True Crime Blog
Mike Griffin was my first patrol training officer at Firestone Station. In the first three months, he and I would handle half a dozen murders and assist on many others. The first happened in broad daylight on a populated sidewalk of Florence Avenue in South Los Angeles. The call came out as a 245 (assault…
The late eighties and early nineties saw the height of the crack cocaine epidemic. South Los Angeles, the epicenter of it all, experienced a colossal rise in violent crime. Gang members controlled the street level sales, and they were willing to kill for their piece of the pie.
The night before I wrote this blog, my editor sent a text telling me she was watching the movie Colors. When I told her it was filmed (in large part) where I had worked patrol, during the time I was there, she said she couldn’t imagine what it was like to work there. Then she…
Profiling is an effective tool for detecting and preventing crime and apprehending criminals. Courts and the officers thereof have succumbed to (if not created and propagated) this notion that those who are entrusted—rather burdened—to protect society from the predators among us, are expected to act as if they have neither a brain nor a day’s experience.
In the last few months of my patrol career, the intrusion of Mobile Digital Terminals (MDTs) began eroding the sanctity of the radio car and, in my opinion, the relationships of the partners therein. Many cops were immediately enthralled by the electronic “toy” they were provided, and they enjoyed the many tools it offered: running…
“Here’s the deal, Lou: my partner and I have knocked on this guy’s door a half-dozen times and sat in his living room for hours asking him questions about his daughter’s death and helping ourselves to his M&Ms. He knows us by our first names, but he probably thinks we’re Dumb and Dumber, and doubts we’ll…
In the fall of 1991, I promoted to station detectives at Firestone Station. At first, I had difficulty embracing the new job. However, like any new job, there was a lot to learn about the basics of being a detective. Not just interviewing witnesses and solving crimes, but all of the processes such as writing…
From Part I of the Marina brawl: A second blow hit me with even greater force. And then a third. My head rang like a gong. I was in trouble, losing consciousness and losing the fight, and I knew I had to act. No help had come. I was on my own, badly hurt, and…
Thirty years ago today, I was beaten unconscious while performing my duties as a Los Angeles County deputy sheriff. Marina del Rey I had volunteered to go on loan from Firestone Station to the Marina del Rey Station.
No self-respecting gangster was going to have plates that read “Regal Beagle.”