Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States.[5] With 8,832 officers[5] and 3,000 civilian staff,[2] it is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the New York City Police Department and the Chicago Police Department.
"LAPD" redirects here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).City of Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
LAPD
To Protect and To Serve
December 13, 1869[1]
12,000 (2020)[2]
$1.189 billion (2020)[2]
503 sq mi (1,300 km2)
3,979,576 (2019)
100 West 1st Street
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
8,832 (2024)
3,000
- William J. Briggs II, President[3]
- Dale Bonner, Member
- Maria Lou Calanche, Member
- Steve Soboroff, Member
- Dominic H. Choi,
Chief of Police - Robert E. Marino, Assistant Chief of Operations
- Blake Chow, Assistant Chief of Special Operations
- Dominic H. Choi, Assistant Chief of Support Services
- Lizabeth Rhodes, Director of Constitutional Policing and Policy
- Central Traffic
- South Traffic
- Valley Traffic
- West Traffic
- LAX Field Services
- Robbery-Homicide
- Juvenile
- Technical Investigations
- Forensic Sciences
- Gang and Narcotics
- Detective Support & Vice
- Commercial Crimes
- Metropolitan
- Air Support
- Major Crimes
- Emergency Services
- Custody Services
- Security Services
- Central
- Rampart
- Southwest
- Hollenbeck
- Harbor
- Hollywood
- Wilshire
- West Los Angeles
- Van Nuys
- West Valley
- Northeast
- 77th Street
- Newton
- Pacific
- North Hollywood
- Foothill
- Devonshire
- Southeast
- Mission
- Olympic
- Topanga
- Media Relations
- Central
- South
- Valley
- West
- Detective
- Counter-Terrorism & Special Operations
- Transportation Services
- Professional Standards
- Administrative Services
- Personnel and Training
6,000
2
26
3
40
The LAPD is headquartered at 100 West 1st Street in the Civic Center district. The department's organization and resources are complex, including 21 community stations (divisions) grouped in four bureaus under the Office of Operations; multiple divisions within the Detective Bureau under the Office of Special Operations; and specialized units such as the Metropolitan Division, Air Support Division, and Major Crimes Division under the Counterterrorism & Special Operations Bureau. Further offices support the Chief of Police in areas such as constitutional policing and professional standards, while the Office of Support Services covers facilities management, personnel, and training, among other areas.
Independent investigative commissions have documented a history of police brutality, corruption, misconduct and discriminatory policing within the LAPD.[6][7][8][9] In 2001, the United States Department of Justice entered into a consent decree with the LAPD regarding systemic civil rights violations and lack of accountability that stretched back decades; following major reforms, the decree was lifted in 2013.[10][11]
Up to the Gates administration, the LAPD was predominantly white (80% in 1980), and many officers had resided outside the city limits.[40] 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 large concentration of LAPD officers, most of them white.[40] A 1994 ACLU study of officers' home ZIP codes concluded that over 80% of police officers resided outside the city limits.[40]
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 be hired on to the force. Minority officers can be found in both rank-and-file and leadership positions in virtually all divisions.
In 1910 the LAPD hired the first female police officer with the power to arrest in the United States, Alice Stebbins Wells.[41] LAPD's first Latina officer, Josephine Serrano Collier, was hired in 1946.[42] On the LAPD through the early 1970s, women were classified as "policewomen".[43]
Through the 1950s, their duties generally consisted as working as matrons in the jail system or dealing with troubled youths working in detective assignments.[43] Rarely did they work any type of field assignment, and they were not allowed to rise above the rank of sergeant.[43]
A lawsuit by a policewoman, Fanchon Blake, in the 1980s instituted court-ordered mandates that the department begin actively hiring and promoting women police officers in its ranks.[43] The department eliminated the rank of "policeman" from new hires at that time along with the rank of "policewoman".[43] Anyone already in those positions was grandfathered in, but new hires were classified instead as "police officers", which continues to this day.[43] In 2002, women made up 18.9% of the force.
In 1886, the department hired its first two black officers, Robert William Stewart and Roy Green.[12] The LAPD was one of the first two police departments in the country to hire an African-American woman officer, Georgia Ann Robinson in 1919.[44][45] Despite this, the department was slow at integration. During the 1965 Watts riots, only 5 of the 205 police assigned to South Central Los Angeles were black, despite the fact that it was the largest black community in Los Angeles. Los Angeles' first black mayor, Tom Bradley was a former LAPD officer, and quit the department after being unable to advance past the rank of lieutenant like other black police officers in the department. When Bradley was elected mayor in 1972, only 5% of LAPD officers were black[46] and there was only one black captain in the department, Homer Broome. Broome would break down racial barriers on the force going on to become the first black officer to obtain the rank of commander and the first black station commander, leading the Southwest Division.[47]
As of 2019, the LAPD had 10,008 sworn officers. Of these, 81% (8,158) were male and 19% (1,850) female. The racial/ethnic breakdown:[48]
The LAPD has grown over the years in the number of officers who speak languages in addition to English. There were 483 bilingual or multilingual officers in 1974, and 1,560 in 1998, and 2,500 in 2001 that spoke at least one of 32 languages.[49] In 2001, a study was released that found that non-English-speaking callers to the 911 and non-emergency response lines often receive no language translation, often receive incomplete information, and sometimes receive rude responses from police employees.[49] The issue of a lack of multilingual officers led to reforms including bonuses and salary increases for officers who are certified in second languages.[49] Currently, over a third of LAPD officers are certified in speaking one or more languages other than English.[50] The department also uses a device called the phraselator to translate and broadcast thousands of prerecorded phrases in a multitude of languages, commonly used to broadcast messages in different languages from police vehicles.[50]
The department presents a number of medals to its members for meritorious service.[77] The LAPD awards medals for bravery, service, unit citations, ribbons for assignment and time-specific service, and marksmanship.
The LAPD Medal of Valor is the highest law enforcement medal awarded to officers by the Los Angeles Police Department. The Medal of Valor is an award for bravery, usually awarded to officers for individual acts of extraordinary heroism performed in the line of duty at extreme and life-threatening personal risk.[77][78]
Public opinion[edit]
In a 2020 survey of Los Angeles residents, two-thirds said they believe the department is doing a good job maintaining public safety, while 88% supported community policing, 82% supported an unarmed response model, and 62% supported redirecting some money from the department to community initiatives.[79] There were differences of opinion along racial lines, with three in five white and Asian residents and one in three black residents trusting the LAPD to "do what is right".[79]
