Police Los Angeles County

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted 10 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department narcotics officers--including all nine members of an elite team--on charges of stealing more than $1.4 million in seized drug cash and using much of that money to buy homes, luxury cars, jewelry and stocks. The 10 veteran officers were also accused of conspiring to take money from suspected drug dealers during narcotics raids over the last two years.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider today whether the county should assume responsibility for policing Compton. Board consideration represents the last step in Compton's attempt to replace its Police Department with deputies. City officials approved the change this summer. Last week, the city and sheriff finalized a contract that allows Compton officers, whose union backed the move, to be hired by the Sheriff's Department.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's sergeant, who has become the central figure in a money-skimming scandal involving an elite squad of narcotics officers, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to conspiracy and tax fraud charges and agreed to testify against his former deputies. Sgt. Robert R. Sobel, 45, who once commanded the crew of veteran deputies--all of whom have been indicted--tersely admitted in open court that he had helped steal more than $1.

GUN DROP: Several Westside law enforcement agencies are sponsoring a weapons-disposal day Saturday in a drive aimed at encouraging people to turn in unwanted firearms. The Beverly Hills and Santa Monica police departments and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in West Hollywood are offering to collect weapons from residents from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the local police stations.

So much cocaine was found in a Sylmar warehouse raided 10 days ago that each Angeleno could have had a three-month supply. But what the world's biggest drug bust could not provide is enough credit to go around to all the law enforcement agencies that took part in it.

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.

Sgt. Jim Hannon is from the old school. His life has been one of values, of duty, patriotism and honor. He's actually proud of the uniform he wears bearing the green and gold seal of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. And so it was Thursday that he found himself filled with anger and sadness, hurt to the core by reports about the widening money-skimming scandal involving the department's elite narcotics squads.

Invoking the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the U.S. Justice Department has sued the city of Alhambra and its Police and Fire departments, charging employment discrimination against minorities. The suit was filed after the city declined a Justice Department recommendation to revamp its personnel practices, City Manager Kevin Murphy said. The changes would have expanded city recruitment, hiring and promotion of blacks, Latinos and Asians.

All but one of the sheriff's officers indicted Thursday had worked under a hard-charging narcotics sergeant who has been identified as both a principal suspect and an important prosecution witness. Sgt. Robert R. Sobel, who dubbed himself "El Diablo," or "the Devil," was indicted along with the other eight members of his drug squad on charges of stealing a total of $1.4 million in drug money. Before its members were suspended last Sept.

Three major police agencies and the city Fire Department have asked that aircraft be banned from flying under 2,000 feet over all of Los Angeles County without prior approval when the verdicts in the Rodney G. King case are made public, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.

San Gabriel Valley police and sheriff's deputies, still adding up costs from last weekend's beefed-up enforcement in preparation for the verdicts in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial, are also crediting their accounts with increased goodwill and a lower-than-usual weekly crime rate. "I think there are two things we gained," El Monte Assistant Police Chief Pete Mireles said.

Three major police agencies and the city Fire Department have asked that aircraft be banned from flying under 2,000 feet over all of Los Angeles County without prior approval when the verdicts in the Rodney G. King case are made public, the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday.

Preparing for a possible repeat of last year's riots, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved an amendment to Los Angeles County's curfew ordinance that expands the power of police to arrest curfew violators. The board voted to remove a provision from the county ordinance that allowed authorities to arrest curfew violators only if they threatened to "imperil lives or property," or hinder police and fire crews.

On perfect beach days, Venice shopkeeper Hwan Song worries about tornadoes. "A group of kids dash into a store and throw the merchandise here and there--and then they take it," Song said. "A tornado." Song, who heads a Korean merchants group, sells baseball caps, costume jewelry and bags near Muscle Beach. His business depends on the hordes who flock to one of Southern California's biggest tourist stops. He can't live without them, but at times he wonders how he can live with them.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block on Wednesday said a proposed $152-million budget cut would devastate his department, resulting in the closure of nine stations, layoffs for more than 1,500 deputies and the release of thousands of county prisoners. "I fear that we are on the brink of a (law enforcement) disaster of such major proportions in Los Angeles County that we might not ever recover from it," Block said at a news conference. Overall, the county is facing a projected $1.

The Burbank City Council has adopted plans to enter into an agreement with Glendale to build a joint police helicopter facility at Burbank Airport--which would save both cities money. The Burbank council's 4-0 vote on Tuesday night follows approval of a similar measure by the Glendale City Council and Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority.

In a wave of police "lawlessness," Los Angeles County sheriff's narcotics deputies savagely beat suspects, stole money and planted cocaine from their own evidence supply on suspects, a former sheriff's sergeant testified Friday. But Robert R. Sobel, the prosecution's chief witness in the money-skimming trial of seven narcotics deputies, told jurors that he did nothing to stop the practice even as victims were wrongfully terrorized or jailed.

With the corruption trial of seven Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies nearing an end, a federal grand jury has been investigating misconduct allegations against other narcotics officers including several Los Angeles Police Department detectives, it was disclosed Wednesday.

If the threat of death or serious injuries is insufficient to keep motorists and pedestrians from skirting lowered crossing gates when a Metrolink train approaches, police have another deterrent: a fine and possible loss of driving privileges. On Monday, police and state rail safety officials launched a crackdown on violators at railroad crossings between Chatsworth and Burbank--one of several campaigns that will be executed randomly at railroad crossings throughout the Metrolink system.

After two murders, a shootout outside its movie complex and a $25-million fire in the past three years, MCA Inc., the owner of Universal Studios, had had enough. The company wanted police protection. So in August--while Los Angeles County communities that suffer from as much crime in a single day as Universal does in a year waited for more police officers--Universal Studios supplied a trailer and got its own eight-member force, courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.