Random Idioms and Acronyms
Holding his gun on target – aiming it at suspect
Holding gun at low ready – not aimed, but ready to bring up
Light bar – lights on top of police car
radio car – patrol car, black & white, cage car
Twin Towers (called that because they are two multi-storied buildings right next to each other) are Sheriff facilities
The Men's Central Jail is an LAPD facility. As far as being transfered...depending upon when the arrest was made it would usually be a day or two. But, the prisoners don't always go to Twin Towers before court. They can be transfered from a division (like Devonshire or Rampart) straight to court. Once denied bail a detainee would likely go to Twin Towers or Pitchess Detention Center.
TSTL – too stupid to live
LUDS - Local Usage Details
ANI - "Automatic Number Identification" line
IAB – Internal Affairs Bureau, aka IAD, Internal Affairs Division. Now replaced with the Professional Standards Bureau. The cops who investigate the other cops. Among other things, they investigate all Officer Involved Shootings and crooked cops.
BSS – Behavioral Science Section. Any officer involved in a death has to be cleared by a psychiatrist through BSS before they can return to active duty.
SID – Scientific Investigative Division – LAPD equivalent to CSI. The ballistic branch is next door to the Northeast Police Division on San Fernando Road. As far as I know this is or has been closed and replaced by a new 5-story structure where hundreds of criminalists will examine firearms, blood, hair and narcotics from crime scenes around the city. The Los Angeles Regional Crime Lab is the largest municipal crime lab in the country. It is located on the Cal State L.A campus. Last estimates were it cost $102 million but was desperately needed to deal with the huge backlog L.A has been experiencing in forensics. It will also be used by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.
Glass House – Parker Center. LAPD Headquarters. Office of the Chief of Police on the 6th floor, RHD – the elite Robbery Homicide Division of Detectives home of Robbery Special, Rape Special and Homicide Special that handle the more complex and wide ranging crimes. The building is currently in the process of being replaced. The new one (no official name yet) is scheduled to open in 2010.
Piper Technical Center – The main lab at Piper Technical Center downtown was built to house 30 criminalists, but the department has 140. Some have been shipped to temporary offices in the department’s Northeast Division and Parker Center headquarters. This has been replaced by the Los Angeles Regional Crime Lab. The technicians process 30,000 cases a year.
But 370 DNA cases submitted by detectives are backlogged because technicians have room to process only 18 cases a week. There is also a backlog of 6,000 rape kits that contain DNA evidence from sexual assaults but that have not been submitted by detectives for analysis. The backlog of bullets and casings waiting to be matched to firearms: 2,000. The number that current lab workers can process each week: about 60. From the Los Angeles Times, 2007
war bag – bag used to carry equipment to car.
Throw ups – 3D tags
OIS – Officer Involved Shooting:
When an officer shoots a suspect the suspect is investigated by maybe 2 detectives. The detective is investigated by IA, the DA's office, the FBI and the Kroll monitors. Kroll is a private security company who monitors the LAPD's adherence to the Federal Consent decree. The Federal Consent decree is red tape nightmare grinding the whole system to a halt.
The
morgue - while in full activity such as autopsies, getting
fingerprints and any other needs to roll a body out of the cooler
-
has a smell like alcohol, formaldehyde, nasty body odors (
think no
bath or deodorant for a month AND like you've walked
into a closed
bathroom right after someone had a smelly BM) and
to top off the
smells, add cleaning and disinfectant agents.
Also, if they are
working on a decomp - they can imagine going on
vacation for at least
a week, leaving the air conditioner turned
down and leaving a pound
of fresh hamburger out to rot. That
smell is predominate.
MAC-10 – class 3 firearm, the same category as military machine guns. Military Armament Corporation, Georgia company. Chambers .380 cal or 9mm. Short-barreled, easily concealed Ingram has 1600 rounds per minute rate of fire. Has a 30 round magazine. Can empty a round in an eye blink. Essentially lays down a wall of lead.