Leadership in the LAPD
Walking the Tightrope
2005
192 pp $22.00
ISBN 978-1-59460-020-3
Author Renford Reese examines how chiefs of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) have attempted to reconcile contradictory objectives. It explores the history of leadership in this famed police department, analyzing the leadership styles of its contemporary chiefs. This book explores the leader's capacity to walk the public leadership tightrope. This exercise is the most important task of any public sector leader.
As one of the most highly profiled public agencies in the U.S., the LAPD has embraced many contradictions. The department has been a model of professionalism and misconduct. The LAPD has been at the center of many of the nation’s most racially explosive experiences: the 1965 Watts riots, the Rodney King beating and subsequent 1992 riots, and the O.J. Simpson case. Additionally, the Rampart Scandal was one of the biggest police corruption scandals in the nation. Because of its proximity to Hollywood, the contradictory culture of the LAPD has been exposed in television and film. Indeed, America has become familiar with the LAPD through its periodic scandals and by its media and popular culture profile. Specifically tailored for students of criminal justice and public administration, this book examines the ways in which the LAPD’s leaders have attempted to navigate crisis after crisis. Author Renford Reese uses interviews with thirty LAPD officers of various rankings and several Los Angeles residents to tell the riveting LAPD story.
"The average reader will get a solid picture of the men in charge of the LAPD, the issues they grappled with, and some of their successes and failures . . . [T]he book is informative and even entertaining."--Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture