Law Enforcement

Dodgers conducting Law Enforcement Appreciation Night
The Los Angeles Dodgers will conduct Law Enforcement Appreciation Night at Tuesday night's game against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. Levy Restaurants will offer a 25 percent discount at all concession stands, excluding alcoholic beverages, from 5-7 p.m. with the presentation of a valid law enforcement badge. Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey and Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer will throw an honorary first pitch. Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell and Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck will announce the Dodgers' starting lineup.
mynewsLA.com

LAPD Officer Thrown 30 Feet After Getting Hit By Civilian Car in Sylmar
An LAPD officer was struck by a car and launched 30 feet early Tuesday morning in Sylmar, deputies said. The accident occurred around 1:30 a.m. near El Cariso Community Regional Park where sheriff's deputies were looking for a robbery suspect. Deputies requested help from LAPD to help set up a containment area, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
NBC Los Angeles

LAPD shoots, kills man allegedly armed with handgun in Panorama City
Los Angeles police shot and killed a man who was allegedly armed with a handgun Tuesday afternoon in Panorama City, LAPD officials said. The shooting may be the first such encounter captured by the department's new body cameras. The officers involved in the shooting were assigned to the Mission Division, which was the first to receive the new technology just two weeks ago. Lt. John Jenal, an LAPD spokesman, confirmed the officers were wearing the cameras, but said Tuesday evening that investigators were still evaluating what the devices may have captured.
Los Angeles Times

Why The LAPD's Tesla Model S Will Be A Terrible Police Car
The Los Angeles Police Department recently acquired two electric vehicles for its enforcement fleet: a BMW i3 and a Tesla Model S. The i3 will handle light duty like traffic enforcement and neighborhood patrols, but the Tesla has been painted as the ultimate destroyer of police pursuits; vehicle pursuits are one of the LAPD's greatest challenges, but the Tesla Model S won't eliminate car chases. In fact, it really shouldn't even be involved. Now, don't get me wrong. The Model S is a fantastic car by just about all accounts -- the P85D version recently broke Consumer Reports' grading scale -- but it doesn't belong as a police pursuit vehicle. Just because the Model S is faster than most things on the road, that doesn't make it fit for police pursuits.
International Business Times

Police Search for Missing Northridge Man
The family of a missing 93-year-old Los Angeles man is urging the public's help to find him, police said Tuesday. Frank Smith Jr. was last seen around 10 a.m. on Sept. 3 in the 4100 block of Third Avenue in Los Angeles. Smith is a 5-foot-11 black man with gray hair and brown eyes and weighs about 205 pounds. He was last seen wearing a short-sleeve button down Hawaiian shirt, beige pants and a dark baseball cap. LAPD was unable to provide any further updates since Smith went missing.
NBC Los Angeles

San Fernando Valley ‘office creeper' stealing from Warner Center businesses
Los Angeles police are seeking the public's help in identifying a burglary suspect caught on surveillance video stealing from a San Fernando Valley business. The suspect is believed to have targeted at least four separate businesses in the Warner Center area between Aug. 31 and Sept. 8 and has targeted others in several other areas of the Valley and one location in Agoura Hills, said LAPD Detective Susan Brumagin of the Topanga Division.
Los Angeles Daily News

New L.A. Police Commission president: We need trust between public and cops
Entertainment attorney Matthew Johnson, the newest member of the Los Angeles Police Commission, was elected Tuesday to serve as its president. In a speech at the start of Tuesday's board meeting, Johnson vowed to restore trust between the public and the Los Angeles Police Department. Johnson, who is black, said the LAPD is not immune to the distrust aimed at law enforcement agencies around the country stemming from questionable police shootings involving minorities and excessive force by officers.
mynewsLA.com , NBC Los Angeles

No Sign of Ontario Mother Who Vanished Without Kids, Car or Cellphone; Friend Fears For Her Safety
It has been 11 days since a 33-year-old woman vanished from her Ontario home under circumstances police were calling "unusual," since the mother of three left without taking her children, car or cellphone with her. Sally Mityas was last seen around 11 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 4 at the Briar Avenue home she shared with her boyfriend, their children and his two brothers, according to investigators with the Ontario Police Department.
KTLA 5

City Government

County supervisors defeat attempt to add exemptions to $15 minimum wage
Los Angeles County supervisors rejected a push to exempt nonprofits and job-training programs from a plan to increase the minimum wage for workers in county-controlled areas to $15 an hour by 2021. The measure to increase the wage in unincorporated areas was first passed by a split vote in July. The board approved the final language of the plan by the same 3-2 vote Tuesday. Conservative Supervisors Don Knabe and Michael D. Antonovich — who also opposed the wage increase — sought the last-minute exemptions for nonprofits, seasonal workers and workers in job-training programs such as Homeboy Industries.
Los Angeles Times , mynewsLA.com

Death Penalty

New initiative would end California death penalty
Already on life support, California's death penalty would be abolished entirely under a proposed ballot initiative. The proposal would strike death as a possible punishment from the state's Penal Code, substituting life imprisonment without parole where state law currently allows for the death penalty. Its proponent, actor Mike Farrell, would have 180 days from when the secretary of state's office enters the measure into circulation to collect 365,880 signatures. California has not executed a death row inmate in nearly a decade, a point Farrell's initiative stresses in calling the death penalty an “empty promise” that drains public resources.
The Sacramento Bee