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The Los Angeles Police
Department handles more than 3.3 million calls for service during the year.
About 1.9 million of these are 9-1-1 emergency calls. |
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Los
Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department, or LAPD, is one of the largest and certainly one of the most
famous
police departments in the world.
Its fame is largely attributed to the local motion picture
and
television industry which has frequently made it a subject of
police and crime dramas. Where
the department has much to be proud
of beside what has been portrayed on film and television
(for
example, the LAPD introduced the first woman police officer in the nation - see below), it
unfortunately also grabbed international headlines in such infamous cases as
the O.J. Simpson
murder investigation and the video-taped beating by officers of
motorist Rodney King and, more
recently, serious police abuse and
cover-ups at Hollenbeck Division.
LAPD Headquarters, Bureaus, and Stations
HEADQUARTERS
100 West First Street, Los
Angeles, CA 90012
LAPD
Field Bureaus & Stations
Administrative Services
Support Services
Total
number of sworn officers: 9,808
Total number of civilian employees: 2,730
(Above figures as of December 31, 2011
Percentage of Sworn Officers by Sex & Race
|
Sex & Race |
2012 |
2000 |
1983 |
|
Male |
81% |
82% |
94% |
|
Female |
19% |
18% |
6% |
|
Latino |
38% |
33% |
14% |
|
White* |
35% |
46% |
75% |
|
Black* |
17% |
14% |
10% |
|
Asian* |
7% |
7% |
1% |
|
Native American |
0.4% |
N/A |
0.3% |
|
Filipino |
2% |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Other |
0.1% |
N/A |
N/A |
* Non-Hispanic; N/A Data not available
Source:
Los Angeles Police Department
Parker Center
at 150 North Los Angeles Street, served as headquarters for the
LAPD since
1954. It was named for Chief William Parker. The new headquarters
building, just south of City
Hall with half a million square feet of space and a $437 million
price tag, was dedicated on
October 24, 2009.
In
1910, the nation was introduced to its first policewoman, LAPD officer Alice
Stebbin Wells.
Her duties included enforcing laws dealing with dancehalls,
picture shows, penny arcades, and
watching for “unwholesome billboard
displays."
The
motto, "To Protect and to Serve" is credited to LAPD Officer
Joseph S. Dorobeck who
submitted it in response to a 1955 contest for a motto
for the police academy. The conditions
were that "the motto should be
one that in a few words would express some or all the ideals to
which the Los
Angeles police service is dedicated. It is possible that the winning motto might
someday be adopted as the official motto of the Department." The academy
adopted Officer
Dorobeck's entry as the official motto. Through the years, it
became the slogan for every officer
coming through the academy. In 1963, the Los
Angeles City Council directed that this motto be
placed alongside the city seal
on LAPD patrol cars.
Two men who
served as Chief of the LAPD in the last 20 years previously headed
major East
Coast police departments. Chief Willie
Williams (1992-1997) previously served as Police
Commissioner
for the Philadelphia Police
Department. Chief William
Bratton (2002-2009)
previously served as Police
Commissioner
for the New York City and Boston Police
Departments
and Chief of the New York Transit Police.
LAPD deploys more than 1,200 patrol cars
("black and whites") throughout Los Angeles.
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