Staff one, 1978, p. 84 |
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Command Control
The parent has more control over the child than a policeman does. The policeman is limited by the fact that he can't
stay there and watch over the kid, but he can be the catalyst
to save the kid's life. If parents are approached properly,
most of them are responsive. If they are not, there is nothing
much you can do. There are some things we can't change.
God gave us the will to try to change people, but he also gave
us the wisdom not to waste our time trying lo convince
people who will not be convinced.
Disasters
Another example of proactive police work involves
planning for major unusual occurrences. Several years ago,
1 had to make a decision about the Bel-Air section of Los
Angeles. I was an inspector then, and the Santa Monica
mountains were a part of my overall area of responsibility.
There was this huge spread of California sagebrush and
mesquite before me. I thought, "Boy, some day this is going
to go!" So we did some planning. I had all my captains conduct command-post exercises.
First, we had to ask ourselves, "What is our legal
obligation on evacuation?" Under California law, the fire
chief is given great power in evacuating buildings or whole
blocks and blowing them up. Whatever he has to do to stop
a fire, he can do. The police also have the power to evacuate
if there is danger of loss of life. We made a decision, and
we put it in the department's training bulletins, that we were
not going to waste our time arguing with people who don't
want to be saved. We would lose the precious time we needed
to get to those who did want to be saved. Officers were
told to try to convince people quickly that they should evacuate. If they wouldn't leave, the officers were to go on. Perhaps those people were going to burn to death, but it would
be a result of their own personal judgment. At least wc could
get to three or four other people who wanted to be evacuated.
It is hard to imagine a California brush fire unless you
152
Command Control
have seen one. The brush is ten or fifteen feet tall, and sonic
of Ihe houses are built right next to il. The brush gets very,
very dry. When we did, unfortunately, experience that huge
brush fire, 400 homes burned absolutely to cinders. It was a
horrendous conflagration. But we went through that whole
holocaust with not one human life lost, because our effort
was proactive, not reactive.
Another year a reservoir broke through, and we lost a
lot of people; we hadn't planned for such a disaster. But
now, every year, we review our plans. We know all the terrain
of the city; every district has topographical maps. We can
tell what part of the city might be inundated if any damn
breaks. We will be prepared to assist in the evacuation of
any portion of the city.
In 1971, we had to evacuate a part of Los Angeles after
the earthquake. Some 80,000 people were evacuated from
their homes. There was the very real danger of a dam breaking, but once we got the Army Corps of Engineers in to
help pump it out, the problem was alleviated. Then Whoever
was shaking the earth stopped, and those people were able
to move back into their homes. Our efforts had been successful. That was proactive police work.
Until the leader makes the transition in his thinking
from reactive to proactive, his working day will be spent running from one crisis to another. If he puts off being proactive
long enough, he may work his way to an early grave or, if he
is lucky, an early retirement. Not a very pleasant way to go.
VICE CONTROL
The enforcement of the vice laws also requires very
sensitive command control. It is a matter of management
vigilance, both internally and externally.
Individual vice officers, after a few months in vice
work, consider themselves to be real geniuses and great
masters of the mysteries of this shady world. Many of them
153
Object Description
| Title | Staff one, 1978 |
| Description | Edward M. Davis. Staff one: a perspective on effective police management. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1978. Accompanied by memo indicating the photocopy of the book was provided by the author. PART OF: Commission meetings (6 of 6). PART OF A SERIES: Materials in the series fall into one of several categories related to the Independent Commission's work product: (1) Commission meeting materials, which include meeting agendas, work plans, memoranda, and articles about police misconduct that were circulated and reviewed during the Commission's internal meetings; (2) public correspondence, which includes citizen complaints against the LAPD in the form of written testimony, articles, and an audio cassette tape, as well as letters drafted by citizens in support of the LAPD; (3) summaries of interviews held with LAPD officers regarding Departmental procedures and relations; (4) public meeting materials, which include transcripts, supplementary documents, and witness statements that were reviewed at the Commission's public meetings; (5) press releases related to the formation and work product of the Commission; and (6) miscellaneous materials reviewed by the Commission during its study, including LAPD personnel and training manuals, a memorandum of understanding, and messages from the LAPD's Mobile Digital Terminal (MDT) system. |
| Creator | Davis, Edward M. |
| Publisher (of the original version) | Prentice-Hall, Inc. |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California |
| Date issued | 1978 |
| Type |
texts images |
| Format | 130 p. |
| Format (aat) | books |
| Format (imt) | application/pdf |
| Language | English |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Part of collection | Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, 1991 |
| Series | Independent Commission file list |
| File | Commission meetings |
| Box and folder | box 22, folder 9, item 2 |
| Provenance | The collection was given to the University of Southern California on July 31, 1991. |
| Rights | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Repository name | USC Libraries Special Collections |
| Repository address | Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 |
| Repository email | specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | indep-box22-09-02 |
Description
| Title | Staff one, 1978, p. 84 |
| Format (imt) | image/tiff |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | Command Control The parent has more control over the child than a policeman does. The policeman is limited by the fact that he can't stay there and watch over the kid, but he can be the catalyst to save the kid's life. If parents are approached properly, most of them are responsive. If they are not, there is nothing much you can do. There are some things we can't change. God gave us the will to try to change people, but he also gave us the wisdom not to waste our time trying lo convince people who will not be convinced. Disasters Another example of proactive police work involves planning for major unusual occurrences. Several years ago, 1 had to make a decision about the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles. I was an inspector then, and the Santa Monica mountains were a part of my overall area of responsibility. There was this huge spread of California sagebrush and mesquite before me. I thought, "Boy, some day this is going to go!" So we did some planning. I had all my captains conduct command-post exercises. First, we had to ask ourselves, "What is our legal obligation on evacuation?" Under California law, the fire chief is given great power in evacuating buildings or whole blocks and blowing them up. Whatever he has to do to stop a fire, he can do. The police also have the power to evacuate if there is danger of loss of life. We made a decision, and we put it in the department's training bulletins, that we were not going to waste our time arguing with people who don't want to be saved. We would lose the precious time we needed to get to those who did want to be saved. Officers were told to try to convince people quickly that they should evacuate. If they wouldn't leave, the officers were to go on. Perhaps those people were going to burn to death, but it would be a result of their own personal judgment. At least wc could get to three or four other people who wanted to be evacuated. It is hard to imagine a California brush fire unless you 152 Command Control have seen one. The brush is ten or fifteen feet tall, and sonic of Ihe houses are built right next to il. The brush gets very, very dry. When we did, unfortunately, experience that huge brush fire, 400 homes burned absolutely to cinders. It was a horrendous conflagration. But we went through that whole holocaust with not one human life lost, because our effort was proactive, not reactive. Another year a reservoir broke through, and we lost a lot of people; we hadn't planned for such a disaster. But now, every year, we review our plans. We know all the terrain of the city; every district has topographical maps. We can tell what part of the city might be inundated if any damn breaks. We will be prepared to assist in the evacuation of any portion of the city. In 1971, we had to evacuate a part of Los Angeles after the earthquake. Some 80,000 people were evacuated from their homes. There was the very real danger of a dam breaking, but once we got the Army Corps of Engineers in to help pump it out, the problem was alleviated. Then Whoever was shaking the earth stopped, and those people were able to move back into their homes. Our efforts had been successful. That was proactive police work. Until the leader makes the transition in his thinking from reactive to proactive, his working day will be spent running from one crisis to another. If he puts off being proactive long enough, he may work his way to an early grave or, if he is lucky, an early retirement. Not a very pleasant way to go. VICE CONTROL The enforcement of the vice laws also requires very sensitive command control. It is a matter of management vigilance, both internally and externally. Individual vice officers, after a few months in vice work, consider themselves to be real geniuses and great masters of the mysteries of this shady world. Many of them 153 |
| Filename | indep-box22-09-02~084.tif |
| Archival file | Volume72/indep-box22-09-02~084.tif |
