May 11, 2006. Replacement Rampart Station is being built on the site of the former Central Receiving Hospital (police hospital) that had been located on 6th Street and Valencia Street. As a sidenote, exteriors from Rampart division on Rampart and Benton were filmed for the Adam-12 tv series. The department does not permit the interiors of police stations filmed for motion picture purposes, so interiors were filmed at Universal Studios in Universal City, California. The 21st Area (tentatively "Northwest") Police Station area will be formed from parts of the existing West Valley Area and Devonshire Area in the Operations-Valley Bureau. The 20th Area Police Station area will be formed from portions of Wilshire, Hollywood and Rampart Police Station areas. Three additional police stations are planned for additions in the next ten years (2007-2016). One each for the South, West and Central Bureaus of the Department. In 2006, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa initiated gradual increases in trash collection fees paid by property owners to hire about 1,000 LAPD officers over the next five years. RadioInspired by a contest in 1924, Police Chief R. Lee Heath ordered his staff to investigate the use of radio to "more quickly dispatch officers to where they are needed." It was not until Police Chief Roy E. Steckel, however, that the department would be assigned its first FCC license. On May 1, 1931, KGPL began broadcasting at 1712kHz, just above the commercial radio broadcasting frequencies. Later, this was changed to 1730kHz. Any citizen could monitor outgoing police radio traffic on their home sets. The system was "one way" until the mid-1930's when mobile transmitters were installed in patrol units. Today, telephone calls into the department for police service are handled by the Communications Division. First, an Emergency Board Operator (EBO) answers calls placed to 9-1-1 (with a lower number of operators assigned to the non-emergency 1-877-ASK-LAPD number). A call for service results in an incident number, which resets to the number 1—citywide—at midnight each night. Upon receiving the incident, the Radio Telephone Operator (RTO) will go on the air to broadcast to the division (with the option to simulcast on bureau-wide or citywide frequencies). Today, RTO provide the following information in what is known as a crime broadcast:
There may also be a request by the RTO for the responding unit handling to identify. A fictitious example of a radio call might begin with tones (to alert patrol units that a broadcast will follow), "Any central unit, a 211 just occurred at 714 south Broadway Street at the Footlocker. Suspect was a male white, five-foot eleven, approximately 170 pounds; shaved head, brown eyes, goatee, white t-shirt, dark baggy pants. Weapon used was a revolver. Monitor comments for additional. Code 2. Incident number 555 in RD 193." "Control" (the radio name for Communications division) as well as units in the area also use a wide variety of codes, common ones include:
NOTE: A unit that responds Code-3 must state their starting location (e.g. intersection or street address), after which the RTO broadcasts a Code 3 notification, announcing the unit number is responding Code-3 from that starting location to the location of the distress call. Typical radio traffic (usually not simulcast citywide) includes the activity generated from traffic stops. A patrol unit may radio control that they are "code 6" on a traffic stop, to which control will give the "Roger" acknowledgement. Additional broadcasts will be requests for information on "cal IDs", or CalOps (the numbers that appear at the top of California Department of Motor Vehicle driver licenses) or on vehicle license plates. The result of which provides all of the expected details about the subject plus important details such as whether or not the licensee has any wants or warrants, FTAs (failure to appear in court) or FTPs (failure to pay a fine), etc. In the case of a vehicle, whether or not it is Code 37. Off the air and via MDT, officers can also see to whom the vehicle is registered. In the event a Code 6 Charles is broadcast, the unit in question must verify their location, advise if they are Code 4 and the nature of the Code 4 (e.g. Suspect in custody, Common Name, Information Only or Wrong suspect.) A noticeable characteristic of police broadcasts is the expedited nature of crime broadcasts; due to the number of broadcasts that need to be made at any given moment of the day, each transmission is necessarily as brief as possible. As a standard of police professionalism, RTOs are trained to use a tone that is strictly business-like. Digital FrequenciesAfter the parade in Los Angeles celebrating the Los Angeles Lakers 2001 NBA championship title, the police department switched from analog frequencies to digital frequencies. This ended a long-lasting era of the public having easy listening access to police broadcasts that started when the department had initially set up agreements with a local, commercial AM radio station to interrupt regularly scheduled programming for a crime broadcast. Officers were tuned to a specific radio station. However, as the amount of broadcasting needed increased, the department established its first transmission tower in Elysian Park and eventually began broadcasting over dozens of frequencies in the 400mHz and 500mHz ("T-band") ranges. These digital transmissions can be monitored on a proper Uniden Bearcat or Radio Shack digital scanner. Radio CarsFrom the perspective of control, each unit is represented by an LAPD-specific callsign. Typically, a callsign is made up of three elements: the division number, the unit type and the "beat" number. For example, division 1 is Central Division (or, now, "Central Area"), an "A" is patrol unit with two officers and their beat number can be a number like 12. Such a unit would identify themselves as 1-A-12 (or 1-Adam-12, using the LAPD phonetic alphabet). There are several patrol types:
The immediate supervisor of any patrol officer is called a Field supervisors typically have beats that end in zero beginning from 2 through 7 (for example, 7-L-60 for a Wilshire Area supervisor). The Watch Commander is a Sergeant-2 at the police station for its geographic division. Their radio code always ends in L-10 (e.g., the watch commander at division 6 or Hollywood Area station is always 6-L-10). The Watch Commander is responsible for the geographic area and ansewrs to the are captain. Radio EquipmentOfficers out of their cars are able to communicate over the air using portable Motorola radios nicknamed ROVERs ("Remote Out of Vehicle Emergency Radios"). These hand-held radios are currently Motorola Astro digital SABER models. Originally, Motorola MX-series analog handheld units were used when the transition from VHF to UHF "T-band" dispatch/tactical frequencies was made in the early 1980's. Prior to that time, portable 2-way radios (known in LAPD jargon then as "CC units") were either VHF or UHF, mainly Motorola HT-200's and HT-220's, stocked in small quantities, and used mainly by specialized units such as Metropolitan division, SWAT (Special Weapons & Tactics), SIS (Special Investigations Section) and Narcotics divisions as stakeout tools. Another use was for footbeats "FB" units, mainly in Central division, in the late 1970's and early 1980's. ROVERs are normally utility belt-mounted. For convenience, smaller, corded, hand-held microphones can be plugged into these radios and then clipped to parts of the uniform shirt such as a front pocket or shoulder loop. MobilityTo patrol the 498 square miles of the city of Los Angeles, the police department utilizes a number of different types of vehicles: SedansWith few 9C1 Chevrolet Caprice vehicles remaining in the motor pool (as the final model year of the Chevrolet Caprice was 1996), the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is the only sedan for patrol in the department fleet. Only the sedan is permitted to engage in a vehicle pursuit, pursuant to department policy. Like most police agencies throughout southern California, Los Angeles Police Department vehicles are ordered painted in black clearcoat with the roof, doors, and pillars painted white from the factory. The Department has used this black-and-white paint scheme since approximately 1940 with minimal modifications which has only added to the LAPD's legendary reputation and image. Options available from Ford ordered by the Department today include the handle-bar spotlamps, 16-inch heavy duty steel wheels with chrome center caps, and ballistic panels within the two front doors. Installed equipment includes the lightbar, front-grill siren and control box from Federal Signal Corporation, the digital two-way radio by Motorola, a notebook PC to function as the Mobile data terminal, and a partition to separate the prisoner rear seating from the driver and front passenger seats. So-called "A-cars" and "X-cars" (eXtra patrol) also have mounted between the front seats in front of the partition a shotgun. Most police vehicles bear at least two rear bumper stickers: one reading "There's NO Excuse - For Domestic Violence" and another for "DARE" Drug Abuse Resistance Education. On the rear side panel is a black and white sticker that reads "EMERGENCY DIAL 9-1-1 Fire Police Medical." The front doors bears the seal of the city of Los Angeles, the department slogan "to protect and to serve" as well as the citywide five-digit "shop number" and city department name (POLICE). The last three numbers of the shop number (used to identify all vehicles operated by the city) are reprinted on the roof to help air units visually identify cars. On the trunk is a number that identifies which division the unit belongs to (e.g. a 25 would be "South Traffic Division" or a 3 would be "Southwest Area"). These cars appeared on the NBC television drama Adam-12: MotorcyclesKawasaki Police Motorcycles have represented the majority of the motorcycle vehicles in the motor pool with some Harley-Davidson motorcycles and increasingly, BMW motorcycles. Motorcycles are also painted black and white. These motorcycles carry a radio, code-3 equipment, a shotgun and documentation used by a police officer. During rain, motors are garaged, and traffic units patrol the city in sedans. Air Support DivisionImage:Lapd helicopter.jpg An LAPD helicopter The LAPD maintains the largest non-military airforce in the world. It maintains 17 helicopters, 1 fixed wing aircraft[3] and a number of UAVs. The helicopters are painted silver and blue. The letters LAPD appear on the top side of the aircraft in blue, capital letters. Typical air units include AS350 B2 A-Stars by Eurocopter and Bell 206B-IIIs and come with a wide variety of electronics and equipment that include a 1-million lux "night sun" spot light, optical and infrared binoculars, a LoJack signal receiver, police radio receiver in addition to the built-in aviation radio and then some. Two officers with at least three years of patrol car service fly in each air unit; they are armed and able to land and make arrests in areas not accessible by other means. They depart from the larger community police stations, such as West Valley division. Air units are considered crucial to officer safety, providing valuable information with regards to barricaded suspects, suspects fleeing on foot or in a vehicle, violent incidents involving large numbers of individuals, and then some. Air units are almost automatically requested when initiating a traffic stop on a "code 37" vehicle, or suspect with known wants or warrants that are a felony in order to limit the potential for a vehicle pursuit. Air units are grounded during poor weather (particularly dense fog) due to aviation safety. BicyclesOccasionally, "cycle" units go on patrol (usually in large numbers), especially during special events to provide fast and easy access to police assistance. Bicycle units may go on patrols lasting between 10-25 miles during any given beat. Bicycle units train rigorously (mainly in the hills of Elysian Park near Academy Road and Dodgers Stadium). The bicycles used by the Los Angeles Police Department are manufactured by Giant. HorsesMetro Division, known for its famous Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit, also has an Equestrian Unit that consists of approximately 35 police horses. Normally deployed during special events, specially trained officers also wear jeans as the pants to their uniform along with boots and a Stetson hat with the same Police shield as the one worn on the brim of the traditional police cap. Equestrian units normally appear in the city only during special occasions. Metro Division is also responsible for the Bomb Squad which uses K-9 units (also under Metro Division), making Metro Division responsible for not only police horses, but also for police dogs (which also wear ballistic vests) as well. LAPD organization
Currently, the Los Angeles Police Department is organized as follows: Image:Centralmetrofront.jpg Central Patrol Division Building
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. Force compositionDuring 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.[citation needed] 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. [4] 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. LAPD BadgesImage:LAPD Police Officer Badge.jpg Ranks of the LAPDThe ranks of the LAPD are as follows: LAPD Ranks
LAPD in the mediaBooks
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