Craig Crosby

Craig Crosby, a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant who developed a computer program to streamline certain police operations, agreed Friday to drop his lawsuit against the city in return for an undisclosed settlement. Crosby had developed the program, and it was praised by supervisors who tested it for 90 days during 1989. But when the test period elapsed and the department still had not decided whether to purchase it, Crosby pulled the plug on the program.

Craig Crosby, a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant who developed a computer program to streamline certain police operations, agreed Friday to drop his lawsuit against the city in return for an undisclosed settlement. Crosby had developed the program, and it was praised by supervisors who tested it for 90 days during 1989. But when the test period elapsed and the department still had not decided whether to purchase it, Crosby pulled the plug on the program.

As Police Chief Willie L. Williams and the LAPD embark on a 60-day search for ways to put more officers on the streets, some of the answers they seek may literally be at their fingertips. In 1988, Craig Crosby, an LAPD field sergeant and amateur computer buff, developed a program for deploying police that some computer experts say could save the city millions of dollars a year and put scores more officers on the streets.

As Police Chief Willie L. Williams and the LAPD embark on a 60-day search for ways to put more officers on the streets, some of the answers they seek may literally be at their fingertips. In 1988, Craig Crosby, an LAPD field sergeant and amateur computer buff, developed a program for deploying police that some computer experts say could save the city millions of dollars a year and put scores more officers on the streets.

Returning home each night from his shift as a police field sergeant, Craig Crosby grew ever more frustrated that the Los Angeles Police Department had no way to accurately measure its crime-fighting efforts. Sitting in his den, bent over the gray-lit screen of his home computer, the sergeant eventually developed an automated system to gauge officer deployment and measure patrol effectiveness.

A carjacker jumped into an auto occupied by a woman and three young children in Canoga Park and fought with the female passenger as he drove three blocks before stopping the vehicle and calmly walking away, Los Angeles police said Friday. Nobody was injured in the bizarre incident that began Thursday about 4:40 p.m. when a 22-year-old Woodland Hills woman parked her Toyota Tercel in the 7500 block of Vassar Avenue, Sgt. Craig Crosby said.

Two Los Angeles police officers were injured Friday by a suspected drunk driver who slammed into a patrol car in a Reseda intersection and then fought with three more officers as they took him into custody, police said. Sgt. Craig Crosby said all five officers suffered injuries serious enough to have them taken off duty for at least three days.

It was quite refreshing to read Cmdr. Bill Russell's candid and direct comments on the LAPD's computer system (April 2). Notably absent were the usual excuses for nonperformance and resource woes. The Police Department was fortunate in receiving a donation of equipment and engineering support from the Mayor's Alliance for a Safer Los Angeles (MASLA) to "jump-start" its archaic and neglected technological infrastructure. Absent the completion of a network engineering commitment by an outside firm, the enormous task of designing, engineering and implementing a major network reverted back to a handful of department personnel without network experience on this scale.

First LIGHT catches hundreds of coruscations of barred surfperch as they zip through waves at Rincon Point near Carpinteria. Standing on the threshold of a wet wilderness, waves rising and flattening and breaking again on the sand, I work a fly in a trough between the breakers. The tap comes suddenly, followed by a quick strip-strike to set the hook, and my six-weight rod pulsates as the fish struggles to get free. I release my 13th catch of the day into roily brine.

Returning home each night from his shift as a police field sergeant, Craig Crosby grew ever more frustrated that the Los Angeles Police Department had no way to accurately measure its crime-fighting efforts. Sitting in his den, bent over the gray-lit screen of his home computer, the sergeant eventually developed an automated system to gauge officer deployment and measure patrol effectiveness.

DAVID CROSBY "Oh Yes I Can." A&M. ** The key songs on Crosby's first solo album since 1971's spacy "If I Could Only Remember My Name" essentially form a road map of Crosby's trek back from the depths of drug abuse. But it's a map without a compass--specifically, the song "Compass," the definitive account of his new inner strength that's the highlight of the disappointing Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young "American Dream" reunion LP.

A Northridge gun dealer has been acquitted of charges that he cheated customers--many of them law enforcement officers--by taking money for assault rifles and handguns that were never delivered. A Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated about three hours before finding Wayne Alvarez, 33, not guilty of 13 counts of grand theft involving an equal number of law enforcement officers, who, prosecutors said, purchased the guns at phony discount prices but did not receive the weapons.