Going back in time with the LAPD

The rise of Los Angeles' automobile culture in the 1920s and beyond can be seen in the scores of photos documenting car crashes.

Pictures of oversized tin cans chronicled a bygone era when police went after bootleggers.

For a time, there were also shots of empty refrigerators to show child neglect, until governmental welfare agencies took over that function.

In the 1950s, there was an abundance of safecracking cases and a marked increase in evidence of drug paraphernalia and the narcotics trade.

By the mid-1960s, police had expanded into another area: undercover surveillance.

"Along with evidence, they were documenting clandestine behavior," Morton said of the photography during that era.

There were pictures of hippies who frequented clubs on the Sunset Strip, "love-ins in Griffith and Elysian parks," and even Muhammad Ali's appearance at an antiwar rally in Century City, Morton said.

Blackman noted that as the decades went on, the number of crime scene photos jumped exponentially, mirroring the growing population and the commensurate rise in crime.

By the 1960s, taking photographs of violent crimes such as murder had become almost a daily occurrence, Blackman said, whereas before, they would be snapped every few days.

"More people, more crimes, more killing," Blackman said. "Everything just got bigger."

Once the postwar era was in full swing, the LAPD's image became important, not only to attract new police recruits but to cultivate the professional, spit-and-polish culture demanded by Chief William J. Parker.

Photographers who were taking photos of a stabbing one day would participate in staged scenes for PR purposes the next.

Such images included shots used for recruiting billboards. Others were of celebrities such as Bob Hope, Sammy Davis Jr. and Jack Webb, which were used in the LAPD's in-house magazine.

In surveying the entire collection, Wride said, he laments that in many ways "the imagery contained in it has become less interesting because it became more utilitarian.

"They need to fulfill a very prescribed function," he said. "But that's not to say that people 50 years from now won't find them interesting for that very reason."

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andrew.blankstein@latimes.com