Also in 1997, outgunned LAPD officers in North Hollywood were locked into a lengthy shootout with heavily armed and armored bank robbers, prompting police armament upgrades across the United States.

[37] Simi Valley, the Ventura County suburb that later became infamous as the site of the state trial that immediately preceded the 1992 Los Angeles riots, has long been home to a large concentration of LAPD officers, most of them white.

[40] A lawsuit by a policewoman, Fanchon Blake, in the 1980s, instituted court-ordered mandates that the department begin actively hiring and promoting women police officers in its ranks.

[64] The commission has created a policy that officers would have to turn on the cameras whenever they arrest or detain someone for interrogation and that many public interactions such as domestic violence interviews would not be recorded.

[64] Prior to the rollout of any body worn cameras, officers were able to carry personally owned audio recording devices since 1994 if they filed an application and obtained the requisite permission.

Officers are also issued long guns, including the Remington 870 and Benelli M4 Super 90 shotguns,[68][69] as well as Smith & Wesson, Colt, or Bushmaster AR-15 rifles.

[7] Following the Rampart Division CRASH scandal of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the United States Department of Justice entered into a consent decree with the LAPD regarding systemic civil rights violations and lack of accountability that stretched back decades, requiring major reforms.

[11] The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California stated that the decree "accomplished its purpose by and large" and that the department "has made serious culture changes", but cautioned against backsliding and said there was more work to be done regarding racial disparities and treatment of the homeless.

[78] During his first term as chief, Davis called for violence against criminals while leading a Prohibition vice squad, and the department was known for controversies including accusations of conspiracy, blackmail, and murder.

It was later determined that Walter had fallen victim to a child rapist/murderer in the infamous Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, and Arthur Hutchins admitted that he had lied about his identity to meet his favorite actor, Tom Mix.

[82] In 1936, Davis sent members of the LAPD to California's state borders, along Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon, to institute checkpoints blocking the entry of migrants, or "okies".

[86] The LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department used the 1942 "Sleepy Lagoon murder" of José Gallardo Díaz to justify a coordinated crackdown: the police identified primarily-Mexican American communities, cordoned them off with blockades, and carried out mass searches and arrests.

[93] In the 1950s, he was a credited consultant for police procedural drama Dragnet, even offering the show departmental support in providing case examples and fact-checking;[95] he popularized the term "thin blue line" in both his speeches[96] and in a TV show he conceived and produced for Los Angeles NBC network KNBC;[93] he hired Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry as a speech writer;[97] and he introduced the department's first press office.

The attacks, which left five Hispanic and two white young men with broken bones and ruptured organs, were only properly investigated after lobbying from the Mexican American community.

According to an investigation by the department's Internal Affairs, the team leader, Captain Thomas Elfmont, directed his men to "hit" the apartments "hard", to "level" them, and to leave them "uninhabitable".

[114] On July 1, 1992, John Daniels Jr., 36, a tow truck driver, was fatally shot by LAPD Officer Douglas Iversen as he was driving away from a service station in South Central.

[119] Following the Rampart scandal, the United States Department of Justice entered into a consent decree with the LAPD regarding systemic civil rights violations and lack of accountability that stretched back decades.

[128] The officers began slowly advancing and fired rubber bullets and used batons to disperse crowd members who refused to comply with police orders to leave the area.

[132] As a result of these events, on September 1, 2012, civil rights activists requested an emergency meeting with LAPD Chief Charlie Beck to review arrest and use-of-force policies.

[145] LAPD Sergeant Jim Parker who was one of the two officers accused by Watts of misconduct, released a personal audio recording of the entire incident to TMZ.

[151] In 2018, LAPD officers Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were fired for misconduct, making false statements, and violating the public's trust in their actions during an armed robbery in 2017.

[152][153][154] In June 2020, following a campaign by a coalition of community groups including Black Lives Matter, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced LAPD budget cuts of $150 million.

The LAPD was criticized for carelessly handling explosives and detonating them in a neighborhood; Chief Moore publicly apologized during a news conference, informing reporters the bomb squad had begun implementing new procedures to prevent similar incidents in the future.

[163][164] In September 2021, The Guardian reported that LAPD officers had been instructed by Chief Michel Moore to collect social media account information from all citizens they interview, whether or not they have been accused of committing a crime.

Combined with news stories relating to it, the LAPD's image was effectively broadcast worldwide, making it a well-known archetype of urban North American law enforcement.

[177] Chief James E. Davis also presented the show, and many of its plotlines were based on actual incidents the LAPD had handled, a concept that would be a staple of most future LAPD-sanctioned works.

[178] The popularity of Dragnet's 1950s television adaptation made then-Chief William H. Parker "the most well-known and respected law enforcement official in the nation" aside from J. Edgar Hoover.

It made several of the LAPD's organizational quirks, such as its black-and-white paint scheme and "to protect and serve" motto, widely recognizable and symbolic of American policing.

Films prominently featuring the LAPD and its officers include Traffic with the Devil (1946), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Blade Runner (1982), Blue Thunder (1983), Dragnet (1987), the Lethal Weapon series (1987–1998), Colors (1988), Die Hard (1988), Predator 2 (1990), One False Move (1992), Demolition Man (1993), Speed (1994), Heat (1995), L.A.

Television series featuring the LAPD include Columbo (1968), Police Story (1973), Hunter (1984), The Shield (2002), The Closer (2005), Southland (2009), NCIS: Los Angeles (2009), Law & Order: LA (2010), New Girl (2011), Major Crimes (2012), Lucifer (2016), Angie Tribeca (2016), Bosch (2017), S.W.A.T.