William Bratton, right, shown with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 2008, was credited with driving crime rates down in Los Angeles during his tenure as police chief. (Evan Yee, AP)

The Los Angeles Dodgers, who came under fire for their terse reaction to the near-fatal beating of a fan in the Dodger Stadium parking lot after their season opener, announced Wednesday they have hired a former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department to assess security policies and procedures.

Bill Bratton, who served as chief of the LAPD from 2002-2009, will develop, according to a team press release, "a best practices security blueprint that extends to both the stadium and the parking lots."

Bryan Stow, a San Francisco Giants fan clad in the club's apparel, was beaten by two assailants in the Dodger Stadium parking lot following the Dodgers' opening-day victory. The suspects remain at large, while Stow remains in a medically-induced coma at County-USC Medical Center.

Like Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, Bratton is a Boston native. He served in the Vietnam War and began his career in Boston's police department.

Said McCourt in a press release: "Bill Bratton is widely credited with spearheading modern community policing in America. There is no one better to lead a top-to-bottom review of our current practices and make recommendations to be implemented now and into the future."

Bratton currently is the chairman of Kroll, a risk-mitigation company. Bratton and his staffers will commence work immediately, the Dodgers said.

McCourt had come under some criticism for saying that he was satisfied the club had done everything possible to secure Dodger Stadium.

Bratton was lauded for driving the crime rate down in Los Angeles over the course of his tenure; he utilized what the Los Angeles Times termed "an obsessive focus on crime data and a computer mapping system to identify areas of the city that require more policing."