Former LA Police Chief Daryl Gates Dies
Read Time:2 Minute, 49 Second
Former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates has died, says a Los Angeles Police Spokesman.
Gates is considered the father of SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics), who established the specialized unit in order to deal with hostage rescue and extreme situations involving armed and dangerous suspects. Ordinary street officers, with light armament, limited weapons training and little instruction on group fighting techniques, had shown to be ineffective in dealing with snipers, bank robberies carried out by heavily armed persons and other high-intensity situations. In 1965, Officer John Nelson came up with the idea to form a specially trained and equipped unit to respond to and manage critical situations while minimizing police casualties.
As an inspector, Gates approved this idea. He formed a small select group of volunteer officers. The first SWAT team, which Gates had originally wanted to name “Special Weapons Attack Team,” was born LAPD SWAT, D-Platoon of the Metro Division. This first SWAT unit was initially constituted as 15 teams of four men each, for a total staff of 60. These officers were given special status and benefits, but in return they had to attend monthly trainings and serve as securities for police facilities during episodes of civil unrest. SWAT was copied almost immediately by most US police departments, and is now used by law enforcement agencies throughout the world.
In Gates’ autobiography, Chief:My Life in the LAPD (Bantam Books, 1992), he explained that he neither developed SWAT tactics nor its distinctive equipment. He wrote that he supported the concept, tried to empower his people to develop the concept, and lent them moral support.
Gates’s appointment as chief roughly coincided with the intensification of the War on Drugs. A drug-related issue that had also come to the forefront at the time was gang violence, which paralyzed many of the neighborhoods (primarily impoverished and black or Hispanic) in which gangs held sway. In response, LAPD set up specialist gang units which gathered intelligence on and ran operations against gangs. These units were called Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, aka CRASH, immortalized in the 1988 film Colors. Gates’ aggressive approach to the gang problem was effective in suppressing gang violence, but its indiscriminate nature led to numerous allegations of false arrest and allegations of a general LAPD disdain for young black and Latino men. Ironically, by this time the department had a significant percentage of minority officers.
Gates himself became a byword among some for excessive use of force by anti-gang units, and became a favorite lyrical target for gang-connected urban black rappers notably, Ice Cube. Nevertheless, CRASH’s approach appeared successful and remained in widespread use until the Rampart Division scandal of 1999 drew attention to abuses of the law that threatened to undo hundreds of criminal convictions.
Like his mentor Parker, Gates publicly questioned the effectiveness of community policing, usually electing not to work with community activists and prominent persons in communities in which LAPD was conducting major anti-gang operations. At the time of the Rodney King beating, Gates was at a community policing conference. This tendency, a logical extension of the policies implemented by Parker that discouraged LAPD officers from becoming too enmeshed in the communities in which they served, did not serve him well politically: allegations of arrogance and racism plagued the department throughout his tenure, surfacing most strongly in the Christopher Commission report.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
You are right about him being a scapegoat, he was the boss at a bad time in LA history, and he was a man about taking it.
I am ashamed.
I giggled.
Sorry old bean. Seriously.
The image of the coffin bearers hurtling towards the grave shouting “Hut! Hut! Hut!” was too much for me to control.
Have I no soul?…..Clearly not….
RIP Mr Gates.
Gates? Any relation to?
The passing of a law enforcement officer is always a sad day Mike. Mr Gates had a a hard core approach to the job that did not always work as well as he thought they would.
There is a lot of controversy swirling about Gates’ “reign” even today Bill. I know he didn’t do everything right, but he did a lot of “right”things.
Mike,
Sorry about your loss. I know what the police are up against and just how hard they work. Don’t think I could do this job, ever.
My son works for the Riverside Sheriffs Dept. out there in California. These guys put their lives on the line each and everyday! Sure changes a man!
Thanks Barbara. I spent my life in law enforcement. Tell your son to be careful out there.
He was a controversial guy Gwen and he presided over some tough times for LAPD. He ended up being the scapegoat for a lot of things he had nothing to do with.
My condolences to you Mike. I understand it’s to loose one of ‘your own’ … obviously a fellow who contributed a great deal to community protection and support. Our own local constabulary is at ill odds with city government right now and at an edge of outright strike. They are boycotting public events protection. I, for my part, am with the WPB city police… they are upset at being tossed over yet again for promised pay / etc. You prob know the drill. They have drawn in boundary support from all connective policing offices with the exception of State-ies… whom as all know, would arrest their own Mothers.