Los Angeles Police Commission

The Los Angeles Police Commission voted Tuesday to approve an ambitious plan for expanding the Los Angeles Police Department and to request $14.9 million to begin implementing it. The plan, which was unveiled last month by Mayor Richard Riordan, calls for expanding the LAPD by 2,855 officers during the next five years. It also proposes beefing up the department's street presence by hiring more civilians to free up officers and by paying officers to work overtime and on their days off.

The fatal shooting by a Los Angeles police officer of 13-year-old car-theft suspect Devin Brown is the latest in a string of controversial law enforcement cases that Los Angeles County prosecutors have declined to prosecute. Of 442 officer-involved shootings reviewed since January 2001, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has not brought a single criminal case.

Melanie E. Lomax, a longtime civil rights lawyer and former head of the Los Angeles Police Commission, was killed late Sunday in a single-car accident near her Hollywood Hills home, police said Monday. Lomax, 56, was declared dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was taken by paramedics after the 2005 Jaguar she was driving rolled down her driveway and tumbled 20 feet down a steep embankment. Police sources said Lomax may have had a heart attack.

Developer Rick Caruso said Friday that he had turned down Mayor Richard Riordan's request to take Gerald Chaleff's place on the Los Angeles Police Commission. Caruso said he was "deeply honored" that the mayor asked him to serve on the civilian oversight panel, but wants to continue his work on the city's Department of Water and Power commission. "I feel compelled to remain on the board to help craft a statewide solution to our energy crisis," Caruso said.