|
About the Los Angeles
Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department
said of the LAPD Academy, “In the early 1900s, upon meeting minimum requirements, police officers were simply given
their badges and assigned to protect the City. Since they received no formal training, they learned while on the job, from
other police officers or through trial and error. In 1924, when a program of training for new officers was instituted, there
was no regular training facility, and the Department had to use classroom space at an armory in Elysian Park.
In 1925, the Los Angeles Police Revolver
and Athletic Club (LAPRAAC) was formed, and a private organization of sworn members of the Department opened a pistol range
in Elysian Park on the site of the present Police Academy. This range was to play a pivotal part in future training for the
Los Angeles Police Department. That future began in earnest when, during the 1932 World Games, the Olympic Committee obtained
permission to use the range for the pistol and rifle competition. When the games were over, the Department was given the dormitory
building. The structure, which had been used at the Olympic Village in Baldwin Hills, was dismantled and transported to the
Elysian Park site by off-duty officers, and then reassembled for use as a clubhouse. Later it became the basis for the present
Academy restaurant and cafe.”
|
|
 |
|
William (Bill) L. Walker is a Vietnam
vet who spent twenty-seven years of his life in law enforcement. He began his law enforcement career in 1970 when he joined
the Los Angeles Police Department. He retired from the Department in 1998. William L. Walker is the author
of To Ride a Hurricane.
According to the book description of
To Ride a Hurricane, it “is a twisted love story set amidst the intrigue of a spy novel, filled
with action and adventure. Gloria is the consummate Coast Guard Master Chief, a hero and legend, her private life a disaster.
Avoiding relationships because of failed love and rape, she lives in her work, but her career is soon to end. Bill is a retired
cop living day to day in a lukewarm marriage; an explosion changes that. His family thinks he’s dead. Sent on a mission
for the government, he rescues POWs from Vietnam, steals $200 million, and then sets off a nuke under a mosque. On Sentry
Island, Bill’s home, a hurricane forces Bill and Gloria together. They want to fall in love, but first they have to
overcome the storm and their pasts; the hurricane was the easy part.”
|
|
|
|
|
