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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Authorities say two men suspected of robbing a street-corner Valentine's Day gift stand in Los Angeles were killed early Sunday in a car crash after leading police on a chase. Police Lt. Samuel Rhone says the men stole gift baskets and cash from a street vendor near downtown.....

Authorities say two men suspected of robbing a street-corner Valentine's Day gift stand in Los Angeles were killed early Sunday in a car crash after leading police on a chase.

LOS ANGELES (Jan. 27) -- On the evening of March 9, 1963, two plainclothes L.A. police officers spotted a car making an illegal U-turn on a Hollywood street and decided to pull the driver over. It proved to be a fateful decision. The driver was Gregory Powell. He and his partner, both armed robbers, got the drop on the cops, took their guns and drove them out into the Central Valley, where Powell -- mistakenly believing the kidnapping was a capital offense -- shot Officer Ian Campbell dead in the middle of a desolate onion field. The other officer, Karl...

The LAPD plans to launch its own Explorer program for young people this month, removing the Boy Scouts of America from management, officials said Tuesday. The Police Commission voted two months ago to end its relationship with the Scouts because of the organization's policies that discriminate against gays. The program had been operated by the Learning for Life Foundation, a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts. The move to create the Los Angeles Police Department's own teen program should be launched by Jan. 1, Deputy Chief Earl Paysinger told the Police Commission. "We have received inquiries from dozens of agencies on...

The LAPD is struggling to fill vacancies in gang units as a financial disclosure rule meant to fight corruption has been received by many rank-and-file cops as an insult -- and a deal-breaker when it comes to working the tough gangland assignments. After years of contentious battles with police union representatives over the issue, Los Angeles Police Department officials pushed through a policy in April that requires gang officers to disclose details of their personal finances. Intended to help supervisors catch cops who are taking bribes or to identify officers in financial straits who might be tempted to stray, the...

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...