| Edward M. Davis |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT EDWARD M. DAVIS | |
| 1916 births | |
| davis, edward michael | |
| 2006 deaths | |
| deaths by pneumonia | |
| los angeles police department chiefs | |
| people from los angeles | |
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Born in . Davis was an intelligent police chief who pursued innovative approaches to crime. He balanced his tough law-and-order rhetoric with a boots-on-the-ground policing strategy that assigned officers to specific neighborhoods in an effort to build personal ties with residents. His philosophy was incorporated in a program he called the "Basic Car Plan", which divided Los Angeles into small geographical areas and assigned officers to meet with community representatives. Davis, who assigned almost 900 officers to the program, believed that police would be more effective if their duties were tailored to each locality. The officers were instructed to find out which crime problems concerned residents the most and then devise crime-fighting plans. He also created the Neighbourhood Watch program which encouraged police officers to spend time in the homes of local city residents, listen to their concerns and then set up effective crime fighting initiatives. Both programs were highly innovative for their time. Significantly, in the 9 years that Mr. Davis served as police chief from 1969 to 1978 crime rates actually dipped slightly by 1% in Los Angeles while rising nationwide by 55%. His administration was respected for being one of the more professionally run, and mostly graft free police forces in the country. The community policing programmes which Davis championed were either deeemphasized or dismantled by the next chief, Daryl F. Gates , but was re-adopted by later LA police administrations after the 1992 Los Angeles Riots caused by the acquital of police officers in the beating of Rodney King and is now utilised by police departments nationwide as an alternative to more confrontational approaches to crime. Davis retired in 1978 and was elected to the California State Senate two years later. He would serve for 12 years (during the first two years of which, Tom McClintock served as his Chief of Staff.). He supported a gay rights protection bill and became a vocal environmentalist in his later years. {Link without Title} The last TV interview with Davis was videotaped in March of 2002 where he recalled his years as LAPD Chief and described the values and traits necessary to be a successful Chief of Police. He also related his impressions of a young LAPD Lt. named Bernard Parks who went on to become Chief. Ed Davis was known as the "Father of Community Policing", in this interview he described how he implemented the "community policing" program during his administration. The hour long interview was conducted by Emmy Award winning host Leslie Dutton on the Full Disclosure Network(tm). The first part (30 min) of this two-part program is now available for viewing FREE, 24/7, "On Demand" as a public service by clicking on the following URL:http://www.fulldisclosure.net/flash/VideoBlogs/334-35_Ed_Davis.php Davis died in April 2006 from pneumonia. EXTERNAL LINK . |
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