An early morning start for LAPD’s Recruitment Section

(Thursday, May 15, 2025) A few minutes past 5:00 am, Officer Julian Canales, Recruitment Section, found himself in the make up chair for the first of two television interviews on Telemundo’s Channel 52 weekday morning show, ‘Buenos Dias.’ Officer Canales was there to promote the LAPD Latino Recruitment Seminar taking place Saturday, May 17, 2008, at the Ahmanson Recruitment Training Center. 

Quickly after wrapping up his second live television interview, Officer Canales then traveled two blocks down to W Radio 690AM where he was a guest on Hoy X Hoy with hosts Gerardo Lorenz and Mirthala Salinas.  Officer Canales was given the entire 10-minute segment to inform radio listeners about the written examinations and qualifications to become a LAPD officer.   

His day was just beginning!  Next stop was across town at the Spanish Broadcasting System radio studios.  Officer Canales was in studio for 45 minutes with ‘El Cucuy De la Mañana’ (The Boogy Man of the morning) on La Raza 97.9FM.  The highly rated radio show broadcasts in several different markets across the country.  Officer Canales was asked about the areas of the City he had been assigned to, the challenges police officers face in the field, the career opportunities available within the Department, and the salary one can expect as they advance in rank. 

Officer Canales’ partner, Officer Louis Origel, was also busy promoting the recruitment seminar.  Located down the hall from La Raza 97.9FM, Latino 96.3FM generously donated time from its already packed Thursday morning schedule to allow Officer Origel to record a 10-minute interview they would air the next morning.

“I’m very grateful to Telemundo, W Radio, El Cucuy and Latino for their assistance once again with our Department’s recruitment efforts. They were all kind enough to have me on as a guest in January when we had our previous Latino Recruitment Seminar,” said Officer Canales.   “The majority of the people who attended in January said they learned about our recruitment event from the media interviews we did the week prior to the event.”

“We expect a healthy turnout on Saturday from the media interviews we did this morning,” added Officer Origel. 

Last week on Thursday, May 8, 2008, La Ranchera 980AM also assisted with recruitment efforts by promoting the LAPD Latino Recruitment Seminar on their weekday morning show.

The interviews were scheduled by the Public Relations Unit, Public Information Office, and are part of the LAPD’s media campaign established with Spanish language media outlets to help bridge the communication gap between the Department and the Hispanic community.

Comments

[PeekyPannie]

I'm still waiting for the "Caucasian/Europeon/White Guy" recruitment seminar.

We're the new minority now per Paysinger. Whites make up 39% of the dept and the Spanish make up 40%.

[Bubba]

Oh but that would be racist PeekyPannie :)

[masters of chaos]

Recruiters, please familiarize yourselves and share this list:

The US Marines have a required reading list, the LAPD should also. For any current coppers or those in the lengthy application process read (and watch):

1. Warfighting (USMC)

2. The Small Wars Manual 1940(USMC)

3. Boot: An LAPD Officer's Rookie Year by William Dunn

4. Gangs of Los Angeles by William Dunn

5. The New Centurions by Joseph Wambaugh

6. The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh

7. Danger, Duty, and Disillusion: The Worldview of Los Angeles Police Officers by Joan Barker

8. Badge of Honor: An Insider's History of the LAPD (DVD)

9. LAPD: Life on the Beat (hopefully they'll come out w/ a DVD series, but for now you'll have to watch it on youtube.com or through reruns)

10. Masters of Chaos by Linda Robinson

11. Chosen Soldier by Dick Couch

[Ed O'Shea]

I would like to add three more, which should be REQUIRED reading by all Police Officers, especially our "Leadership" here on the LAPD.

(1) "On Killing" By Lt Col Dave Grossman.

(2) "On Combat" also By Lt Col Dave Grossman

(3) "It Doesn't Take A Hero" By Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf

[DA]

masters of chaos,
It’s not just the Marines that have a reading list, it’s all the branches. Anyway, I tried to pass on the idea of a professional reading list for LAPD officers/supervisors when I was at the old academy, but the powers that be didn’t want anything to do with it. Unfortunately the current mentality in LAPD professional development has been “check the boxes that will get you promoted”. Don’t get me wrong, there are a ton of SME’s and smart people in the department but there is very little dialogue about the job in a way of tribal knowledge outside of a watch or maybe a station.

I doubt anyone is even trying to get a working group together of LAPD GWOT veterans to see if there are any lessons learned in counterinsurgency that could be applied to the home front. So, I think you’re on the right track by taking the message straight to the audience; keep it up.

As far as your reading list goes, Warfighting aka FMFM1 is a great read, not too heavy. The 1940 Small Wars Manual is still very relevant and IMHO better than the new COIN manual. By the way, all three publications are available online in PDF format for free. I also own a copy of Badge of Honor which is a great DVD. And I haven’t read anything bad by Dick Couch since I picked up The Warrior Elite a few years back. I’m putting your other suggestions in queue.

Stay safe

[Rollo Tomasi]

DA,

Gathering all LAPD vets that just came back from Iraq and Afghanistan (especially coppers from Special Forces, Marines and other units directly involved in counter-terrorism/counter-insurgency) for the purpose of harvesting important information and lessons learned from the Sandbox makes way too much sense.

As for the Small Wars Manual 1940, Cold War commandos wrote this manual off as history. The US military would never have to know how to pack horses w/ gear, this is the 21st century. Surprise, surprise...This manual came in handy in Afghanistan and again in Iraq.

[NDynamite]

Get a bunch of warriors together to talk about lessons learned from war? Are you guys crazy? This is Los Angeles! Our politically correct Cheif, Mayor, City Council and Commission would never approve of such a thing. Could you imagine the headlines at the LATimes? Sadly our leaders can not and will not see the value in such a exercise. Fortunately, some of this knowledge and experience is being passed by the leadership shown by Vets in the field. Good Luck guys.