Police Chiefs

Appointing a new police chief will be "the most important decision I make as mayor," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday as he indicated that he favors a candidate who would largely continue the policies of departing Chief William J. Bratton rather than shake up the Police Department. "The next chief has got to be someone who has the respect of the men and women of the LAPD," Villaraigosa said after an appearance with Bratton in Hollywood.

COLUMBUS, N.M. - From a small hill at a state park here, the border town of Palomas, Mexico, can be made out through the desert haze. It lies four miles to the south, but the corruption that roils Palomas and the rest of Northern Mexico may as well be a block away. Last year, black sedans and hatchbacks loaded with federal agents poured into Columbus, a town of 2,000 people, arresting the mayor, the police chief, a city trustee and nine others. They have all pleaded guilty in a gun-smuggling operation that sold about 100 firearms, mostly assault rifles, to Mexican drug cartels.

Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach stepped down Thursday just three days after he crashed a city-owned car under circumstances that have raised questions about his behavior and his department's response. City Manager Bradley Hudson said Leach's retirement for "medical reasons" was effective immediately. He also announced a "sweeping Internal Affairs investigation" into the Police Department's actions after the crash, to be overseen by Hudson and former Riverside County Dist. Atty.

Thirteen Los Angeles Police Department officers were recognized for heroism during a recent ceremony in Hollywood. Police Chief Charlie Beck last week presented the officers and detectives with the department's highest honors, the Medal of Valor and the Purple Heart. This was the second year the Purple Heart was bestowed on officers who suffered grave injuries in the line of duty. The officers included men and women, some injured or put at risk while on patrol, on undercover assignments or headed home after work.

The chief of the Burbank Police Department announced Monday that he is stepping down, a month after the FBI revealed it was investigating several current and former officers at the agency. Tim Stehr, 51, who became chief in 2007, made his announcement in a statement released by the city. He did not give a reason for his resignation. "It has been my absolute privilege to serve as chief in the city of Burbank," Stehr said in the statement. "Our department is facing challenging times.

Not buying Beck Re " Arizona law faces federal challenges," May 27 To paraphrase Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, if illegal immigrants don't come forward to report crime for fear they will be deported, the police will have a harder time solving crimes. Isn't it possible for people here illegally to report crimes anonymously? Wouldn't upholding the law by sending illegal immigrants packing result in fewer crimes and less fear among legal citizens? It has been reported that 70% of the voting public denounces amnesty, supports tougher laws against illegal entry into the United States and wants our borders secured.

In the darkened living room of a house surrounded by concrete barriers, Safaa Mamouri wipes his eyes and reproaches himself for how little he resembles his dead brother, a man even his enemies admired. "Qais was fearless. I'm not like him," he says. "From the first threat, I quit." Maj. Gen. Qais Hamza Mamouri presided over security here in Babil province at a dangerous time, when the country's sectarian war raged.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will select a new police chief at a time when crime is declining and the city is enjoying a prolonged respite from racial strife, sparing him from the political perils that bloodied the three previous mayors facing similiar appointments. Even the potential gift of a controversy-free selection process, however, does little to diminish the pressure on Villaraigosa to name a successor capable of measuring up to William J. Bratton. The outgoing police chief is largely credited with transforming the LAPD into a more effective and accountable agency that has salved decades of animosity with minorities in Los Angeles.

Former Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach received preferential treatment when he was stopped in February after crashing his city-owned car following a night of drinking, according to an internal review of the incident. Normally, Riverside police would have conducted a field sobriety test, collected physical evidence and made an arrest, the report said. Instead, they drove the chief home. "It is clear that the former chief was given preferential treatment," said City Manager Bradley Hudson in a statement released late Tuesday.

The police chief of Palos Verdes Estates is not expected to return from a forced absence, city officials and his attorney said Friday. Chief Timm Browne, 54, was placed on paid administrative leave Feb. 20, said City Manager Jim Hendrickson, who declined to elaborate on Browne's removal because of an ongoing internal investigation. Browne, who has been with the department for six years, has not yet been told why he is being investigated, his Palo Alto-based attorney Robert Aaronson said.

A state appeals court Tuesday put the brakes on part of the criminal case against two top Bell officials in a dispute over whether the Los Angeles County district attorney should be allowed to prosecute the case. What exactly the decision from the 2nd District Court of Appeal means, though, was disputed by attorneys for the defense and the prosecution. A star player in this drama is Randy Adams, Bell's highly paid former police chief, who has not been charged. Among the allegations faced by Robert Rizzo, Bell's former chief administrative officer, and Angela Spaccia, Rizzo's second in command, is that they hid Adams' $457,000 annual paycheck by dividing it into two contracts.

This post has been updated. Please see note at bottom for details. Sanford, Fla., city commissioners on Monday rejected the resignation of Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. hours after the resignation was officially announced . At a special meeting of the commission, members voted 3 to 2 not to accept Lee's resignation after the controversial killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26. The unarmed teenager was walking through...

What LAPD Sgt. Rick Arteaga remembers most about the first night of the riots is a curbside history lesson at the intersection of Manchester and Vermont. Six police officers were trying to face down 400 angry residents. The Los Angeles Police Department brass had just ordered the officers to withdraw. "Get in the car!" Arteaga yelled. But his rookie partner froze, unwilling to turn his back on the advancing mob. In those menacing seconds, a single fear grabbed them both: This was a crowd bent on vengeance and they were about to be lynched.

UC Davis announced Thursday that it has appointed a new chief to head its campus police force for at least a year and to help guide it past the controversies stemming from last November's pepper-spraying of student demonstrators by its officers. Matthew Carmichael, who has been acting chief since November and a lieutenant on the campus force for a decade before that, was sworn in for a yearlong term, UC Davis officials said. The school said it would launch a national search later for a longer-term chief.

NEW YORK - Michael Maloney was just eight days from retiring as police chief of the tiny town of Greenland, N.H. - just eight days from leaving 26 years in law enforcement for the freedom to golf, fish, enjoy his family and maybe find another job. But there was one thing he needed to do. It was a thankless task: helping to serve a warrant on a man with a rap sheet that included assault and drug charges. And it was the kind of job Maloney insisted on doing himself rather than leaving to others, say those who knew the chief, who was killed by a bullet to the head as he carried out his final mission Thursday.

The FBI announced Friday it will launch a civil rights inquiry into the fatal shooting of an unarmed college student by Pasadena police last month. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said the inquiry is being launched independently of a call by Pasadena Police Chief Phillip Sanchez for the agency to look into the shooting of Kendrec McDade, 19. McDade was shot by two Pasadena police officers shortly after they took the report of an armed robbery near Orange Grove Boulevard. McDade was a suspect in the robbery, according to police, but was unarmed at the time he died.

For Pomona Police Chief Joe Romero, 2011 was going to be a significant year. His department would celebrate its 100th anniversary, and he would announce his retirement. But Tuesday morning, all of that changed when he met with City Manager Linda Lowry, who told him that his services would no longer be needed. Lowry could not comment further on Romero's dismissal, because he was still an at-will employee, making it a "personnel matter," said Mark Gluba, assistant to the city manager.

Los Angeles' first chief of police--Jacob F. Gerkins--was appointed in 1876. Since then, there have been 48, including interim chiefs. Below are a few of those who preceded Chief Daryl F. Gates, who was appointed in 1978. EDWARD M. DAVIS Aug. 29, 1969, to Jan. 15, 1978 One of the department's more flamboyant and outspoken leaders, Davis presided over the force during a time of sweeping social changes--changes that did not always meet his approval.

How many police bullets actually hit Kendrec McDade, 19 years old and unarmed, on that dark Pasadena street? Do police have to yell "halt" or "stop" before pulling the trigger? Is it standard procedure to shoot from a patrol car? Must they shoot to kill? Why not use beanbags or rubber bullets? Where was the police camera? Though the crowd's manner was muted, the questions, passed forward on index cards, came unrelentingly to Pasadena Police Chief Phillip Sanchez as he stood in the sanctuary at New Revelation Missionary Baptist Church on Saturday morning.