L.A. police chief to leave

[Heidi]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(08-06) 04:00 PDT Los Angeles

William Bratton on Wednesday announced his plan to resign as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department to take over as head of a private security company.

Bratton, who has dramatically reshaped the department and pushed down crime rates since taking over in 2002, is expected to step down at the end of October. His decision took the city's political and police leadership by surprise.

As Bratton flew back to Los Angeles from a personal trip to New York on Tuesday night, aides to his boss, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, said Villaraigosa knew nothing of the planned departure.

Likewise, members of the civilian Police Commission that oversees the department, as well as the deputy and assistant chiefs, were caught off guard when asked about Bratton's planned resignation.

"I'm really in shock. It's a great loss for the city and the LAPD," said John Mack, a civil rights figure who serves on the Police Commission, after receiving a call from the chief Wednesday morning. "Bratton has done an amazing job of turning around this department in the aftermath of a tortured history and really created a new department for the 21st century."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/05/MNUR194FCD.DTL

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LAT article is more than 12 hours old, but here it is: Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton to step down

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. Yay!

Good riddance.

[newfie11]

2. to bad, It sounds like he was doing a great job n/t

[provis99]

3. good riddance to the fascist idiot

The only L.A. police chief to make Darryl Gates look like a liberal.

[sabrina 1]

4. 'Private Security'

They're all cashing in on Private Security. I bet he got an offer from the criminally negligent Rudolph Giuliani, who not only oversaw the failure to even recognize a terrorist threat to NYC, he has had the audacity to profit from the tragedy every chance he gets.

Airc, Bratton was once Police Chief of NYC. I thought they did not get along, but I could be wrong. Then again, NO ONE got along with Giuliani, a thug who was falsely hailed as a hero, when in fact all his actions leading up to and including 9/11 were both criminal and cowardly, to say the least. The NYC Fire Dept. still holds him accountable for the deaths of many of their members that day.

Private Security is growing in the US. Military personel are leaving to become mercenaries and law-enforcement individuals are starting up or joining Private Security firms, Private Prisons etc. Imo, it's a very disturbing development.