LAPD: Policing the Nation's Second-Largest City



The Los Angeles skyline at nighttime as seen from the second floor of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Substation in Los Angeles, CA on October 10, 2016. (Photo by Beverly Pham)

By Beverly Pham

"I see everything from a barking dog type of radio call to the most heinous horrible crimes."

Officer Ulises Hernandez works for the Los Angeles Police Department, the third-largest municipal police department in the United States with 9,843 officers overseeing a population of 4,030,904 people. Specifically, he patrols the Rampart area, which serves communities to the west of downtown L.A. from Silverlake to Pico-Union.

The second-largest city in the nation, Los Angeles is home to the amount of crime one would imagine correlates to such a number of people. With tensions ever-increasing across the country between law enforcement officers and civilians in regards to the use of police force in arrests, officers are now thrust into the spotlight when making decisions that put their lives on the line.

"I'm not gonna go out there and hesitate and second-guess myself because I don’t wanna offend the media and put my life in danger," says Hernandez.


"I'm gonna come out here and I'm gonna do what I gotta do and treat people with respect, dignity...treat people like people and just do my job the way we're supposed to do."


The conversation on police use of deadly force continues this week with the publication of toxicology results from Terrence Crutcher, who was fatally shot by Officer Betty Shelby in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Video showed Crutcher walking with his hands in the air before the shooting, but police say he was disobeying commands, behaving erratically, and placing his hands in his pockets where Officer Shelby feared there could be a weapon. An autopsy released by the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner's Office revealed a drug known as PCP in the victim's body at the time of his shooting.

Such situations leave no room for second-guessing, and officers must quickly make a decision that decides whether they will go home to their families. Bringing it closer to home, the shooting deaths of two officers in Palm Springs after a lengthy standoff during a family disturbance call shocked the community. The shooting suspect took the lives of officers Jose Vega, 63 years old and a 35-year veteran police officer due to retire this year, and Lesley Zerebny, 27, a new mom with a 4-month-old daughter.

They tried to negotiate and they tried to talk him down. They did not try to kill him, and they lost their lives for it.

Despite making up a very small percentage of law enforcement, officers Shelby and Zerebny have put their roles as female police officers in the national spotlight. Officer Natalie Bustamante is one of only 20 female officers in Rampart's force of 230 officers.

"To make it home safe for us and our families and our friends and our brothers and sisters on the job, we've just pretty much backed off a little bit," she says.





According to the latest data available compiled by the Los Angeles Times, there have been 9 violent crimes and 15 property crimes in Pico-Union during the week of Sept. 22-Sept. 28, averaging a total of 5.4 crimes per 10,000 people. This rate is higher than in nearby Koreatown, Westlake, and Adams-Normandie.





Hover over data points and follow the links for more information on each crime. (Data source: Los Angeles Times Data Desk | Map data: OpenStreetMap contributors)

"The most common calls are business disputes, domestic violence, family disputes, traffic accidents...then you have your other types of radio calls like shootings and violent crime," says Hernandez.

Last week, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s sergeant Steve Owen was shot and killed in Lancaster while responding to a residential burglary call.

Bustamante points to a black band across her badge.

"This symbolizes mourning of an officer recently killed in the line of duty," she explains.

The flags are still flying at half-staff, and the department is not done mourning.



The American flag flies half-staff at the Los Angeles Police Department Rampart Substation in Los Angeles, CA on the night of October 10, 2016. (Photo by Beverly Pham)

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