On a warm morning earlier this month, about 600 Los Angeles police officers gathered in the empty parking lot at Dodger Stadium for some high-stakes role playing.
Most pretended to be protesters -- standing in for the ones expected to converge on downtown Los Angeles on Thursday as part of May Day immigration rallies planned across the country.
As some in the mock crowd threw bottles and acted the part of agitators, officers assigned to undercover "extraction units" quickly and quietly isolated the rabble-rousers and hauled them away.
"Is everyone clear on chain of command?" Michael Hillmann, a deputy chief in the Los Angeles Police Department, asked afterward. "Everyone clear on who is in charge of what?"
Under normal circumstances, such questions -- and the elaborate exercise -- might be considered overkill. But on the heels of last year's disastrous May Day, when police injured marchers and journalists during a botched effort to clear MacArthur Park, LAPD leaders are not in the mood to leave things to chance.
The debacle was a setback in the department's effort to improve its image in the city and shed a reputation for unwarranted aggression.
For Police Chief William J. Bratton, the incident was an embarrassment and one of the most serious tests of his leadership since he became chief in 2002. His decision to quickly and publicly apologize for his officers' handling of the protesters managed to temper widespread outrage somewhat, but it also irked police union leaders, who accused him of jumping to conclusions.
"It was probably the most significant multiple set of crises all occurring at the same time that I had ever faced in my career," he said in a recent interview. "But in responding to them, it was always with the focus of 'OK, how out of this negative can we get something positive?' "
In recent months, the department has been planning for this May Day's event: gathering intelligence, meeting with organizers and training officers in contingency plans and crowd control.
"Last year, it just wasn't organized. It was a disaster," Hillmann said. "It was as if the people involved went into it with the idea that the event would work itself out. Crowds do not manage themselves."
Organizers of Thursday's march, which is expected to attract from 20,000 to 100,000 people, have voiced cautious optimism that this year's event would go smoothly. They have commended Hillmann and other LAPD leaders for their efforts.
