Torrance Police Department

Torrance police have purchased a Fire Arms Training Simulator to supplement training on the firing range. The department is the first South Bay law enforcement agency to buy the new high-technology equipment and incorporate it into its officer training on a regular basis. The simulator re-creates an actual crime scene with a videotape of scenarios such as a holdup or an undercover operation.

A Torrance police officer who was fired last year for frequenting a nude dancing business while on duty will be returning to work. The Torrance Civil Service Commission voted 5 to 2 on Monday night to give Officer Gregory W. Vincent, 35, his full back pay and benefits after the officer appealed his firing, said Bill Ghio, Civil Service administrator. The commission ruled that a 60-day suspension rather than termination was an appropriate punishment. In January, an independent hearing officer, R.

A Torrance police officer fired last year for frequenting a nude dancing business while on duty wants his job back. Former police Officer Gregory W. Vincent, 35, appealed his dismissal last year to independent hearing officer R. Douglas Collins. In January, Collins ruled that Vincent should get his job back with full pay, benefits and seniority because the police officer was unjustly kicked off the police force.

Torrance police were slapped with two separate lawsuits this week alleging excessive force and civil rights violations. Carson resident Carol Yvonne Ferns, 37, filed suit Tuesday in Torrance Superior Court alleging that police splattered her with pepper spray, pushed her to the ground and took her to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for psychiatric observation.

Murders are minimal and rapes rarely happen--in fact, violent crime was down 22% in Torrance during the first six months of this year--but for every square mile in the city of Torrance there is at least one shopping center that makes this sprawling metropolis a haven for shoplifters. Crime rates overall decreased this year with petty thefts increasing just slightly.

Torrance bars and liquor stores will be monitored more closely for alcohol sales to minors, thanks to a $100,000 grant from the state Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control. The Torrance Police Department will use part of grant to conduct up to 16 operations a year, using underage decoys to enter establishments and attempt to purchase alcohol. However, Sgt.

In a move to rid itself of a damaging civil rights judgment, the city of Torrance forged a settlement to pay three Latino men almost three times the money awarded by a jury that found two police officers had pulled them out of their car at gunpoint, used racial slurs and yanked one man's testicles during a 1994 traffic stop. Deputy City Atty. Robert Acciani called the plaintiffs' attorneys Monday evening after a U.S. District Court jury earlier in the day awarded them $129,100.

A federal jury on Monday ruled that Torrance police officers violated the civil rights of three Latino men during a 1994 traffic stop in which, the men claimed, the officers pulled them over at gunpoint, used racial epithets and then escorted them out of town. The jury awarded Luis Ortiz, Jose Esparza and Jose Rodriguez, all of Inglewood, a total of $120,000 in punitive damages and $9,100 in actual damages stemming from the July 19, 1994, incident.