In the United States, a SWAT team is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to handle riot control or violent confrontations with criminals, the number and usage of SWAT teams increased in the 1980s and 1990s during the War on Drugs and later in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. In the United States by 2005, SWAT teams were deployed 50,000 times every year, almost 80% of the time to serve search warrants, most often for narcotics. By 2015 that number had increased to nearly 80,000 times a year. SWAT teams are increasingly equipped with military-type hardware and trained to deploy against threats of terrorism, for crowd control, hostage taking, and in situations beyond the capabilities of ordinary law enforcement, sometimes deemed "high-risk".
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police 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.
Daryl Gates was the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1978 to 1992. His length of tenure in this position was second only to that of William H. Parker. As Chief of the LAPD, he took a hardline, aggressive, paramilitary approach to law enforcement that disproportionately affected black and Latino Angelenos far more often than their white counterparts. Gates is co-credited with the creation of SWAT teams with LAPD's John Nelson, who others claim was the originator of SWAT in 1965. Gates also co-founded D.A.R.E.
Los Angeles City Hall, completed in 1928, is the center of the government of the city of Los Angeles, California, and houses the mayor's office and the meeting chambers and offices of the Los Angeles City Council. It is located in the Civic Center district of downtown Los Angeles in the city block bounded by Main, Temple, First, and Spring streets, which was the heart of the city's central business district during the 1880s and 1890s.
The Space Mirror Memorial, which forms part of the larger Astronauts Memorial, is a National Memorial on the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Merritt Island, Florida. It is maintained by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation (AMF), whose offices are located in the NASA Center for Space Education next door to the Visitor Complex. The memorial was designed in 1987 by Holt Hinshaw Pfau Jones, and dedicated on May 9, 1991, to remember the lives of the men and women who have died in the various space programs of the United States, particularly those of NASA. The Astronauts Memorial has been designated by the U.S. Congress "as the national memorial to astronauts who die in the line of duty".
The Fuhrman tapes are 13 hours of taped interviews given by Los Angeles police officer Mark Fuhrman to writer Laura McKinny between 1985 and 1994.
The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is the city police department of the City and County of San Francisco and for San Francisco International Airport in unincorporated San Mateo County. The department's motto is the same as that of the city and county: Oro en paz, fierro en guerra, Spanish for Gold in peace, iron in war.
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial is in Washington, D.C., at Judiciary Square, adjacent to the National Law Enforcement Museum. It honors 23,229 U.S. law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty throughout American history. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) was established by former US Representative Mario Biaggi (D-NY), a 23-year New York City police veteran.
William Henry Parker III was an American law enforcement officer who was Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1950 to 1966. To date, he is the longest-serving LAPD police chief. Parker has been called "Los Angeles' greatest and most controversial chief of police". The former headquarters of the LAPD, the Parker Center, was named after him. During his tenure, the LAPD was known for police brutality and racism; Parker himself was known for his "unambiguous racism".
The Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety (LACOPS), less formally known as the Los Angeles County Police, was a police agency for the County of Los Angeles. It was formed in 1998 by consolidating three Los Angeles County law enforcement agencies: the Department of Parks and Recreation Park Police, which was formed in 1969 as Los Angeles County Park Patrol, and the Department of Health Services and Internal Services Department’s Safety Police. OPS was the fourth-largest law enforcement agency in Los Angeles County, which employed 579 sworn peace officers and 140 civilian personnel, and utilized over 800 contract security guards. The agency had an annual budget of $100 million in 2009. OPS was initially a division of the Los Angeles County Department of Human Resources but was placed under the umbrella of the newly created Public Safety branch of the Chief Executive Office in 2007.
Walter H. Auble was the police chief in Los Angeles, California, on a one-year appointment from November 1905 to 1906.
The Long Beach Police Department provides law enforcement for the city of Long Beach, California.
The 2007 MacArthur Park rallies were two May Day rallies demanding amnesty for undocumented immigrants which occurred on May 1, 2007, at MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Airport Police Division is the airport police division of Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the city department that owns and operates two airports in Southern California: Los Angeles International Airport and Van Nuys Airport. It has more than 1,100 law enforcement, security and staff. Although currently working very closely with the Los Angeles Police Department, LAXPD is a separate entity, primarily due to the airport police having specialized training and funding resources.
Alice Stebbins Wells was one of the first American-born female police officers in the United States, hired in 1910 in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Police Department Mental Evaluation Unit (MEU), including the Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team (SMART), is a component of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) that works with people suspected of having mental illness. The MEU mission is to reduce the potential for violence during police contacts involving people experiencing mental illness while simultaneously assessing the mental health services available to assist them. This requires a commitment to problem solving, partnership, and supporting a coordinated effort from law enforcement, mental health services and the greater community of Los Angeles.
Metropolitan Division, also known as METRO, is an elite division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Metropolitan Division, which also contains LAPD's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, contains line platoons of specially trained police officers. It is tasked with numerous crime-fighting duties including solving major crimes, search warrant service, dignitary protection, surveillance, providing counter-terrorism details and attending high-risk barricaded situations, such as a hostage situation.
Zahner or A. Zahner Company is an architectural metal & glass company located in Kansas City, Missouri.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) is the police union representing Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers up to the rank of lieutenant. LAPPL has a membership of 9,900 sworn officers.
The City of Los Angeles Park Ranger Division is a Park Ranger division serving the City of Los Angeles, California parks. The headquarters of the City of Los Angeles Park Rangers is located at the Griffith Park visitor's center. The division is a specialized agency controlled by the Department of Parks and Recreation and employs 22 Park Rangers who are sworn peace officers under 830.31 of the California Penal Code.
