Local cyclists on the Tuesday Night Bicykillers Bike Ride were giving a "no-show" rider a hard time on the Midnight Ridazz forum, but when they heard the rider's excuse, it left them apologizing and genuflecting. Here's what happened Tuesday night, a personal account from the rider, Mark Oshiro, himself: I went on a short 4 mile run and on my way back to my pad (right next to MacArthur Park) I saw the birdy in......

A member of the Los Angeles Police Department's elite SWAT team was shot dead in a gunbattle with a barricaded suspect in the San Fernando Valley this morning. * UPDATE: The suspect was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police around 7:30 a.m., leaving the death toll at 5 (AP). The Mayor has lowered city flags in honor of the officer killed on duty. Randal Simmons, 51, a 27-year veteran officer with the LAPD,......

At 11:13 p.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department alerted of a small helicopter has crashed at the southbound 110 Freeway and Century Blvd. One person was dead on board the fiery crash. Fire officials are describing it as a "small, private type, possibly home made type" aircraft. "The Federal Aviation Administration and California Highway Patrol would investigate the cause of the accident.," reports the LA Times. "The Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County......

It seems the Valley isn't the place to be if you're a gang-affiliated criminal. One year ago, Mayor Villaraigosa held a press conference in North Hills at the LAPD's Mission Division, mapping out their plan for a crackdown on gangs. This past Thursday he returned, along with Police Chief William Bratton, to the same spot to announce that the plan had been successful. The Daily News reports on Mayor Tony's proud assertion, and 2007 statistics:......

Last night's powerful rains beat down on Los Angeles, and Southern California in general, with a vengeance. Widespread power outages, mudslides, and flooded roads are just some of the consequences of the overnight downpour. Most of the road flooding occurred in the San Fernando Valley, reports the Daily News: "Among them, Forest Lawn Drive between Memorial Park and the Los Angeles Zoo was closed because of excessive run-off, Los Angeles Police Department Officer Jason Lee......

Unemployment is no longer an issue for LA's population of feral cats. The stray and often unfriendly felines that are known for populating local neighborhoods and prowling the streets for food and shelter have been put to work as rat-catchers for the LAPD in some of their stations through the assistance of The Working Cats program of Voice for the Animals. The non-profit organization explains on their website that a feral cat is defined as......

File this under "oops." After a Saturday morning solo car crash involving a son and mother in Tarzana on Ventura Blvd., fire and police officials failed to notice a woman in the passenger seat under the air bag after removing her son from the driver's seat.The woman, whose identity was not released, had apparently been left in the car at the accident scene in Tarzana even as her son was taken to a hospital, police......

Police are searching for an 11-month-old girl who was allegedly taken from her North Hollywood home last night. The suspected kidnapper, Raul Carillo Alderete, was already wanted by Pomona police on suspicion of kidnapping, raping, and torturing the girl's mother and was profiled last month on America's Most Wanted. The LA Times reports:According to Los Angeles Police Department Officer Kate Lopez, Alderete went to the home of his child's mother near Sherman Way and Lankershim......

LAPD concluded that no crime was committed in the possible rape being investigated early this morning on USC's University Park Campus. We have no crime," said Los Angeles Police Department Officer April Harding of the Media Relations office. "The woman was interviewed and she admitted she was drinking and passed out. She was not raped." -- Fox The woman, a USC undergrad, was reported as passed out in a basement classroom around 3:30 a.m. by......

ExperienceLA.com and Lonely Planet are running a community based Downtown photo contest. If you win, you're photo will be on the cover of the free guide that will distributed around LA and all over the world. And while you're Downtown shooting photos, drop by Pershing Square to go ice skating through the holidays. The tunnel on the 5 Freeway where a fiery crash killed three, shutting down the tunnel for over a month, reopened......

The Los Angeles Police Department has decided against instituting a plan to "map" the city's Muslim communities, in what was being billed as a counter-terrorism effort. According to the LA Daily News: "It's been put aside," said LAPD spokeswoman Mary Grady. "It became clear to us [that Muslim communities] were not comfortable with the word mapping and what they believed it meant: racial profiling." Instead, Grady said the Los Angeles Police Department would build......

If it were not for the LAPD's e-policing program, we would have never known about the below incident near our home. Are you signed up? Maybe you should be. COMMUNITY ALERT NOTIFICATION LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF FILL IN TEXT HERE [hehehehe] It is not very often that we have a armed street robbery in Studio City but on Thursday June 7th we had one. At approximately 3:55am the vict was walking......

Perhaps the oddest story that came out this holiday weekend was the one about the LAPD medical administrator who stepped down from her job because a half dozen of her cohorts felt it was wrong for the LAPD to continue to accept "grossly overweight" new officer recruits. The controversy stems from a decision by the city Personnel Department to change the standards for police recruits, including a move to raise the maximum body fat......

Photo by Wathana Lim It would be nice to be able to make light of my last article, and its many entertaining and inspired comments, but it is pretty tough to do that given what happened at the end of Tuesday's May Day immigration protest culminating in MacArthur Park. By most accounts, and as has been demonstrated by several different video recordings of the situation, there was an absolute loss of control on the......

Expect delays between 6 a.m. and noon on Saturday: On Saturday morning, April 28, transit patrons utilizing Union Station between 6 a.m. and noon are advised that they may experience service delays of 15 minutes or longer on inbound and outbound rail and bus services due to a scheduled joint security training exercise.Union Station transit operators, including the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), Metrolink and Amtrak, will join the Los Angeles County......

Have you seen Santa trying to cross the street this holiday season? Did you yield to him or were you naughty? Those who are bad are getting tickets in the LAPD's Santa Claus Crosswalk Enforcement Detail. You may have also seen a rise in DUI Sobriety Checkpoints, and heard of the free MTA riding this Christmas and New Year's. It's been a busy week for the LAPD and here is some blotter info: A 20-year......

Flights into Los Angeles International Airport were disrupted this morning after an instrument landing system failed on one of the airport's runways, authorities said. - LA Times The Los Angeles Police Department is asking for the public's help in locating 19-year-old Jessica Edwards, who is autistic and has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old child. - LAPD Blog Hospitals in Los Angeles County overall lag behind the statewide average when it comes to in-hospital......

pissed police - LAPD Chief Bratton is furious over Assembly Bill 1882, which would transfer some airport security duties from the LAPD to the LAX police. But when making his official statement, he tried to be nice, avoiding calling LAX police fumbling idiots. "Why would you trust the security of a major terrorist target to a police force that is made up of many qualified people, but whose training, capabilities and hiring procedures are......

Sean over at Blogging.la has called for the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to start blogging, a la the LAFD. We agree with Sean: a little openness goes a long way, and the fire department's is an ideal model. Blogs all around! It would do both organizations good to start communicating online. Part of the problem may be organizational: at the LAPD, it looks like the Media Relations team focuses......

Thanks to the crew at Blogging LA, yesterday's fire in Nichols Canyon was well covered. The LA Times made up for their late report about the emergency with some choice quotes from canyon residents who all seemed to be in their late twenties to thirties (remarkably young to live in such a relatively pricey area like Mt Olympus) who blame the conflagration on the homeless encamped in the brush. Residents said they were stunned......

If your hat gets stolen, never fear, the LAPD is on the case. Just one month after having his signature top hat taken from his limo after The Grammys, Slash had his hat returned to him by the Los Angeles Police Department. The hat thief, however, is still on the loose. LAist is left to wonder what one does with a stolen hat? Is there a black market for these kinds of things? Maybe......