Los Angeles Police Department

Los Angeles Police Department officials on Friday were interviewing officers and scouring electronic records amid growing suspicion that someone inside the department leaked or sold to a celebrity website a photo of the singer Rihanna that depicted injuries to her face she suffered during an alleged assault by her boyfriend.

After several years of court-ordered reforms, the Los Angeles Police Department has heightened its image among Angelenos and made significant improvements in the performance and attitudes of its officers, according to a new Harvard University study released Monday. In asking for the study and giving researchers unusual access to the department, LAPD Chief William J.

An Arizona man who allegedly stole the identity of a San Francisco physician and posed as a doctor running a West Los Angeles sperm bank has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting two men, authorities said. Jeffrey Lynn Graybill, 40, of Phoenix is accused of pretending to be "Dr. Robert Richardson" and soliciting sperm donors for the nonexistent Fertility Clinic of West Los Angeles, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

An independent examination of how the Los Angeles Police Department investigates officers accused of profiling people based on race, gender or sexual orientation found serious problems with a third of the sampled investigations, the inspector general for the L.A. Police Commission reported Tuesday. In six of 20 LAPD investigations into allegations of "biased policing" -- the department's new name for what has traditionally been termed racial profiling -- police failed to interview witnesses, did not ask important questions or made similar mistakes, concluded Andre Birotte, the inspector general, in the 41-page report.

Looking to slash payroll costs in a disastrous budget year, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council have thrown their support behind a new union contract that is designed to cut police overtime costs by 83%. The city's elected officials hope the two-year contract with the Los Angeles Police Protective League will reduce overtime costs by $72 million in the next fiscal year, according to a confidential report obtained by...

American Muslims have never been much of a presence in the Los Angeles Police Department, accounting for less than 1% of its nearly 10,000 officers. But now, with department leaders eager to improve relationships with local Muslims, top brass have named the force's first Islamic chaplain: a Pakistani-born spiritual leader who has spent much of the last decade trying to build bridges between law enforcement and Los Angeles County's diverse Muslim communities.

Officers throughout the Los Angeles Police Department grieved Tuesday as news spread that a veteran detective had killed herself in the lobby of an L.A. County Sheriff's Department station Monday night. Susan J. Clemmer, a well-regarded officer assigned to the LAPD's Gang and Narcotics Division, walked into the Santa Clarita sheriff's station about 9:15 p.m. and spoke to the sheriff's deputy at the front desk, according to sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore and LAPD officials.

The Los Angeles County coroner's office indefinitely delayed the release of Michael Jackson's autopsy results Thursday amid signs that police investigators were trying to determine the interplay between the pop star's personal physician and other medical professionals who treated Jackson in the months leading up to his death. Word of the delay followed a meeting between officials from the L.A.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton conceded Thursday that the LAPD's crime map had significant omissions but said it will stay online while the problems, first identified by The Times, are corrected. Bratton -- speaking at a news conference to announce a gang crackdown -- said that despite significant omissions, the crimes that are plotted on the map are accurate. He said he believed it remains a valuable public service.

By the time homicide Det. Dennis Kilcoyne met with Diane Webb last fall to discuss the maddening search for a serial killer who has stalked South L.A. for decades, he was wide open to suggestions. Despite more than a year of chasing leads, Kilcoyne and his team of detectives were no closer to catching the man suspected of sexually assaulting and murdering at least 10 young black women.