A General History of the Los Angeles Police Department
The year 1850 found our eager, young nation caught up in a whirlwind of exciting events. The three preceding years had seen tens of thousands of prospectors from around the world lured to California by the promise of sudden riches in the gold fields. The end of the Mexican War had added vast territories to the United States. California was welcomed into the Union as a state and the new state conferred cityhood on the once obscure pueblo of Los Angeles with its 1,610 inhabitants.
For many years thereafter, Los Angeles continued to reel under the impact of an arriving population for which it was totally unprepared. Hundreds of families of law-abiding farmers, ranchers, and storekeepers settled here, but so did gamblers, disillusioned miners from the Sierra foothills, saloonkeepers, horse thieves, and renegades. The Wild West indeed was never wilder.

History of the LAPD - 1850-1900




Vigilante justice had been practiced since 1836. When Stephen C. Foster was Mayor in 1854, he resigned to lead a mob, which removed a notorious suspect from jail and proceeded to hang him. Foster was promptly reelected. Such was the tenor of the times.

Because the City lacked a jail, suspects were confined in a county facility in which cells were conspicuously absent. To overcome this inconvenience, prisoners were chained to massive logs in the jail yard.

Sheriff James Barton was assassinated in 1857, followed by a wholesale roundup of suspects, 11 of whom legally departed this life on the gallows. Vigilantes, however, disposed of the actual murderer.

During the 1860s, there was such a climate of violence in Los Angeles, that a terrified group of residents, fearing for their lives and property, appealed to their French homeland for protection. The French government actually deployed troops in Los Angeles! How long they stayed and why their "occupation" was tolerated by the United States government is not known.

Tranquility in the 1870s was something wished for but rarely attained. Increased violence went hand in hand with increased prosperity. There were laws on the books that were not or could not be enforced. A population of 5,614 patronized 285 businesses, of which 110 were saloons.





Of all the violence prior to a day in October 1871, none was more tragic than a hanging of 19 Chinese by a mob. Denied protection under state law, the victims were easy prey to the frenzied crowd. Eight suspects were arrested and sentenced to San Quentin for two to six years. All were set free in 1873.

In 1875 the first horse patrol trotted down the unpaved streets. Personnel were paid $95 a month for their services, $5 more than the foot patrolmen and only $10 less than the City Marshal. The Department continued to deploy mounted officers until 1916.

The City Marshal and his staff had something less than the happiest of relationships. He was shot and killed by one of his subordinates. That occurrence may have led the City Council to appoint the first Board of Police Commissioners and select Jacob T. Gerkins as Chief in 1876. With Chief Gerkins came the first regulation uniform: a hip-length, blue serge coat and felt hat. Officers bought their own silver, 8-point badges for $6. Emil Harris, who assumed office after relinquishing the management and part ownership of a saloon, succeeded Gerkins in 1877.

From the earliest days, traffic posed problems. Chief George E. Gard fielded the first traffic squad in 1881, composed of an unknown number of officers, to "horse, wagon and carriage" control to ensure pedestrian safety.

Between 1876 and 1889, 15 Chiefs came and went, unable or unwilling to cope with the growing pains of a rowdy community. When, in 1885 Edward McCarthy was Chief, he commanded 18 officers and earned $150 a month. Department equipment was valued at $354. One year later, the Department hired its first two African-American officers, Robert William Stewart and Roy Green.

The Department came of age in 1889 when John M. Glass entered the first of his 11years as Chief. Central Station Headquarters, formerly housed in City Hall, moved to a new facility on West 1st Street, destined to remain in use for 60 years. Glass originated the first entry-level standards for recruit applicants and police professionalism was born under his direction.

History of the LAPD - 1900-1925


After serving as interim Police Chief for about one year, Walter H. Auble resumed duties as Captain of Detectives when, in September 1908, he was shot and killed by a burglary suspect. He became the third and highest ranking officer to lose his life in the line of duty.











A "Flying Squad" also came into being in 1918. It was equipped with two "high powered" automobiles operated by detectives after midnight to handle violent crimes commonly occurring during early morning hours. Violent crime obviously had no time clock. In the six-month period between October 1918 and March 1919, 17 police officers, two percent of all sworn personnel, lost their lives in the line of duty.





Between 1919 and 1923, eight Chiefs came and departed, each faced with conditions he was virtually powerless to correct, with one exception. August Vollmer, Chief of the Berkeley, California Police Department, agreed to serve for one year. The likelihood exists that he did not know that the bosses supported his selection in their efforts to silence the crusading news media.



History of the LAPD - 1926-1950
When James E. Davis became Chief in 1926, he formed a 50-man "gun squad" announcing that "the gun-toting element and the rum smugglers are going to learn that murder and gun-toting are most inimical to their best interest." He added that he would "hold court on gunmen in the Los Angeles streets; I want them brought in dead, not alive and will reprimand any officer who shows the least mercy to a criminal."

In addition to stressing marksmanship, Davis sought successfully to make LAPD officers known worldwide as firearm experts. He initiated the dragnet system for tracking down wanted criminals, stressed the value of statistics for determining crime trends, and fired more than 240 officers for "bad conduct."





A breath of fresh air flowed through the City and the Department in 1932 with the coming of the Summer Games of the 10th Olympiad, giving officers and the public alike a welcomed respite from strife and the agonies of the Depression. Olympic Police Headquarters was located at the new Coliseum and, under Chief Steckel, 800 sworn personnel, including three deputy chiefs, assumed law and order responsibilities. Throughout the Games, crimes were held to two robberies, eight burglaries, 39 thefts, and 10 auto thefts. No homicides occurred and traffic accidents were limited to 30.



During the days of the Depression, state law closed all California borders to anyone lacking identifiable means of support in order to curb the arrival of impoverished persons. The Department responded by assigning 126 officers to border patrol duties. The blockade lasted for two months. Officers operating two picket boats assumed patrol of the Los Angeles harbor. The Harbor Department later assumed these duties.

Corruption throughout local government reached new depths during the term of Mayor Frank L. Shaw whose brother, Joe, wielded self-imposed authority over the Police and Fire Departments. Mayor Shaw was ousted from office in a 1938 recall.



Arthur C. Hohmann became Chief in 1939. He devoted his two years in office to modernizing the organization of the Department, finding time to produce its present badge and denying the City Council the privilege of using police sirens.

When World War II arrived, manpower was seriously depleted due to the draft and enlistments. Many officers lived at the Academy with recruits housed in the gymnasium. They were allowed to leave the grounds on weekends only. Training was cut from three months to six weeks. Footbeats were deployed in Harbor Division to watch for enemy submarines and signs of an invasion. In 1943, when fights broke out between sailors and Mexican-Americans, four days of strife in the east-central part of the City became known as "the Zoot Suit Riots." ("Zoot Suit" came from the type of outfit worn by some East Los Angelenos who had formed into gangs. For the hostile sailors, the outfit was synonymous with "gangster.") Police intervention did little to reduce hundreds of injuries.

History of the LAPD - Chief Parker






History of the LAPD - Chief Davis
From the day Chief Davis took office until his retirement in January 1978, Ed Davis never left any doubt as to where he stood on any of several issues involving local law enforcement. Vigorous in leadership, outspoken and thoroughly competent, he relished referring to himself as "just a country boy doing my best to protect the City." The shrewd country boy was later to make his presence felt as a state senator. His many innovative programs included the Basic Car Plan under which uniformed officers were assigned to specific territories on a semi-permanent basis. Each officer had precise instruction to regard any criminal activity as a personal affront and to defend a "piece of turf" as though it was his own.

Davis expanded activities of Air Support Division, augmented computerization to include the Automatic Want and Warrant System, and greatly broadened the scope of advanced training in management and administration.



Davis started the School Buy Program in 1974. Undercover officers posing as students attended selected high schools to interdict the sale and possession of narcotics. The program remains highly effective and has the full approval of the Board of Education.



Chief Davis inaugurated the Management Principles to which the Department continues to respond. These twenty principles stress the importance of public participation in crime prevention, of friendly enforcement and the police-community partnership. He was also tireless in the pursuit of narcotic traffickers and street gangs and took steps to handle the increasing number of undocumented aliens. Chief Davis retired on January 1, 1978. Assistant Chief Robert F. Rock replaced him until the appointment of Daryl F. Gates on March 28 of the same year.

History of the LAPD - Chief Gates


The Chief assumed the responsibility of directing two events of international importance. In July and August of 1984 the City was to host the XXIII Summer Olympic Games, and in September 1987, Pope John Paul II was our guest for two days. On each occasion, the response of the Police Department in anticipation of terrorist activity, traffic jams, and crowd control was exemplary. At the conclusion of the Olympic Games, Chief Gates was able to comment as follows:

"What occurred proved to all the world that a free society can protect itself; that local law enforcement is capable of securing the safety of millions without federal or military control and direction and that individual police officers, by reason of a commitment to courtesy and professional pride, can win the confidence and friendship of a grateful public.

"History has recorded no other Olympiad when so much was demanded of a police department, when apprehensions of the doubters were so prevalent or when those fears were so thoroughly dispelled. It was a monumental undertaking. It was necessary to mobilize the Department for 33 days, coordinate Olympic assignments with regular patrol and traffic assignments and supply, equip and feed personnel for the biggest and longest unusual occurrence in Department history. The security measures were the most complex and exacting of any past Olympic Games. The planning effort had continued for over five and a half years. Subject to ever-changing conditions, it was developed in detail and flawlessly implemented. And this is what happened: Not a single act of terrorism occurred. Not one. We proved what a well staffed and adequately equipped police agency can accomplish."

In 1987, the two most disturbing problems facing the Department were narcotics trafficking and street gang violence. While enormous confiscation of drugs, cash, and weapons were increasingly made, Chief Gates spoke often and loudly about the "deadly plague invading our shores." More than half of all murders and bank robberies were narcotics related; 200 street and 10 motorcycle gangs infested the City with members in the thousands, committing 205 homicides, 1,711 robberies, 2,574 felonious assaults and 117 rapes. There were more than 5,000 victims of these and other gang-related crimes.



The Chief took equal pride in his origination of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams, which he pioneered in 1972 while in a command position. The LAPD since then has scrupulously selected and trained all specialists assigned to SWAT operations.

In doing more with less, Chief Gates turned to the residents of Los Angeles by recruiting volunteers to assist the Department. The old and young responded by the thousands, permitting sworn personnel to meet more pressing duties. They ranged from uniformed line reservists to youngsters enrolled in Deputy Auxiliary Police activities to clerical workers. They constituted 94 different groups with 55,305 members not including about 3,000 Block Club captains attached to Neighborhood Watch programs. Volunteers contributed 172,210 hours of time in 1987 or more than 21,500 8-hour days.

Fourteen years of planning and research culminated in 1983 with the activation of what was the most sophisticated communications system available to law enforcement anywhere in the world. Known as the Emergency Command Control Communications System (ECCCS), its primary feature provided greatly accelerated response to citizen calls for service via computers installed in black and white patrol vehicles.

By 1983, more than 1,300 officers, sorely needed in the field, had been replaced by civilian employees. Supply, Records & Identification, Automated Information, Fiscal Operations and Motor Transport Divisions had civilian commanding officers, in addition to Fiscal Support Bureau. Behavioral Science Section was headed by a civilian officer-in-charge, as was Public Affairs Section. Citywide communications was staffed largely by Police Service Representatives, a classification implemented in 1981 with the hiring of 238 civilians. All were employed in non-enforcement police operations heretofore performed by sworn personnel. The Department had about 2,500 authorized civilian positions. Most were clerical, but their number included specialists assigned to Scientific Investigation, Jail, and Property Divisions.



From the day he took office, Daryl F. Gates won the solid support of the people of Los Angeles by virtue of his patience, dedicated leadership, and perseverance in meeting and solving enormous problems. The Board of Police Commissioners and City Council entrusted him with the management of a budget in excess of $419,500,000 and command of over 7,200 sworn personnel and nearly 2,500 civilian employees. In his own way, Chief Gates took a place alongside William H. Parker and John M. Glass as the answer to their troubled times.

History of the LAPD - Chief Williams
However, 1992 was a watershed year for the Los Angeles Police Department, and for the Chief. The verdict in the Rodney King trial, which acquitted four LAPD officers, and the subsequent April rioting were flash points that placed the Department under a microscope of public scrutiny. National debates about race relations in America, the disintegration of urban America, and the role of police in these issues continued for months. No other agency withstood so much public examination, as did the LAPD in 1992. In the midst of this community trial, the Los Angeles Police Department experienced a change in Police Chiefs. With the retirement of Chief Gates, Chief Willie L. Williams took the helm in June of 1992. Chief Williams was the 50th Chief of Police and the first African-American and the first Chief from outside the Department to assume command in more than four decades. With Chief Williams came a grant of $607,000 from the Department of Justice to make changes within the Department. These changes included rebuilding the patrol force, rejuvenating the Basic Car Plan, and restoring the public confidence in the police department.





History of the LAPD - Chief Parks
On August 22, 1997, Deputy Chief Bernard C. Parks was officially sworn in as the 52nd Chief of Police of the Los Angeles Police Department before an estimated crowd of 3,000 in ceremonies at the Los Angeles Police Academy. The Chief was joined at the change of command ceremony by Mayor Richard Riordan, the Board of Police Commissioners and other city, state, and national dignitaries.





His plans for 1998 and the future will ultimately change the LAPD to bring improved quality police service to all the residents of Los Angeles and a leaner, more organized Department to be consistent with his vision for institutionalizing Community Policing.





Chief William H. Bratton was appointed as the 54th Los Angeles Police Chief on October 27, 2002.



A strong advocate of transparent community policing that embraces partnership, problem solving and prevention, he initiated a major re-engineering of the Los Angeles Police Department, moving towards a decentralized police bureaucracy with stronger area commands that are more responsive to local community needs, and better trained and motivated police officers.

Chief Bratton also initiated the internationally acclaimed COMPSTAT system in Los Angeles. COMPSTAT is the computer driven management accountability process that is an integral part of his decentralized management philosophy. It emphasizes a "management from the middle down" style that prioritized empowerment, inclusion, accountability, and the use of timely and accurate crime analysis to drive the organization. Chief Bratton had successfully utilized the COMPSTAT while he was the Police Commissioner in New York City.



"A History of the Los Angeles Police Department" document is a
compilation and addendum to:
"Los Angeles Police Department 1869-1984"
Published by the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club, Inc.
History Text: Copyright 1972, 1984; Captain Arthur W. Sjoquist
Library of Congress: 83-082172