In the United States, a SWAT team is a generic term for a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,967 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the New York City Police Department and the Chicago Police Department.
The Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) was a specialized gang intelligence unit of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) tasked with combating gang-related crime between 1979 and 2000. The unit was established in the South Central district of Los Angeles, California, United States, to combat rising gang violence during the period. Each of the LAPD's 18 divisions had a CRASH unit assigned to it, whose primary goal was to suppress gang-related crimes in the city, which came about primarily from the increase in illegal drug trade.
Daryl Francis Gates was an American police officer who served as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1978 to 1992. His length of tenure in this position was second only to that of William H. Parker. Gates is credited with the creation of SWAT teams alongside fellow Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer John Nelson, who others claim was the originator of SWAT in 1965. Gates also co-founded the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.
Blue Thunder is a 1983 American action thriller film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Gordon Carroll, Phil Feldman, and Andrew Fogelson and directed by John Badham.
The Bell 206 is a family of two-bladed, single- and twin-engined helicopters, manufactured by Bell Helicopter at its Mirabel, Quebec, plant. Originally developed as the Bell YOH-4 for the United States Army's Light Observation Helicopter program, it was not selected by the Army. Bell redesigned the airframe and successfully marketed the aircraft commercially as the five-place Bell 206A JetRanger. The new design was eventually selected by the Army as the OH-58 Kiowa.
The Eurocopter EC135 is a twin-engine civil light utility helicopter produced by Airbus Helicopters. It is capable of flight under instrument flight rules (IFR) and is outfitted with a digital automatic flight control system (AFCS). First flying on 15 February 1994, it entered service in 1996 and 1,400 have been delivered up to September 2020 to 300 operators in 60 countries, accumulating over 5 million flight hours. It is mainly used for air medical transport (medevac), corporate transport, law enforcement, offshore wind support, and military flight training. Half of them are in Europe and a quarter in North America. The H135M, certified under the name Eurocopter EC635, is a military variant.
No. 3 Squadron RNZAF is a unit of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF). It currently operates NHIndustries NH90 and Agusta A109 helicopters. The squadron was initially formed as a territorial unit of the New Zealand Permanent Air Force in Christchurch in 1930. During World War II, the squadron served in the Pacific, undertaking patrol operations. In the early post war period, the squadron was converted to a Territorial formation flying fixed wing aircraft, but later converted to rotary wing aircraft, and returning to permanent status. Since then, personnel from the squadron have served in the Vietnam War, East Timor, Singapore, the Sinai, and the Solomon Islands.
The Bell 47 is a single-rotor single-engine light helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It was based on the third Bell 30 prototype, which was the company's first helicopter designed by Arthur M. Young. The 47 became the first helicopter certified for civilian use on 8 March 1946. The first civilian delivery was made on 31 December 1946 to Helicopter Air Transport. More than 5,600 Bell 47s were produced, including those under license by Agusta in Italy, Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Japan, and Westland Aircraft in the United Kingdom. The Bell 47J Ranger is a modified version with a fully enclosed cabin and tail boom.
The Rampart scandal was a police corruption scandal which unfolded in Los Angeles, California, United States, during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The scandal concerned widespread criminal activity within the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) anti-gang unit of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division. More than 70 police officers were initially implicated in various forms of misconduct, including unprovoked shootings and beatings, planting of false evidence, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and cover-ups thereof.
Police aviation is the use of aircraft in police operations. Police services commonly use aircraft for traffic control, ground support, search and rescue, high-speed car pursuits, observation, air patrol and control of large-scale public events and/or public order incidents. They may employ rotary-wing aircraft, fixed-wing aircraft, nonrigid-wing aircraft or lighter-than-air aircraft. In some major cities, police rotary-wing aircraft are also used as air transportation for personnel belonging to SWAT-style units. In large, sparsely populated areas, fixed-wing aircraft are sometimes used to transport personnel and equipment.
The Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil, now Airbus Helicopters H125, is a single-engine light utility helicopter originally designed and manufactured in France by Aérospatiale and Eurocopter. In North America, the AS350 is marketed as the AStar. The AS355 Ecureuil 2 is a twin-engine variant, marketed in North America as the TwinStar. The Eurocopter EC130 is a derivative of the AS350 airframe and is considered by the manufacturer to be part of the Écureuil single-engine family.
The Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) serves communities to the west of Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) including Silver Lake, Echo Park, Pico-Union and Westlake, all together designated as the Rampart patrol area. Its name is derived from Rampart Boulevard, one of the principal thoroughfares in its patrol area. The original station opened in 1966, located at 2710 West Temple Street. In 2008, the staff moved southeast to a newer facility located at 1401 West 6th Street. With 164,961 residents occupying a 5.4-square-mile (14 km2) area, Rampart is one of Los Angeles's most densely populated communities.
The EurocopterAS355 Écureuil 2 is a twin-engine light utility helicopter developed and originally manufactured by Aérospatiale in France
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, US, maintains and uses a variety of resources that allow its officers to effectively perform their duties. The LAPD's organization is complex with the department divided into bureaus and offices that oversee functions and manage specialized units. The LAPD's resources include the department's divisions, transportation, communications, and technology.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was formed in 1869, and has since become the third-largest law enforcement agency in the United States. They have been involved in various events in history, such as the Black Dahlia murder, the Watts riots, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the North Hollywood shootout, the murder trial of O. J. Simpson, and the Rampart scandal.
The Los Angeles Airport Police is the airport police division of Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the city department that owns and operates two airports in Los Angeles: Los Angeles International Airport and Van Nuys Airport. It has more than 1,100 officers, security, and staff. Though it works very closely with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), LAXPD is a separate entity, primarily due to the airport police having specialized training and funding resources.
LAPD Hooper Heliport is a city-owned private-use heliport located one nautical mile (2 km) northeast of the central business district of Los Angeles, in Los Angeles County, California, United States.
Metropolitan Division, commonly referred to as Metro Division or just Metro, is an elite division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) under its Special Operations Group. Metropolitan Division is responsible for managing the LAPD's specialized crime suppression, K-9, mounted, and SWAT units, named "platoons".
Brian Liddy is a former officer of the Los Angeles Police Department. Liddy, together with Sgt. Edward Ortiz and former Officer Michael Buchanan, were the first to be charged with criminal wrongdoing in the Rampart Scandal. Liddy was both the highest-ranking and the most decorated LAPD officer to be directly implicated by Rafael Perez, based upon his testimony and allegations.
