Know Your TEST TT

Your City's Police Department was established in 1820 as the primary law enforcement body for the City. Your City's Police Department is currently allocated 524 sworn officers and 200 civilian employees. Your City's Police Department serves a population of 202,000 citizens as well as 150,000 others who travel to or through the city on a daily basis.

PD's role is to enforce laws in a fair and impartial manner, recognizing both the statutory and judicial limitations of police authority and the constitutional rights of all persons. It is not the role of the department to legislate, to render legal judgments, or to punish.

The primary responsibility for upholding the law lies not with the police, but with the people. Since crime is a social phenomenon, crime prevention is the concern of every person living in society. Society employs full-time professional police officers to prevent crime, to deter it, and when that fails, to apprehend those who violate the law.

Crime is a symptom of ills within society which is not the responsibility of the department to cure. The department is responsible, however, for interacting with the community to generate mutual understanding so that there may be public support for crime prevention. Community involvement is essential to facilitate a free flow of information between the public and the department, to assist in identification of problem areas, and to inform the public of crime statistics and trends. Additionally, knowledge of the community is necessary so that each employee may be instilled with a sense of concern for crime problems and law enforcement needs.

Deterrence of Crime:

Street crime is curbed by the potential criminal’s fear of immediate apprehension or by the increased likelihood of detection. Deterrence of crime requires investigation of behavior which reasonably appears to be criminally directed.

Apprehension of Criminals:

The administration of criminal justice consists of identification, arrest, prosecution, punishment, and rehabilitation of the violator; the objective of which is voluntary compliance with the law. Once a crime has been committed, the duty of the department is to initiate the criminal justice process by identifying and arresting the perpetrator, to obtain necessary evidence, and to cooperate in prosecution of the case.

As the certainty of swift and sure punishment serves as an effective deterrent to crime, so must the department strive to solve all crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Recovery and Return of Property:

The actual costs of crime are difficult to measure; there cannot be a dollar value assigned to the broken bodies, ruined lives, and human misery which are the products. However, it is possible to observe the steadily mounting cost of lost and stolen property. This loss, as well as the other costs of crime, must ultimately be borne by the victims. To minimize the losses due to crime, the department shall make every reasonable effort to recover lost or stolen property, to identify its owner, and to ensure prompt return.

More Information

Police Officer Application - Download an application in PDF format which requires Acrobat Reader.

Contact PD

If you wish to contact the Your City's Police Department regarding to obtaining information concerning accident reports, arrest reports, or speaking to an individual officer or detective or another individual, then dial 310-656-5272.

For non-emergency calls such as reporting something that appears strange, reporting an accident, break-in or other types of call, then dial 310-656-5272.