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Criminals increasingly are choosing high-powered firearms such as assault weapons, a new survey of 166 U.S. police agencies shows.

Nearly 40% of the departments reported an uptick in the use of assault weapons, according to the Police Executive Research...

San Francisco voters may soon have the opportunity to decide major changes to the city's pension and retiree health care systems - both of which have seen their costs skyrocket as the city grapples with consecutive years of major budget deficits.

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In three years, up to nine of the 50 Los Angeles County courthouses may be shuttered as a result of state budget cuts, the county's presiding judge said.

In early 2010, as many as 300 court employees - in addition to 150 employees expected to leave on...

The city controller cannot conduct performance audits of other elected officials' offices, a Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday, effectively siding with City Attorney Carmen Trutanich in his feud with City Controller Wendy Greuel.

Judge Mark Mooney's...

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors today agreed to merge county police with the Sheriff's Department.

Employees of the Office of Public Safety are responsible for security at more than 450 county facilities, including hospitals and parks.

The Los Angeles Police Department is stepping up its motorcycle safety enforcement. Two or three times each month, the LAPD will dispatch additional officers to patrol areas of the city where motorcycle accidents frequently occur, said traffic grant coordinator...

Police Chief Charlie Beck pledged Tuesday to correct accounting practices in the LAPD's purchasing division, which an internal audit found had mismanaged millions of taxpayer dollars.

But Beck told the Police Commission there was no criminal wrongdoing...

In the Roaring Twenties, trolley riders stopped in traffic on 1st Street could view a giant poster of a Follies dancer through an open window of the old Los Angeles Police Department headquarters.

The poster was headlined "50 CUDDLING CUTIES NOW!"

General fund debt service on outstanding bonds, authorized but unissued bonds and proposed water bonds is set to peak in fiscal 2020 at $10.45 billion, compared with a current level around $6 billion, and stay near that level through fiscal 2028, Treasurer Bill...

Standard & Poor's, the venerable credit-rating agency, chose an opportune moment to unveil its annual fiscal scorecard for American cities, including those in California.Its release came as local governments were assessing the impact of recession on their...

Google is beginning to make its Google Apps suite available to the more than 30,000 employees of the City of Los Angeles, the result of a City Council vote in late October that selected integrator Computer Sciences Corporation's bid over 14 other proposals.The...

The LAPD under former chief William Bratton mismanaged and mishandled millions of dollars of taxpayer money - violating city policies in buying supplies and hiring vendors, according to an internal department audit.Covering the 2007-2008 fiscal year, the audit...

At today's L.A. City Council Public Safety Committee meeting (.pdf), the issue of what to do with the nearly emptied Parker Center is up for discussion. Since the new Police Administration Building opened in October, only the Scientific Investigation Division (...

Taking the first step to professionalize gang intervention workers, a city panel recommended Monday paying a group $200,000 to create a training academy.The Los Angeles Violence Intervention and Training Academy will develop a 150-hour program for intervention...

The union representing rank-and-file Los Angeles police officers says the rape and murder of Venice resident Eun Kang last week is the kind of crime that we could see more of if the state releases 40,000 prison inmates under a federal mandate.

Kang, 38,...

According to a forecast released today by UCLA economists, the California economy will continue to show little to no growth heading into 2010, but the national outlook will begin slowly improving over the coming year.

The UCLA Anderson Forecast...

There's little doubt that Maurice Clemmons murdered four Lakewood, Washington police officers on Sunday, Nov. 29th, 2009. He had become a suspect almost immediately after the shooting took place, and when a Seattle officer shot him to death a couple of days...

Whatever happened to "You do the crime you do the time?" In America it doesn't work that way anymore. We, as a society, are soft toward criminals and it often comes back to haunt us.

Just ask former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. He commuted the sentence...

Governments are reevaluating sentencing practices.

The number of people in U.S. prisons has grown at the slowest pace in nearly a decade, according to figures released Tuesday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The study also...

Shaken by the shooting death in broad daylight last month of a 17-year-old boy, San Pedro residents were reassured by police officials that all LAPD divisions are in line to receive more officers under new Police Chief Charlie Beck.

Los Angeles police...

The Los Angeles City Council delayed a vote Wednesday on a medical marijuana ordinance that could close hundreds of pot dispensaries across the city.

The council asked planning officials to return next week with zoning maps that show how many pot...

Earlier this week we told about the Los Angeles Police Department's $80 million deficit and the prospect of a continued freeze on hiring new cadets through January. Well, that doesn't look too good on newsprint, and the City Council backed off committee threats...

Click here to see a slideshow of the services.

About 20,000 mourners, mostly members of law enforcement from Washington state and across the country...

The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest state-run U.S. public pension, saw the value of first-quarter real estate holdings decline 30 percent and is terminating contracts with some investment firms behind the loss, a consultant for the...

The California Supreme Court's Los Angeles clerk office will close at the end of the year for "budgetary reasons," Chief Justice Ronald M. George announced Monday.

"The Supreme Court regrets making this decision, but it is important during tough economic...

As the city prepares to send a large delegation to Copenhagen for the Climate Control Conference, a city offical called Tuesday for a review on how much travel the city pays for.

"We are sending people all over the world at a time when we aren't giving...

Seeking to bring the city's medical marijuana dispensary boom under tight control, the Los Angeles City Council decided today to cap the total number at 70, but to allow those that originally registered with the city to remain open.

Under the city's 2007...

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...