Anyone hoping we would see a downturn in assaults on police officers – in Los Angeles and nationwide – has to be deeply disappointed by statistics released last week by LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.
Chief Beck reported to the Police Commission that assaults...
The City’s approach to its current budget problems is hiring just enough replacements for LAPD officers lost through retirements and attrition. This approach, however, has been accompanied by an abandonment of the middle management positions needed for the...
On October 1, 2011, protesters encamped on City Hall’s front lawn and declared themselves part of the national Occupy movement protesting income inequality and corporate greed. City leaders promptly welcomed the Occupy L.A. protesters with open arms, with the...
More officers and better policing. That’s what a Los Angeles Times editorial stated recently as key reasons why L.A. is a much safer city...
Most people I speak with are unaware of the prison realignment plans being implemented by the state of California that disregard the safety of Californians and warrant a prompt reevaluation.
In addition to cuts to local public safety, the state intends...
Surprise, surprise. Some of the so-called “low-risk, nonviolent” inmates being sent to county jails are turning out to be far more dangerous than touted by advocates of prison realignment.
What went wrong? For starters, only the inmate’s most recent...
“I have a running joke,” attorney Gregory Smith told LA Daily News reporter C.J. Lin. “If I sue a supervisor, they’re going to get promoted within the next six months.” Smith should know. He’s filed dozens of lawsuits on behalf of LAPD officers against the...
The members of the Los Angeles Police Protective League are extremely gratified that the California Board of Parole Hearings recommended against granting a compassionate release...
He had a long criminal history that included assaults, firearms possession and making criminal threats; but under the state’s...
David Crane
Self-described pension expert and...
Los Angeles Police Officer Ian Campbell was killed by...
The news out of City Hall is bleak. Budget officials there are now reporting that Los Angeles' financial prospects are worse than expected, with a projected shortfall growing to $200 million next year.
Armando Jimenez, 13, and his sister, Ashley Jimenez, 7, stop to look at the memorial site for 4-year-old Christopher "Buddy" Rowe. (Christopher Chung / PD)
In April we warned of...
For several months we’ve been calling attention to the shocking disconnect between declining crime statistics and increasing assaults on police officers. The problem is growing more acute. The most recent statistics released show that violent attacks on LAPD...
The City has a serious liability problem and urgently needs better risk management. In the last fiscal year alone, it has...
For law-abiding citizens, these are tough economic times. But for convicted killers serving time in California prisons, it’s a time for...
A recent legislative hearing in Sacramento focused on the death penalty and its implementation costs. Ventura County Star writer Timm Herdt reports...
Many Californians remember with distaste the corrupt Texas energy company Enron, which in 2000 masterminded California energy shortages and blackouts, and shut down pipelines to manipulate the energy market. Now, a former Enron trader who reaped hundreds of...
A lot has changed in our country since the morning of September 11, 2001; the most noticeable being tightened security at American airports and borders, and a decade of military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Through all of it, members of the LAPD family have...
We’ve recently learned of plans under consideration that disregard the safety of Californians to such a degree that not only is greater attention warranted, but a prompt explanation is necessary.
The...
Crime fighting takes many forms. Patrolling neighborhoods to deter criminal activity and making arrests when crimes do occur are a big part of the job. But increasingly, efforts are underway through community-based policing programs to reach inner-city kids in...
Computers are a marvelous thing. They store information, churn data and generally make us all more productive. Often, though, there’s a need for human judgment and common sense to interpret a computer’s output.
A case in point is the California...
As we followed news reports in the first half of 2011, we suspected that law enforcement fatalities were up sharply. Sadly, statistics released this week by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund...
Zackariah Lehnen, a 31-year-old transient, has been charged with two counts of...
Officer...
In a predictable but no less galling move, death penalty opponents are seizing on the current state fiscal crisis as the latest reason to end the death penalty...
Many people around the state have been concerned because their vehicle registration tags expire in July and they haven’t received their registration renewal notices from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
If you’re one of those motorists, you don’t have...
In a disturbing disconnect, violent crime in Los Angeles is down 10.3 percent and property crime has declined by 7.9 percent, but it’s becoming more dangerous to be a police officer in this city.
Chief Beck reported this week that assaults on police...
