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LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A 32-year veteran who helped clean up a corruption-plagued division of the Los Angeles Police Department was unveiled Wednesday as the city's new top cop. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the appointment of deputy chief Charlie Beck as head of the LAPD following the decision of chief William Bratton to resign earlier this year. Villaraigosa said Beck was "the right man to lead the Los Angeles Police Department at the right time." "He's a man of character and integrity. He's a police officer who is tough on crime, and he's a leader with deep respect...

On Thursday morning, at just after six o’clock, a lone gunman shot and wounded two men in the underground parking area of the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic synagogue, in the North Hollywood area of Los Angeles. Given the setting and the scant details immediately available, it is unsurprising that the Los Angeles Police Department responded on the assumption that the crime may have been an act of terrorism. Los Angeles has a large Jewish population, and a visitor to any synagogue or other Jewish facility in the city is bound to notice the signs of vigilance against the threat that...

Video Clicky Here The LAPD has just released a new Orwellian commercial for iWatch, a program that encourages residents to spy on each other and report any “suspicious behavior” (whatever that means) to the authorities, who we’re assured will sort everything out. Unsurprisingly, many people are reacting negatively to the ad. Huffington Post commenters call the ad “scary,” “hysterical,” and one individual muses about how long it’s going to take Apple to sue the LAPD for copyright infringement. NBC Los Angeles declares that the LAPD is “creeping out America.” This isn’t the first time a creepy spying ad has...

Just heard a massive government presence on Wilshire Blvd near the CIA offices - anyone close to know what is going on?

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Police Chief William Bratton stunned the city Wednesday by announcing he will step down after a seven-year tenure in which he instituted major reforms of the once-scandalized Police Department and began a turnaround of its relations with minorities. "For me personally and professionally it is the right time," Bratton, 61, told a City Hall news conference where he revealed he will begin working with a global security firm. Bratton said when he came to the Police Department, "it was a troubled organization in what was arguably a very troubled city."

The city of Los Angeles was awarded a $16.3-million, three-year grant today for 50 new police officers as part of the nation’s federal economic stimulus package. But city officials had hoped to be able to hire up to 450 officers through the program to help flesh out the city’s police force. The Justice Department was flooded with applications for $8.3 billion in grants and 39,000 officers -- leading the agency to cap the number of officers awarded to individual agencies. At the time L.A. officials applied for the grant they did not know that federal officials were going to institute...

Detective Diane Webb was determined. The Grim Sleeper, an anonymous killer who’d stopped murdering for 13 years, had resurfaced, and she had a plan for tripping him up. It was the fall of 2008, and she happened to show Detective Lauren Rauch, one of 33 officers who work for Webb monitoring the city’s vast population of registered sex offenders, a recent L.A. Weekly news story headlined, “The Grim Sleeper: The most elusive serial killer west of the Mississippi took a 13-year break. Now he’s back, murdering Angelenos, as cops hunt his DNA.” Webb, a hardcore number-cruncher and sex-crimes expert, floated...

LOS ANGELES-- The Los Angeles Police Department has been released from a long running decree after a federal judge decided the department had reformed significantly from prior corruption charges. The city was forced into the consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice after the Rampart corruption scandal and brutality complaints. The agreement, which aimed to improve the LAPD's policing standards, meant more than 100 reforms to the department, the tightening of internal checks on officers' conduct, improved training, increased oversight of the anti-gang unit at the center of the Rampart corruption scandal, and a ban on racial profiling. The...

Multiple law enforcement sources tell TMZ the LAPD is already treating Michael Jackson's death as a homicide, and they are focusing on Dr. Conrad Murray. Law enforcement sources tell us the evidence points to the anesthesia Propofol as the primary cause of Jackson's death. As we first reported, vials of Propofol were found in Jackson's home after he died. Law enforcement sources say there is already "plenty of powerful evidence" linking Dr. Murray as the person who administered the drug to Jackson. The evidence includes various items found in Jackson's house, including the Propofol, an IV stand and oxygen tank....

LA police chief: Jackson investigation might turn criminalBy Deutsche Presse Agentur His statements Thursday to CNN were the clearest indication yet that some of the many doctors who treated Jackson over the years could have helped him illegally get the prescription drugs that were suspected of being a factor in his death. Bratton's comments came as the Jackson family was waiting for the results of the pop star's official autopsy and the independent autopsy that were conducted shortly after his June 25 death. "We are still awaiting corroboration from the coroner's office as to cause of death," Bratton told CNN....

The map, touted as a way for residents to monitor the safety of their neighborhoods, doesn't include about 19,000 serious crimes reported in other LAPD data. Officials say they're looking into it. The Los Angeles Police Department's online crime map intended for public use has failed to include nearly 40% of serious crimes reported in the city. In one of those rapes, a man hid in the back of a woman's car, forced her to drive to an abandoned North Hollywood apartment and assaulted her. It was the kind of incident that residents of the neighborhood around Sherman Way and...

LOS ANGELES, June 30 (UPI) -- The Los Angeles Police Department, hoping to improve relations with Muslims, has appointed the force's first Islamic chaplain, police officials said. Pakistan-born Sheik Qazi Asad, 47, will become a reserve chaplain at the North Hollywood station, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. "We need to establish very good communication ... where both parties are talking to each other," Asad told the Times. "This is just opening up the door." Asad, a U.S. citizen, has spent a decade working to improve relations between police and Muslim communities in Los Angeles County. The LAPD hopes he'll...

Police in Los Angeles were preparing to interview a doctor to establish whether Michael Jackson was injected with a strong painkilling drug shortly before he suffered a fatal heart attack. Detectives confirmed their intention to question the singer's personal physician, amid reports that Jackson was already dead by the time paramedics arrived on the scene on Thursday. Reports in the US suggested Jackson had stopped breathing after taking an injection of the prescription drug Demerol, a commercial name for pethidine, which can cause cardiac arrest if too large a dose is given. A silver BMW is taken from Michael Jackson's...

The Los Angeles Police robbery and homicide division has been assigned to investigate the death of Michael Jackson, department officials said today. "There is no immediate indication of a crime," a police official told ABC News, "but because of the high profile nature of the case the robbery and homicide detectives with review all evidence and work with the coroner's office." Los Angeles police were reported to be seeking a doctor who was with Jackson when he collapsed yesterday at his rented mansion in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles. The LAPD is also reportedly searching for a doctor who...

Los Angeles police released security video today that captures unruly celebrants of the Lakers NBA finals victory helping themselves to merchandise at a Shell gas station convenience store blocks from the Staples Center. The footage, shot June 14 by a security camera at the rear of the store in the 600 block of West Olympic Boulevard, shows a group of about two dozen men swarming the store and helping themselves primarily to juice, soda and energy drinks in a large cooler. The mob shouted, “Free soda, free soda” as they grabbed merchandise in a two-minute rush in which they also...

“It could have been a lot worse.” So said Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger of the downtown L.A. melee that followed the Lakers’ victory over the Orlando Magic last Sunday. If that’s the standard the LAPD is shooting for these days, the city is in big, big trouble. By the time the last of the Lakers’ “fans” were cleared from the streets that night, eight police officers had been injured, three businesses looted, and several cars and transit buses vandalized, all broadcast live from television news helicopters. You just knew there was a problem with LAPD’s response...

An appeals court Wednesday upheld the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Order 40, a policy governing how officers interact with immigrants.

George Torres' future looked pretty bleak: The supermarket mogul had been stripped of his riches by government prosecutors, convicted in a massive racketeering case and was awaiting a potential life sentence in federal prison. But in a stunning reversal of fortune Tuesday, the government released its grip on Torres' assets, a judge tossed out the most serious convictions against him, and he was ordered set free -- at least for now. The turnaround came after prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles turned over tape-recorded conversations that contained information that was potentially beneficial to Torres' defense regarding at...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― Authorities are getting prepared for the possible riotous celebration that may accompany a Los Angeles Lakers NBA championship win on Sunday night. "We have the ability to put together resources very quickly if we go to (tactical) alert -- to pull resources in from around the city," Los Angeles police Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said. McDonnell says the LAPD plans to deploy heavier than usual that night so the department will have the sufficient resources to deal with whatever happens. Staples Center usually shows away games on its outdoor big-screen televisions, but will not on Sunday...

LAPD Det. Stephanie Lazarus was led into L.A. County Superior Court at about 10 a.m. to formally face charges of premeditated murder in connection with the fatal shooting two decades ago of her ex-boyfriend's wife. Instead, her arraignment was continued to July 6. Lazarus, 49, was dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit; her curly hair was styled straight. She was represented by attorney Mark Pachowicz. She was wearing handcuffs chained to her waist, and sat in a chair with her legs crossed in the suspect pen. She spoke with her attorney through a narrow, barred window. Lazarus could face the...

Violent crime in Los Angeles is dominated by blacks and Hispanics. Straw-man arguments can't alter this uncomfortable fact. In sitting down to write this column, I had what we might call a Groundhog Day sensation, as though I’ve been here many times staring at the blank screen only to have the same words and arguments come to mind. Well, what else can a cop do? When the ACLU keeps trotting out its old horses, I must trot out my own. I refer to an op-ed in Thursday’s Los Angeles Times by the ACLU’s Mark Rosenbaum and Peter Bibring, in which...

Veteran detective's arrest in 1986 killing stuns the LAPD LAPD Det. Stephanie Lazarus had earned commendation for her work tracking stolen artwork and forgeries. Police allege Det. Stephanie Lazarus, 49, shot her ex-boyfriend's wife, then harbored the secret for more than two decades. By Andrew Blankstein and Joel Rubin June 6, 2009 Shortly after she sat down at her desk on the third floor of LAPD headquarters Friday morning, Det. Stephanie Lazarus was told a suspect in the basement jail had information on one of her cases. The 25-year police veteran went quickly downstairs. As Lazarus removed her firearm to...

"Who knew the badge, the holster and the iconic dark blue threads worn by Los Angeles police officers could make punching the clock so complicated? A federal judge ruled this week that Los Angeles Police Department officers should be paid for the time it takes them to put on and take off their uniforms and safety equipment, a decision that could cost the city millions of dollars in back pay and higher salaries." "In a 39-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess found that the several minutes it takes an officer to dress for duty is a vital part...

The first wave of slayings haunted Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. The killer slipped mostly unseen through the night, preying on older women who lived alone. He raped them and squeezed their necks until they passed out or died. On the 17 who were killed, he placed pillows or blankets over their faces. The second wave hit a decade later in Claremont -- five older women raped and strangled, faces again covered. Even with at least 20 survivors, police never connected the two homicide-and-rape rampages nor solved either of them. The victims gave conflicting descriptions of the rapist, police in...

Olson took part in two bank robberies to help fund the SLA, according to court documents. During the Carmichael robbery, Olson "entered the bank with a firearm and kicked a nonresisting pregnant teller in the stomach. The teller miscarried after the robbery," the documents said. In August 1975, Los Angeles police found homemade bombs under two squad cars. They were designed to explode when the car moved, but neither device detonated. Authorities cast the attempted bombings as payback for the bloody shootout that left Atwood and other SLA members dead. A probe into the gunbattle helped police arrest Hearst, the...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A saga that began in the violent cauldron of California's 1970s radical counterculture and took a dramatic turn into a quiet middle-class neighborhood in Minnesota is about to come to an end. Sara Jane Olson, who was a fugitive for a quarter-century after attempting to kill Los Angeles police officers and participating in a deadly bank robbery near Sacramento as a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, is scheduled to be released from a California prison next week.

LOS ANGELES — The driver of a white Bentley who led police on a three-hour slow speed chase on Los Angeles freeways has stopped on a street in Universal City north of Hollywood, but has yet to surrender to authorities. California Highway Patrol and police officers with guns drawn are surrounding the car, which has its trunk open. Los Angeles police Officer Karen Smith says the chase began shortly before 8 p.m. Monday on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood before the car pulled over on the same street more than three hours later. Smith says the driver is wanted for...

OAKLAND -- To an outraged public that watched an amateur video of the scene, it looked like an open-and-shut case of police brutality. But after lawyers for four white Los Angeles police officers dissected the video footage and told jurors to put themselves in the shoes of officers under stress, a jury delivered not-guilty verdicts in the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King. After six days of riots and 54 deaths, federal prosecutors filed civil rights charges and won convictions against two of the officers.The King case becomes a cautionary tale for prosecutors now that Alameda County District Attorney...

This was by far my favorite show. I really don't watch TV at all anymore except at break on work, but I would always go out of my way to catch up with "The Shield". Thoughts: When Mackey confesses to his crimes, hearing everything he's done at once is a real shocker. We have seen some of the things he has through the episodes, but he always has something "good" he does as well (like saving that priest from blackmail, getting that young gang banger into a juvi program, etc). But when we hear everything at once, it really hits...

It pays to riot in Los Angeles. The actual price is $13 million. if you break the law, hit police offices and reporters, yell obscenities, willing to sue the city. You can make a lot of money from a city that cares more for rioters than cops. It must be frustrating to police—they do their job and lose their jobs. Those that hit them with bottles and sticks, those who ORGANIZED the riot, now become rich people. On the backs of the poor of LA, criminals become rich and police look for new jobs. LA has a deficit of $400...

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police say a security guard at a Scientology building shot and killed a man wielding a sword.

Police officers have requested that marchers not block traffic, but when these requests have been ignored, police commanders prohibited officers from taking any action to restore order. Thus in parts of Hollywood and West Los Angeles, where afternoon commutes can be hellish on the best of days, drivers unfortunate enough to be caught in any of these protests have found themselves helplessly delayed as marchers flooded into the streets, even as dozens of LAPD officers looked on from nearby waiting for orders that never came. It’s interesting to note that the Los Angeles protests have been confined to such liberal...

Like most police officers in America, I have thus far found myself immune to the many and varied charms of Barack Obama. Cops, regardless of their political affiliation, tend to be conservative, certainly few more so than I. Furthermore, we can spot a con job, and though Senator Obama has a smoother delivery than most who have risen from the fetid pond of Chicago politics, he nonetheless strikes me as a man who, should I find myself in his company, would have me checking for my wallet and watch after he had gone. But a strange thing happens to a...

..."The LAPD has been repeatedly criticized for its huge backlog of untested DNA evidence, but officials have said that they lacked the money to move faster on the cases. Chick's report, however, found that the logjam existed even though the department had received nearly $4 million in grants in recent years to address the problem. According to the city audit, there are 217 rape kits that have sat on the shelves in LAPD property rooms that are beyond the 10-year statute in which to prosecute the crimes. "They are totally useless and that number is growing every day." Chick said."...

On Aug. 14, at around 3 p.m. my wife stepped out of Target in El Centro. I stayed in Target to throw away the trash because we ate in the “Food Ave.” When I walked outside, my wife informed me that a guy in a four-door, silver-colored car sped down the parking lot and somewhat yielded as my daughter was crossing the parking lot intersection. As soon as the driver saw enough room to squeeze by the curve and my daughter, he accelerated fast enough to make the tires skid causing a burning rubber noise (also scared my daughter). He...

I am looking for a freeper in the LA area who would be willing help me out. I received a latter in the mail from the LA Police Department. They have recovered a firearm that was stolen from me over a decade ago. They would like to return it to me however there is a catch. I, or my "agent," has to pick up the firearm at a LA police station. They will dispose of the firearm at the end of October if I do not pick it up before then. My problem is that I live is San Jose...

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy gunned down Saturday outside his boyhood home in Cypress Park had been assigned to guard the most dangerous inmates in the county, including members of the notorious Mexican Mafia gang, authorities said Sunday. Los Angeles police and sheriff's officials said the prospect that Deputy Juan Abel Escalante was killed because of his work at the jail remained one of three possible motives. Investigators were also considering the possibility that neighborhood gang violence or a personal grudge were behind the killing. As of right now, all of those possibilities are on the table," said Los...

VAN NUYS - On a recent stakeout, LAPD Officers David Hopkins and Steve Johnson slink down low in their unmarked car, ready to bust the type of criminal known to kill 16,000 people every year. Ordered by a judge not to drive, the man under their surveillance pulls up to his house, driving his father's car. Alcohol hangs on his breath. Eric Bernardo Davila is no murderer, rapist or terrorist. But with his growing arrest record, he's almost as dangerous. He's a habitual drunk driver - three DUIs and just 31 years old. And he's one of thousands of chronic...

LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton has come out -- in favor of gay marriage. As a wedding gift to friend and celebrity publicist Howard Bragman and his longtime partner, Chuck O'Donnell, Bratton made it official: He and his wife, former Court TV diva Rikki Kleiman, strongly believe that gays have a right to marry. And in honor of Bragman and O'Donnell, who wed this past week in Norwalk, the chief and Kleiman have made a donation to Equality California, a group seeking to stop a state ballot measure this November that would ban same-sex marriages. "The Constitution guarantees life,...

Two years ago, newly elected Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vowed to put 1,000 more cops on the city's dangerous streets and proposed to raise trash collection fees to provide the money. "Every new dollar residents pay for trash pickup," the mayor promised in a city news release, "will be used to put more officers on the streets." Residential trash collection was boosted from $11 a month to $26. The new fees generated $137 million, but the city hired only about 400 more cops, according to a recent report from City Controller Laura Chick, and they cost about $42 million....

A federal appeals court upheld a $15 million jury verdict for three Los Angeles police officers who alleged they were falsely arrested and prosecuted as part of the Rampart corruption scandal. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said there was evidence to support the jury's verdict that the city and the Los Angeles Police Department violated the officers' constitutional rights by arresting and charging the men without an adequate investigation. The jury had awarded $5 million each to LAPD Officer Paul Harper, Sgt. Edward Ortiz and former Sgt. Brian Liddy. With interest and attorney fees, the city is now liable...

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the LAPD's controversial Special Order 40, which directs officers not to ask arrestees about their immigration status. The city of Los Angeles and the ACLU had asked the judge to dismiss the suit.

About 50 protesters marched in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to decry violence by illegal immigrants and to demand that the Los Angeles Police Department change its controversial policy limiting when someone can be questioned about their immigration status. The marchers, including anti-illegal-immigration Minutemen and local community activists, also called for justice for Jamiel Shaw II, 17, a black athlete who was shot and killed in March by an alleged gang member who was in the country illegally.

FORMER LAPD VETERAN CHARGED WITH POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY AND CHILD ANNOYANCE AFTER TAKING SEXUAL PICTURES OF YOUNG GIRLS AT 2007 STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL GARDEN GROVE – A former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) veteran was arrested and charged today with felony possession of child pornography and multiple counts of child annoyance following an extensive joint investigation by the Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) and Garden Grove Police Department (GGPD). Ralph Cameron Lakin, 53, La Palma, was charged with one count of felony possession of child pornography involving Jane Doe #10, eight counts of misdemeanor child annoyance involving Jane Does #1...

Local Media was there, KTLA and FOX, so watch the news. Lots more pictures: http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm86/wendylajamielshaw/?albumview=slideshow This was very emotional event. The marker marking the spot where Jamiel Shaw was shot down is just three doors down from their family home. Attending was Terry Anderson, Jesse Lee Peterson of BOND, Sheriff Lee Baca and City Councilman Zine. Sheriff Lee Baca spoke briefly of the need for "intervention programs" to prevent young people such as Pedro Escobar from joining gangs. This was generally met with groans and eye rolls. City Councilman Zine spoke of his initiative to amend Special Order 40. He...

A fight between rival groups of black and Latino students at Locke High School quickly escalated into a campus-wide melee Friday, with as many as 600 students brawling until police restored calm with billy clubs. The troubled campus in South Los Angeles was locked down after the fight broke out at 12:55 p.m., as students returned from lunch to their fifth-period classes. Overwhelmed school officials called Los Angeles police for help, but students and faculty said it took about half an hour before dozens of officers, many in riot gear, restored order. "The kids were crazy, running from place to...

New York City police officers fire their weapons far less often than they did a decade ago, a statistic that has dropped along with the crime rate. But when they do fire, even at an armed suspect, there is often no one returning fire at the officers. Officers hit their targets roughly 34 percent of the time. When they fire at dogs, roughly 55 percent of shots hit home. Most of their targets are pit bulls, with a smattering of Rottweilers and German shepherds. Officers’ guns go off unintentionally or by accident for a variety of reasons: wrestling with suspects,...

LOS ANGELES — Rana Parker tells pudgy police they have the right to remain chubby, but it can and will be used against them on the streets of Los Angeles. The dietitian lays down the law for recruits, veterans and top brass, letting them know that eating right can help them do a better job and could even save their lives.

LOS ANGELES—When May Day protesters take to the streets downtown to call for immigration reform, police will be using new tactics and technology in hopes of overcoming the memory of last year's event. LAPD officers pummeled demonstrators and reporters with batons and opened fire with rubber bullets last May Day, rekindling accusations of excessive force that have dogged the LAPD for decades. Police brass have spent the past year trying to undo the damage done during those few minutes at MacArthur Park. Chief William Bratton promised things would be different Thursday and made a point of meeting with organizers beforehand....

The report to the city Police Commission is greeted with skepticism. 'This is not a racist department,' Chief Bratton says in defending the report. Los Angeles Police Department officials announced Tuesday that they investigated more than 300 complaints of racial profiling against officers last year and found that none had merit -- a conclusion that left members of the department's oversight commission incredulous. It is at least the sixth consecutive year that all allegations of racial profiling against LAPD officers have been dismissed, according to department documents reviewed by The Times. In 2007, the LAPD's Internal Affairs Group closed 320...