Los Angeles, CA - LAPD urges officers to be community guardians, not warriors on crime

For years, Los Angeles police officers have worked under the shadow of the department's dark past.

The LAPD of the 1970s and '80s acted as a hard-charging, occupying force that raided poor neighborhoods and rounded up anyone in sight. Police stormed suspected crack houses, tearing down walls with a tank-like battering ram. Officers of that era were trained to think of themselves as soldiers in a never-ending war on crime.

But now the department is using that notorious history as a crucial lesson for its officers.

"We were warriors," Deputy Chief Bill Scott recently told a room filled with LAPD rank-and-file officers, a group of fresh-faced rookies watching from the front.

Now, he said, officers need to think of themselves as guardians watching over communities — not warriors cracking down on them.

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