Hours after two Los Angeles Police Department cruisers were stolen and then crashed in separate pursuits in South L.A., police were at a loss to explain the matter Thursday morning. Thieves stole the Los Angeles police cruisers late Wednesday night and led officers on a winding chase that ended abruptly when both SUVs crashed in separate locations. Three individuals were apprehended, according to police. None of them have been publicly identified. Police spokesman Officer Aareon Jefferson told The Times Thursday morning that it remained unclear as to how the cruisers were stolen, or when.
However, Jefferson said it was easy for pursuing officers to identify the SUVs as stolen, because the drivers weren't in uniform. "We don't recognize them," Jefferson said. Officers spotted the hot cruisers about 9:30 p.m. in the 400 block of East 61st Street, the LAPD said Wednesday night. What followed apparently were two separate pursuits. In one chase, the stolen police car crashed at 77th and San Pedro streets, and the driver was taken into custody.
As the second stolen cruiser drove on, a pursuing LAPD vehicle crashed at Gage Avenue and Broadway, according to Officer Tony Im. After that, the second stolen vehicle crashed at Adams Boulevard and Central Avenue. The driver of that vehicle was also taken into custody. Im told The Times on Wednesday night that it was unclear whether either driver of the stolen vehicles, or the pursuing officer was injured.
LAPD Seeks Answers After Cruisers Stolen | Officer.com
The Los Angeles Police Department has long hailed its cadet program as a successful partnership between police and the city's young residents. The initiative is designed to help cadets develop life-building skills, bond with officers and volunteer at events such as Dodgers games and the L.A. Marathon. But on Wednesday night, three of those teenagers crossed paths with city police officers in a way that LAPD officials surely hoped would never happen -- when they became suspects. Racing through the streets of South L.A. in a pair of stolen police cruisers, three teenage cadets led LAPD officers on car chases that ended in separate crashes, Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday afternoon.
The chases sparked an investigation that revealed some of the cadets may have also stolen a bulletproof vest, two stun guns and two police radios, the chief said. Instead of learning from officers, Beck said, the cadets "may have been impersonating" police while driving the stolen cruisers in Central and South Los Angeles and Inglewood. The embarrassing incident has prompted a "top-to-bottom" review of the cadet program as well as the systems the LAPD uses to check out and track its equipment. "We're going to look at this, we're going to look at how they did it, and we're going to make sure it can't be done again," Beck said.
The teens, who were not identified because they are minors, were arrested in connection with the theft of the cruisers and other LAPD property, Beck said. All three teens are members of the cadet program and from 15 to 17 years old, Beck said. He added that all three teens were involved in the vehicle thefts but that it was not immediately clear which teens were involved in the theft of the other equipment. LAPD cruisers have to be signed out through an automated system before they are driven out of a department motor pool, but the cadets were "sophisticated enough" to manipulate the system by logging in with the name of a sergeant who they knew was on vacation. "They gamed that system," Beck said.
One of the cadets was so well-regarded within the program that the teen's picture was used in recruitment materials hoping to entice other youths to join up, according to three law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation. Promotional materials with the teen's picture were quickly taken down, said the sources, who requested anonymity in order to discuss the case candidly. The department became aware that two LAPD cruisers had gone missing around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, sparking an investigation that Beck said "almost immediately" focused on a 16-year-old female cadet assigned to 77th Street Division after officials found video of the teen fueling the car at a city gas pump. At about 9:30 p.m., two stolen cruisers were spotted near 77th Street Division's headquarters. A chase began after the drivers ignored officers' commands to pull over, Beck said.
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The move is part of a "top-to-bottom" review of the citywide cadet program following revelations that besides the theft of three cruisers, the cadets may have also stolen other police equipment and posed as sworn officers. The suspensions are in effect pending the outcome of the investigation, officials said. Two of the accused cadets were assigned to the 77th Street Division and the third to the Pacific Division, said Josh Rubenstein, LAPD public information director. The teens, ages 15, 16 and 17, were not identified because they are minors. They were booked in connection with the theft of the cruisers and other LAPD property, Beck said. He added that all three were involved in the vehicle thefts but that it was not immediately clear which of them may have been involved in taking the other equipment.
Department officials said the three cadets led officers on car chases through the streets of South L.A. on Wednesday in a pair of stolen police cruisers. The car chases ended in separate crashes. The thefts and chases sparked an investigation that revealed some of the cadets may have also stolen a bulletproof vest, two stun guns and two police radios, Beck told reporters last week. Since the arrests, the cadet program has come under intense scrutiny. The captains in both divisions will now meet one on one with every cadet "regarding the severity and seriousness of the recent incidents" along with the need to maintain ethics, the LAPD said in a statement last week. Police officials will also meet with the parents of cadets in those divisions.
Investigators are trying to determine if other cadets were directly involved in the unauthorized use of LAPD patrol cars or knew of the thefts of the vehicles and other equipment. Currently, about 2,300 teens ages 13 to 20 are enrolled in cadet programs. The programs operate at each of the LAPD's 21 geographic stations. Only programs at the 77th Street Division and Pacific Division are suspended, officials said. According to police sources, the cadets involved in the vehicle thefts made themselves unauthorized police uniforms and had driven at least one of the stolen patrol cars more than 1,000 miles.
Investigators are trying to determine what the teens were doing with the vehicles as well as where they went. Police said one of the cars went missing in late May. Detectives want to figure out whether the vehicle was stolen once or repeatedly taken and returned without detection, which would raise even greater concerns about how the LAPD tracks its cars. Detectives are checking various cameras that read license plates around the Los Angeles area to see if the cruisers might have been logged and want to know when and where the cars were gassed up, according to multiple police sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details about the ongoing investigation. Sources said police had checked the odometers of the cars and discovered that at least one had been driven a significant distance since it was last used for official business.
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