Police Chiefs

Few in Inglewood had heard of Jacqueline Seabrooks or knew anything about the new police chief. After the City Council interviewed three finalists and then announced the appointment, Inglewood police officers and residents wondered how the new boss would adjust. After all, Seabrooks, 45, is a 26-year police veteran of Santa Monica, a city that had two homicides in 2006; Inglewood had 36.

The bullet holes pockmarking the walls of his home were just three days old when Alberto Capella Ibarra took over the police force of this violence-plagued city. Twenty gunmen dressed in black had swarmed his yard in the middle of the night, and he'd fought them off, firing an automatic rifle. Taking office Dec. 1 as the city's secretary for public security, Capella, a longtime activist, declared war on organized crime and challenged citizens to join him in the battle.

Seeking to capitalize on his popularity, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has embraced a starring role in a high-stakes campaign to persuade voters to preserve a utility tax this week that would bolster the city's flagging revenues. Bratton's effort reflects his growing influence as a city power-broker, overshadowing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- at least on this issue.

The controversial selection Friday in Maywood of an interim police chief with a checkered past has dismayed some residents, infuriated rank-and-file officers, put his supporters on the defensive and launched a nasty bit of back-and-forth mudslinging. At a tense meeting that ran late into the night Friday, a divided City Council picked Al Hutchings to take over the department, which has a reputation as a haven for misfit cops.

A potential security crisis loomed Saturday in troubled Diyala province as significant numbers of a U.S.-funded force of Sunni fighters left their posts, demanding the ouster of the provincial police chief. "You can imagine what danger will face the region in the next days," said Abu Talib, commander of 2,000 to 3,000 so-called Sons of Iraq fighters. His men, many of them former insurgents, turned against the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq last year under the Awakening banner.

California Highway Patrol Commissioner Mike Brown is resigning after three years heading the department. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Deputy Commissioner Joseph Farrow to replace Brown as head of the agency and its more than 10,000 employees. Farrow, 52, takes over March 1. Brown has been criticized repeatedly by some state lawmakers. The state auditor recently found that the CHP wasted money in buying new guns, motorcycles, patrol car equipment and in using an executive aircraft.

A man who nearly two weeks ago was tapped to become the city of Maywood's interim police chief -- despite having been convicted of theft and resigning from the Los Angeles Police Department -- has stepped down from the position at the request of the city's mayor. On Tuesday night, Maywood city leaders voted 5 to 0 to appoint Maywood Cmdr. Frank Hauptmann as their interim chief while a search for a permanent replacement was conducted. Unlike Al Hutchings, whose selection for the job on Feb.

The 26-year-old Sunni Arab man sat in the restaurant of a fashionable Baghdad hotel, his business suit covering marks where he said a power drill had penetrated his thigh and acid dissolved his calf. The former Iraqi SWAT commander had traveled to Baghdad for meetings with Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and other high-ranking officials in which he plans to provide an account of torture he says he endured on the orders of Maj. Gen. Ghanim Quraishi, the Shiite Muslim police chief of Diyala province.

Just beyond the reach of the North Coast fog, this little community of 1,150 basked until recently under the protection of a police force of just four officers. Four officers packing 31 submachine guns. The Blue Lake police force was armed on a par with a big-city SWAT team. And no Blue Lakers knew until Police Chief David Gundersen's life began to very publicly unravel. In February, Humboldt County sheriff's deputies arrested Gundersen on suspicion of crimes in his own bedroom.

The California Highway Patrol agreed Tuesday to pay a $995,000 settlement to a former chief who alleged he was retaliated against after he sought the top job in the agency and reported unfair practices to others. The settlement will go to former Chief Art Acevedo, whose 22-year career included a stint as second-in-command for operations in the L.A. area. The CHP issued a statement saying the settlement is not an admission of fault. "It does allow both parties to move forward and put the potential of protracted litigation and escalating costs behind them," the statement said.