Cj213

OPERATION LASER/BRADLEY PARK INITIATIVE

Robert Jones

Kaplan University

Community Policing

CJ213

Professor John Carpenter

August 18, 2013

OPERATION LASER/BRADLEY PARK INITIATIVE

LAPD OPERATION LASER

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) began working in conjunction with the Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) in order to reduce gun-related crimes in Los Angeles neighborhoods. The SPI is a is a Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) sponsored initiative that supports law enforcement agencies in building evidence based, data driven law enforcement tactics and strategies that are effective, efficient, and economical.

The LAPD and SPI applied the SARA model problem solving concept in the initial phase of the program. During the scanning phase, the LAPD and researchers at SPI reviewed gun related crimes by Reporting Districts and Divisions for 2011. LAPD Newton Division ranked number three in gun related crimes among the twenty one divisions and was subsequently selected as the first Division for the new program.

The SPI team identified specific areas (hotspots) that required intervention in the Newton Division. This was accomplished through the use of geographic analysis of data on gun related crimes, arrests and calls for service during a six year period. Through the analysis, five large hotspots were identified within the Division.

LAPD and SPI began developing their intervention strategy dubbed Los Angeles Strategic Extraction and Restoration Program (Operation LASER). The primary goal of Operation LASER was to focus on violent repeat offenders and gang members who committed crimes in the hotspots. The Crime Intelligence Detail (CID) was created in order to develop proactive, real time intelligence briefs called Chronic Offender Bulletins. The bulletins were briefed to officers in the field in order to identify crime trends in their “beats”, solving current investigations and also gave officers an additional tool to utilize for proactive police...