Officer Afflicted by MS Wins High LAPD Honor

A Los Angeles Police reserve officer who is confined to a wheelchair received one of the department’s highest awards Wednesday for helping to develop a program used to immediately book and release arrestees in the field.

Charles Mason, 46, of Van Nuys was presented with the Meritorious Service Medal in his bed at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he is in therapy for multiple sclerosis. Mason and three

other officers were to be honored at a ceremony next week, but Mason was unable to attend so LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates went to the hospital instead.

The award recognizes Mason for his work developing the Immediate Booking and Release System (IBARS) used by officers in the field to process large numbers of arrestees quickly. Mason and other reserve officers were instrumental in starting the program, which now is used almost every weekend.

Mason joined the department in 1984 and was named reserve officer of the year in the Devonshire Division in 1986. That same year, Mason was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. It did not slow him down. Working at the department’s Traffic Coordination Section downtown, Mason continued to coordinate scheduling for the IBARS program, often working from his wheelchair.