Bringing the LAPD Into the 21st Century

Within the cramped, dingy walls of one of the Los Angeles Police Department’s oldest stations, police work of tomorrow is being tested today.

Officers tap into seemingly limitless confidential databases worldwide to help pinpoint a suspect’s whereabouts. They snap high-tech digital cameras to create all-points bulletins minutes after a crime.

No longer do they toil for hours writing or typing reports--instead, they dictate them instantaneously into powerful computers. Other computers help detectives retrieve information from thousands of investigations with the touch of a finger. One device helps even the most unartistic cop sketch lifelike color composite drawings of crooks.

“We are the laboratory for the future,” said LAPD Det. Thomas Barnhart of the West Valley station, who is helping the department test and embrace the tools that it will use in the 21st century.

Improving police efficiency with high-tech tools has long been a goal of the LAPD. But while many initiatives seem to languish in the department’s bureaucratic maze, officers in the West Valley station have taken it upon themselves to serve as the proving ground for new and innovative law enforcement aids.

“Since I’ve been in office, I’ve seen the LAPD move from the days of Wyatt Earp to the days of James Bond,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, who has contributed more than $150,000 of her office’s discretionary funds to the station. “We can hire all the officers in the world, but without the right technology they are not going to be effective in fighting crime.”

Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, who is making technology a priority of his new administration, praised the efforts at West Valley and said he wants the rest of the department to take advantage of tools that make officers more productive and free them from tedious paperwork, which can now consume up to 40% of an officer’s day.

“Right now, the department is behind the curve when it comes to technology,” Parks said in a recent interview. “I don’t think it’s a lack of will. It’s a money issue.”

The LAPD is so behind the curve that it wasn’t until recently that officers were able to share police information via an electronic mail system--and even now it’s not available department-wide. Three years ago, the department had just 721 office computers for an organization that employed more than 10,000 workers and spent nearly a quarter of the city’s entire budget.

*

Unlike other departments, the LAPD has a bare-bones, year-old World Wide Web page, little Internet access and very few online database resources.

“We just got rid of the rotary dial phones,” joked one high-ranking LAPD official.

Philip Friedman, an LAPD analyst, said the organization fell behind in technology because of a lack of funding in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“In this industry, if you sit on the sidelines for a few years, you fall way behind,” he said. “Once you get behind, it’s hard to catch up. We’re in catch-up mode right now.”

In recent years, many policy makers, including Mayor Richard Riordan, have expressed disappointment over the LAPD’s lack of progress in implementing new technologies. Earlier this year, Riordan successfully pressed the department to create a high-level office specifically responsible for moving the LAPD “from the ‘Dragnet’ era to the age of technology.” He also formed a private fund-raising group, called the Mayor’s Alliance, which raised $16 million to help the LAPD get up to speed.

Today, the LAPD has plans both big and small for technological advancement.

Much of the department’s attention and money--including hundreds of millions of dollars from voter-approved bonds--is focused on larger projects aimed at updating the LAPD’s aging 911 system and communications network, and modernizing its dilapidated facilities and crime lab.

Meanwhile, several stations--such as West Valley--are pursuing smaller-scale advances in crime-fighting technology intended to save officers time and make them more productive.

*

Because the department is so large, “it is difficult to roll out new technology all in one shot,” Friedman said. That’s why it is so important to have stations that are “willing to be guinea pigs” for the rest of the department, he added.

At the West Valley station, in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, officials have sought federal grants and used the donations from Chick’s office to bring in cutting-edge technology.

Most recently, Chick--whose district office is next to the police station--donated $10,000 for a computer that takes dictation as quickly as officers speak and translates the words into neatly typed police reports.

“Most officers do not type nearly as quick as they can talk,” Barnhart said. “This system represents the future for the Los Angeles Police Department’s report writing methods.”

Parks said officers in West Valley “have done some remarkable things. They are fortunate to have a councilperson [who] has a unique interest in advancing that technology.”

But he cautioned that their efforts should be coordinated with those in other areas of the department so the LAPD does not have a hodgepodge of high-tech toys that are useful only in certain stations.

Parks said the LAPD needs a comprehensive plan that can be implemented department-wide as well as a funding source to maintain and replace equipment.

The efforts of West Valley officers have helped the LAPD identify new technologies that work.

Among the more successful technological advancements, West Valley officials say, is a computerized “detective case tracking” network that allows officers to easily tap into files and pass investigative tips to other detectives.

*

Officers at the station also have dabbled in video teleconferencing with prosecutors and high-tech fingerprinting equipment.

Inside a portable trailer that serves as an office for West Valley detectives, the computer that takes officers’ dictation and types their reports is also hooked up to a massive database that costs up to a dollar a minute to use. Information from property deeds, driver licenses, magazine subscriptions and criminal records can be searched.

Capt. Val Paniccia, who commands the West Valley station, said a higher percentage of cases have been accepted for prosecution since his officers began using computers to type professional-looking, easy-to-read reports rather than write them by hand.

He went to a conference with other techno-cops recently and discussed futuristic tools he would like to test for the LAPD, such as a bulletproof vest with a sensor that would alert officers when a person approaches them from behind. Another device, he said, is a global positioning system to track parolees and sex offenders.

“There are a lot of ways we can do things better,” he said. “We just have to look for them.”