LAPD Breaks Ground on New Police Headquarters

Los Angeles: Today Chief William Bratton, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Councilmembers Tom LaBonge, Eric Garcetti, Jan Perry, Jack Weiss, Wendy Greuel, Dennis Zine, Greig Smith and Police Commissioner Andrea Sheridan Ordin joined in a ground breaking ceremony of the new police headquarters facility on 1st Street between Main and Spring Streets.

The building slated for completion in May 2009, will comprise of three components. The first will consist of a ten-story 500,000 square foot main building with underground parking for 350 vehicles. The second will be a vehicle maintenance facility and parking garage on Main Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets.  This 300,000 square foot facility will provide parking for approximately 800 vehicles, a mechanic garage, fueling station and office space for Motor Transport Division personnel.  The third and final component will be a public plaza with underground parking for approximately 300 vehicles located at 1st and Judge John Aiso Street.

The new police facility will replace Parker Center which, was built in 1955.

"This is a good day for the Department and every resident of this city," Chief Bratton stated.  "This new police facility will bring us into the 21st Century. As society and advancements in technology change so to must we as a police department. This state of the art facility will enable us to do just that."

The cost of the all three componetents combined is $396.9 million dollars.   The construction of the maintenance facility is scheduled to be completed in September 2008, and the parking garage in late 2009.   

Comments

[DLH]

With all the new technology available to law enforcement, the new Police HQ is needed badly. It will be good for the city and the department.

[Mac V]

Just what we need, a multi-million dollar HQ that provides another avenue of escape for cops who want to hide from the street.

How about we start wtih the basics first, working radios, MDT's, streamlined reports, expedited booking processes.

Oh wait, I hear the old line now, "We are working on it."

I can't wait till the new HQ is finished and the first 'bugs' start appearing and the place starts falling apart ala the 'new' 77th Division station house.

I guess that's what one would suspect when you only get one bidder on a con-struction site.

[Lt Dan]

Mac V,

We are working on it.

[Mac V]

Lt Dan,

That sounds like John Kerry's infamous "Help is on the way!" line.

I won't hold my breath but you did make me laugh!

Mac V

[b&wop;]

The mayor and the LAPD leadership are all handshakes and hugs about the new police headquarter, the "new" resolve to deal with gangs, and the upcoming inauguration of the new "high tech" crime lab.

Yet, as always, the patrol officer who is the oil that keeps all these LAPD gears turning smoothly, is continually ignored and dismissed as unimportant in the big scheme of things. What is good for the patrol officer, and more importantly, what is good and efficient for taxpayers is not given one minute of consideration by city officials and LAPD management.

Technology on the street patrol level is inadequate, time wasting, unreliable, and a major waste of money. I am talking about the MDCs (they are now computers, not terminals) installed in the police cars. I've learned that words that trigger higher blood pressure and an increased breathing rate are not "man with a gun" or "shooting in progress." Those words are "VRM System Down" and "Roaming" and "Message Not Delivered."

These are the words that appear on the computer screens of police cars thousands of times a day all over the city. I don't know any other agency that has Dell laptops installed on their police cars. But the LAPD does. I don't know any other agency that patrols a 45 square mile area (the size of one LAPD division) and has 18 "dead zones" where MDCs don't send or receive information. But the LAPD does.

That means a trip in L.A. traffic to downtown and a unit out of service, so a radio technician can spend exactly 3 minutes (I timed it) removing and inserting the laptop battery and re-starting the computer. That's about an hour out of service for that police car and the officers that are in it. That means one less unit to back other units; one less unit to share the call load; longer response times to the public. The L.A. taxpayers paid full price for a product that doesn't deliver.

This, my fellow taxpayers and patrol officers, is UNACCEPTABLE, INEXCUSABLE, and A WASTE OF MONEY. "We are working on it" has been going on for too long. The city needs to cut its losses and get rid of Dell laptops altogether. See what other large agencies are using today, that works well and is efficient, and BUY IT. No more spending months or years re-inventing the wheel and doing product testing. Just DO IT!!!!!

Here is what this officer will do next time I see "VRM System Down" on my MDC. I will logon verbally and will do everything over the radio and refuse to use the MDC. I know that the RTO's will be busy and might even be overwhelmed, and I apologize. Think of it as practice when the "Big one" hits L.A. because that's how we'll be doing police work then. Writing notes on our laps as we receive calls over the air (hoping that the radios won't go belly up too).

Use the closed Dell computer in the police car as a flat area to mimick a desk. That's all it's good for.

LAPD management, here is a warning: Patrol officers in this city have had just about enough with incompetent and unreliable technology bought for a penny. We will just refuse to use it.

[lacopper friend]

One of your brethren posted this and suggested it be taped to the bathroom mirror at home:

1. There are at least two people in this world that
you would die for.
2. At least 15 people in this world love you in some
way.
3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you is
because they want to be just like you.
4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone,
even if they don't like you.
5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you before they
go to sleep.
6. You mean the world to someone.
7. You are special and unique.
8. Someone that you don't even know exists loves you.
9. When you make the biggest mistake ever, something
good comes from it.
10. When you think the world has turned its back on
you take another look.
11. Always remember the compliments you received.
Forget about the rude remarks
my addition:
12. Love one another.

[P]

B&WOP-
Right on brother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I went through 3 shops last night just to find one MDC that would work! I just started logging it on my DFAR as 45 minutes of "B/O shop". One night my partner and I took a trip downtown to Piper Tech so our MDC could be looked at. The technician was blunt with us. He said most of his time is spent dealing with these new computers. He said the problem is that the Dells have brand new software, but the modems (which were purchased in the early 90's)have old software. The bottom line is that the 2 are not compatible no matter what they do. The solution is simple...buy new modems instead of saving money by using our surplus modems. The problem is that no one wants to take responsibility and fork over the money. So for now, patrol officers will continue to have equipment that doesn't work. But I suppose it's OK because all the officers working inside the new police headquarters will have a nice new roof over their heads. I guess the city couldn't find a better way to spend the millions of dollars.

PS: When the higher ups say all our equipment is field tested and works great...Just where and who tested it? But I'm just a P-2, no one needs to answer to me. My brothers and sisters will continue to keep the city safe with our B/O equipment and low numbers of field officers, while the rest of you enjoy your new building.
-P

[DEV P2]

b&wop, very true and very well written. What a waste of taxpayer money on a computer system that does not perform and his much more difficult to use, when it does work. Several months back we had a gang car that we were using on a consistent basis. We counted 5 times in 3 weeks that we either had to go to the VNYS radio shop or Piper Tech. And all the techs do is remove the computer from the docking station and slam it back in. Great equipment. The brass truely needs to understand why we have increased response times and gang crime going up in the valley. One more thing, 20 years from now when we are looking at replacing these Dell paper weights with a new system, can we please move into the 20th century and get some backlit keys on the keyboard. That would really help the officers that work at night.

[Edgar Friendly]

Also, whoever figured out that these new Dells would be "fabulous" in the vehicles, obviously never road tested the use of the mouse-pad function in a moving vehicle...just about the time you get the cursor onto the part of the screen where you need it, the car turns, goes over some small bump in the road, etc, etc, and the cursor jumps to the top or side of the screen. This is, of course, during those rare times when the MDC's are actually working and not in a dead-zone.

And far, far too many of these MDC's don't work like they should, allowing the units to log on at the start of watch. There are many divisions that lose 2, 3 or 4 units per watch for an hour or more (depending on traffic) to a trip to the radio shop. Do the math - even at only 1 vehicle per division, per watch, at an average of 1 hour's time - that's almost 40 hours PER DAY of lost productivity, due to poor equipment. How is this acceptable?