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Los Angeles
Police Protective League
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the union that represents the
rank and file LAPD officers
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Daily Local & Regional NewsWatch
Daily News Digest
from LA Police Protective League
October 2, 2019 |
Law Enforcement News
LAPD Leadership Making Suicide Prevention A Priority Until recently
The Los Angeles Police Department had a record streak going. No officer died by suicide for over two years. Before 2017the department was averaging two per year. LAPD points to several initiatives for their success. Proactive efforts by the Behavioral Science Unit, the police protective league increasing awareness, and leadership making suicide prevention a priority. Unfortunately, the streak ended a few weeks ago. NBC4 has learned of a recent death of a veteran detective. "Every day this fight has to go on," LAPD police Chief Michel Moore says. One example, the second annual heart of LAPD walk for suicide awareness and prevention. Organizers include the widow of a slain officer, and police psychologists who work with officers daily. Over 1,000 people shared stories as they walked.
NBC 4 |
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Complaints Against LAPD Rise As Body-Worn Cameras Help Exonerate Officers And Prove Misconduct
Years after spending millions on body-worn cameras, the devices have shown that a small number of Los Angeles police officers committed misconduct while the public levied many false allegations against cops last year, according to a department report. In 2018, the recordings helped determine officers committed infractions in 56 cases. But police leaders found another 264 complaints against officers “demonstrably false” or resulted in complete exoneration, according to an annual report presented Tuesday to the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners. Both of those figures rose significantly from five and 79, respectively, the prior year. The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file officers, said the report shows LAPD “officers continue to provide excellent service in a professional manner and demonstrates the reality that officers fall victim to hundreds of false complaints a year.” The false complaints waste resources and harm officers careers, the union's board of directors said in a statement. The union said it is a strong advocate for effective training that improves officer and community outcomes. “As police officers, we are always looking for opportunities for continuous improvement and quality training,” the statement said.
Los Angeles Times |
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LAPD Rallies At Elementary Schools Seek To Discourage Students From Joining Gangs, Bullying
It isn't your typical auditorium assembly. Los Angeles police officers are tackling a serious issue, using a fun and hands-on approach. Outside on the playground of Harding Elementary, officers are asking kids to "Just Say No" to gangs, crime, drugs, and bullying. The kids danced, played games, and most important, took a pledge not to bully. Despite the efforts of many schools to prevent it, the LAPD says it has seen a rise in bullying. Last week, a 13-year-old Moreno Valley boy died, following injuries he suffered during a campus fight. In a separate incident, a student in Orange County was arrested for fighting. According to a 2017 survey from the California School Climate, 25 percent of students had experienced harassment or bullying in the last 12 months. Twenty percent had experienced cyber bullying in the last 12 months. This is why parents believe these programs are so important. This is the LAPD's 44th "Just Say No" rally at an elementary school. Officers say it's never too early to teach these important lessons.
ABC 7 |
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LAPD Bodycam Video Shows Officer-Involved Shooting Of Armed Man With Slungshot Weapon In Venice, Police Say
Body camera footage released Monday by the Los Angeles Police Department shows the officer-involved shooting of a man in Venice who authorities say was armed with a slungshot weapon and a wooden plank. Officers shot 37-year-old John Penny in the leg and forearm on Aug. 14, near Thornton Court and Pacific Avenue, the LAPD said. The incident began as a police response to reports of a screaming man. According to investigators, the shooting occurred after Penny picked up the wooden plank and moved toward the officers, ignoring their repeated commands to put it down. Penny, who was on probation for battery at the time of the incident, subsequently surrendered and was taken into custody. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office later charged him with three counts of preventing an executive officer from the performance of their duties, and one count of possession of a dangerous weapon.
ABC 7 |
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Woman Robbed At Gunpoint For $500 Purse On Front Porch Of West Hills Home
Authorities are looking for two suspects who were caught on security video robbing a woman on the doorstep of a West Hills home Monday night. The robbery occurred just after 10:30 p.m. in the 7700 block of Woodhall Avenue, according to Los Angeles police. The video shows a woman on the front porch, about to enter the home, when a hooded man rushes towards her brandishing what appears to be a handgun. “Give me your f—— purse,” the suspect is heard saying several times. The suspect waves the handgun at her as he rips the $500 purse from off her shoulder, turns and runs away. A second suspect who was standing on the front lawn during the robbery flees as well. The woman was not injured during the ordeal. She gave chase for a bit before realizing she wouldn't be able to catch up, and saw the car drive off. Her father told CBSLA that there were actually three suspects: the two men seen in the video and a third man waiting in a getaway car.
CBS 2 |
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71-Year Sex Crimes Sentence For Sun Valley And San Fernando Wrestling Coach
For nearly two-and-a-half decades, former wrestling coach Terry Gillard used his position as a trusted community member to draw poor and struggling students into wrestling for his teams in San Fernando and Sun Valley. Once they were in his thrall, joining what he called his inner circle of wrestlers, prosecutors said, Gillard would manipulate his teenage victims into depraved sexual encounters with himself and other students. To keep them in line, Gillard demanded loyalty, deriding other students as “snitches” who weren't worthy of his attention, according to the victims and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office. On Tuesday, in an emotional court hearing attended by some of those same victims and their families, Gillard was sentenced to 71 years in state prison for dozens of sex crimes involving nine children, some who were preteens at the time their coach abused them.
Los Angeles Daily News |
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WeHo Private School Director To Plead Guilty In College Admissions Scandal
The head of a West Hollywood private school where some parents allegedly had their children's college entrance-exam scores fixed filed court papers Tuesday in Boston indicating he will plead guilty and cooperate with investigators. Igor Dvorskiy, director of the West Hollywood College Preparatory School, agreed to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, and he is expected to enter the plea no later than Nov. 20, according to a plea agreement filed in federal court in Boston. The Sherman Oaks man also agreed to cooperate with the government's investigation and to testify in court if called, according to a supplemental document. He also agreed to forfeit $150,000.
MyNewsLA.com |
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Can DUI Convictions Help Keep Guns Out Of The Hands Of People Prone To Violence?
Drinking and driving is already a deadly cocktail. New research finds that adding gun ownership to the mix heightens the risk for violent outcomes. A study that set out to track about 80,000 legal gun purchasers in California found that handgun buyers with a DUI on their record were more likely to go on to be arrested for a violent crime. That was the case even if driving under the influence of alcohol was the only criminal conviction in his or her past. In the roughly dozen years after purchasing a gun in 2001, Californians who had already been convicted of drunk driving were 2.5 times more likely than those with no DUI convictions to be arrested on suspicion of murder, rape, robbery or aggravated assault, according to the study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine. If the range of violent offenses was broadened slightly to include crimes like stalking, harassment or child neglect, handgun buyers with a prior DUI were more than three times likelier than those with no DUI conviction to be arrested.
Los Angeles Times |
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'Everything That You're Feeling Is Okay'
Tiffany Brown was on the second day of a much-needed vacation when her work phone rang around 10 p.m. It was a colleague from the coroner's office, where she'd worked for a decade. There'd been a shooting on the Las Vegas Strip, and they needed her at a hospital where they were sending victims. The single mother left her two sons, who were 11 and 14, sleeping in their beds and rushed to a nearby hospital. Part of her job as a senior investigator was to examine the bodies of the dead and then notify next of kin. When she pulled up to University Medical Center, Tiffany found that wounded people were arriving in ambulances, Ubers, the back of a pickup truck. Their flesh was shredded. The floor was sticky with blood. Before she could do anything, Tiffany was called by a different colleague, who asked her to report to the scene of the shooting, where 58 people had been killed and 422 more injured when a man fired into a crowd of festival-goers from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort. It was the deadliest shooting in modern American history.
The Trace |
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Public Safety News
Fire Damages Medical Building In Mid-City, Extinguished In About 90 Minutes
Firefighters needed about 90 minutes Tuesday morning to extinguish a "stubborn" fire in a two-story commercial building in Mid-City. Crews responded about 1:50 a.m. to the 5200 block of Washington Boulevard, just west of Redondo Boulevard, and found smoke coming from the medical building. Upon entry, they encountered fire on both floors, according to Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Medical and dental offices, as well as a methadone clinic, were located inside the building. A total of 68 firefighters battled the "stubborn blaze" and a knockdown was declared around 3:15 a.m., Stewart said. No injuries were reported and the LAFD Arson section was called to the scene to investigate the cause of the fire.
NBC 4 |
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Valley Glen Intersection Where Crossing Guard Was Killed Gets LA's Newest Traffic Signal
A new kind of traffic signal has been installed at an intersection frequently traversed by students in the Valley Glen area, following the death of a crossing guard two weeks ago. The signal, known as a High Intensity Activated Crosswalk (or HAWK) beacon, first blinks yellow to warn motorists to slow down, and then red for them to halt at Vanowen Street and Sunnyslope Avenue, allowing pedestrians to cross the street. It was installed this week, following the death of a crossing guard, 57-year-old Delia Huerta Arrearan of Sun Valley, on Sept. 16. Arrearran had been a crossing guard with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation for 13 years when she was killed as she accompanied a teen pedestrian across the street. A full-fledged traffic signal had been planned for that intersection but would not have been ready until a year later, so installing the HAWK beacon signal was a way to improve safety at the intersection on short notice, according to transportation officials.
Los Angeles Daily News |
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Local Government News
L.A. County Votes To Ban Flavored Tobacco, Calls For Statewide Vaping Ban
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to adopt an ordinance banning flavored tobacco products, including menthol, and to call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to pass a statewide ban on vaping. The board had originally held the item for discussion, but ultimately approved it without comment from any of the supervisors as the meeting ran long. The board's vote to ban flavored tobacco came out of a request last year by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas to better regulate tobacco shops. "The growing popularity of e-cigarettes and vaping puts the health and well-being of our communities, particularly our youth, at risk," Ridley-Thomas said following last week's initial vote to introduce the ordinance. "This is not an assault on businesses but a thoughtful and balanced approach to legislation."
FOX 11 |
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About the LAPPL Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents the more than 9,900 dedicated and professional sworn members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPPL serves to advance the interests of LAPD officers through legislative and legal advocacy, political action and education. The LAPPL can be found on the Web at:
www.LAPD.com |
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