Police Training

"Police, police, police!" Young recruits cradling make-believe machine guns lined up in front of a building, identified themselves three times in Arabic, then burst through the door. The drill may have been standard, but the class at the police training center here was not: For the first time, the class -- 1,830 cadets who graduated Jan. 21 -- included as many Sunni as Shiite Muslims.

A highly regarded female police officer has been accepted into the training program for the Los Angeles Police Department's SWAT unit, clearing a major hurdle toward becoming the first woman officer to join the elite, insular group since its formation more than 35 years ago. Jennifer Grasso, 36, is one of 13 LAPD officers selected for spots in the department's 12-week training school, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, according to an internal LAPD email obtained by The Times.

Since 9/11, authorities have urged local police to become the front line in domestic counter-terrorism, gathering street-level intelligence about crimes and suspicious activities that could foretell another attack. But for various reasons it has not worked out that way. The nation's 17,000 local law enforcement agencies have gathered information in their own haphazard ways or not at all, authorities and experts say.

On a warm morning earlier this month, about 600 Los Angeles police officers gathered in the empty parking lot at Dodger Stadium for some high-stakes role playing. Most pretended to be protesters -- standing in for the ones expected to converge on downtown Los Angeles on Thursday as part of May Day immigration rallies planned across the country.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has ordered his academy to stop training new recruits until it addresses problems exposed by state inspectors, including the revelation that one instructor gave recruits the answers to their tests.

There were two good reasons why Army Capt. Dave Panian made a perilous journey across the desert to this dusty provincial capital. He wanted to check on his close friend, a district police chief whose family had been threatened by the Taliban. He also wanted to pry loose salaries for the chief's police officers, who were owed two months' pay. Panian, a lanky officer from San Diego, heads a small U.S.

Videos showing policemen in the city of Leon practicing torture techniques on a fellow officer and dragging another through vomit at the instruction of a U.S. security company advisor created an uproar Tuesday in Mexico, which has struggled to eliminate torture in law enforcement.

In the wake of a series of deadly officer-involved shootings, Inglewood Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks announced Wednesday that her officers would begin new training in tactical decision-making next month. Seabrooks told reporters that the training would help officers better assess situations that could escalate to the use of deadly force. "At the end of the day, we are talking about a program that is to professionalize and enhance a skill set," Seabrooks said.

When Sheriff Lee Baca agreed to let Fox showcase the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Academy in a reality TV show, he won praise for generating more revenue for the county and raising the department's profile. But after two seasons, the department's Office of Independent Review is calling on Baca to cancel "The Academy," saying it subjects young recruits to on-air humiliation, invasion of their personal privacy, harassment and threats to their safety.

\o7Sacre bleu! \f7Even by Los Angeles standards -- where dignitaries' motorcades barely attract attention -- Monday's police escort down Pacific Coast Highway was a traffic-stopper. Lights flashing and motors roaring, 15 Los Angeles-area motorcycle officers were escorting 32 French motorcycle cops to lunch.