Share your remembrances of Chief Gates

Photo: Los Angeles Times

Early Friday morning, as LAPD and LAPPL officials and members were gathering at Arlington National Cemetery for the burial service for Marine Sgt. Maj. and LAPD SWAT leader Robert J. Cottle, the sad news came from Dana Point that Chief Daryl F. Gates had died.

In the thousands of words written and spoken about Chief Gates in recent days, one of the consistent themes has been his innovative approach to crime fighting and prevention. Chief Gates won national attention for instituting SWAT teams to handle crises, and those of us in Arlington on Friday morning could not help but reflect on the fact that the man who developed SWAT died on the same morning as one of the finest SWAT officers in the nation was being laid to rest.

Recently, we invited all members to share their memories and personal experiences of R.J. Today, we ask the same for Chief Gates. We want to honor the man who spent his entire four-decade career at the LAPD and was our second-longest serving chief (serving nearly as long as his mentor, Chief William H. Parker), from 1978 to 1992. Please leave a comment here on our blog. Or, if you have a longer story and/or photos to share, send them to [email protected].

We shall never forget Chief Daryl Francis Gates.

04/20/2010 @ 05:00 PM - Attention: Due to a technical problem on our blog that has since been fixed, many of your tributes to Chief Gates were not transmitted to us (via our website) for us to post. We are extremely disappointed to have missed your responses and hope that you will take a few moments to resubmit your comments about this true icon of the Los Angeles Police Department. Thank you.