Los Angeles County Sheriff S Department

A sheriff's marksman killed a suspected bank robber in a stolen taxicab Wednesday after a five-hour standoff on the Pomona Freeway that tied up traffic for miles, authorities said. The man pointed a semiautomatic handgun at deputies after they fired two cans of "cold gas," an irritant, into the taxi, said Deputy Steve Sciacca. "A special weapons long rifle shooter who feared for the life of the deputies fired one round, which fatally wounded the suspect," he said.

Like their counterparts in the district attorney's office, federal prosecutors based in Los Angeles can bring criminal charges against police officers accused of using excessive force. But they almost never do. Over the last 10 years, the Public Corruption Unit of the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles has reviewed scores of allegations that individuals' civil rights were violated through police brutality. Officials, however, can only recall that three cases were prosecuted.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which quietly has spent nearly $19 million over the last decade responding to a single sexual discrimination lawsuit, now is making its first serious attempt not only to hire and promote women, but also to fight sexual harassment within its ranks. The department, which lost the lawsuit, for years made scant effort to comply with court orders on such issues.

They called Bruce Bryan "the chaplain of the 'hood." Not just because of the tough Carson streets where he routinely rode along with sheriff's deputies, but because of the volunteer chaplain's habit of helping people in trouble with the law even as they leaned handcuffed against patrol cars. Early Saturday, one of those troubled people turned on him.

As the wife and three children of slain Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Juan Abel Escalante solemnly looked on, top law enforcement and city officials announced Saturday that two men had been arrested in the deputy's shooting death, although the motive in the killing is unclear.

He is still proud of his tattoo. The somber image of Death's hooded skull and scythe tattooed onto the inside of the deputy's left ankle in 1989 initiated him into a select fraternity called the Grim Reapers. Then a street cop at the Lennox station, this deputy has risen to a key position in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department--along with other members of his "club."

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy gunned down Saturday outside his boyhood home in Cypress Park had been assigned to guard the most dangerous inmates in the county, including members of the notorious Mexican Mafia gang, authorities said Sunday. Los Angeles police and sheriff's officials said the prospect that Deputy Juan Abel Escalante was killed because of his work at the jail remained one of three possible motives.

Mandatory drug testing for all 8,000 sworn peace officers in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors. Sheriff Sherman Block supported the move, saying, "Drug abuse has now become so pervasive in our society that it is essential that we send a message to the community that those men and women they have entrusted with their safety are absolutely drug free." The sheriff said there is no drug abuse problem within the department.

Under the blazing sun, kids wearing fatigues stagger into an empty dirt lot, gasping for air after a punishing run in the hills. They would rather be doing cannonballs into a pool, shopping at the mall or catching a Dodgers game. Yet here they are--reluctantly--wanting a drink of water and a break. Sweating profusely and hunched over, 10-year-old Damien has only one thought: "I hate this."

For months, Los Angeles County jail officials have been waiting to reopen a long-shuttered women's facility to help ease some of the overcrowding that plagues the rest of the massive and violence-prone system. But 14 months after the Board of Supervisors voted to spend more than $100 million to refurbish the Sybil Brand Institute, an antiquated structure on a hilltop near East Los Angeles, not a bit of work has been accomplished.