Keep Bailing

I didn’t need to see the morning news to find out that the LAPD cleared out the Los Angeles Occupy site. Instead, we were answering calls from family looking to post bail bonds for the protesters.

Apparently, more than 200 Occupy Los Angeles protestors were arrested early this morning in what the Los Angeles Police Department calls a “peaceful sweep”. LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck addressed the media shortly after the disbandment of the camp, saying that the arrests were “mainly peaceful”.

Arrestees were loaded onto buses and taken to the LAPD Metro Jail to be booked and processed.  Bail for those that called us was set at $5,000. The jailer at the downtown LA Metropolitan Center Jail told us that protestors would not be released on their own recognizance or “cited out” as protesters usually are. We are somewhat skeptical of that given the already overcrowded Los Angeles jail systems. However, each individual will certainly be screened for warrants on a nation-wide basis. So with so many individuals to book in, any release, be it on bail or otherwise will be hours away.

According to  the Los Angeles Times, several hundred police officers arrived at the camp just after midnight and surrounded the encampment and declared it to be an “unlawful assembly”. Occupiers were told Read more »

The LAPD is going to receive funding from a $640,000 loan in order to keep sworn officers on the street and civilians to staff the newly opened Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles.

According to the LA Times, on Wednesday, officials finalized the loan that will enable the LAPD to have more officers on patrol rather than standing guard in the jail.

The Los Angeles Police Department, earlier this month made a plan to put 89 officers into staffing the detention center instead of being put on patrol because the jails were understaffed.

City Councilman, Greig Smith, along with others was unhappy with this plan and thus, approached a new plan. The plan would be to get a loan from a city trust fund, which is exactly what happened. The LAPD will receive an interest-free loan of approximately $640,000, under the condition Read more »

LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC)

After long debate, the $84 million jail facility, to open in downtown Los Angeles, is scheduled to open either Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.

However, due limited staffing resources, the jail will take 83 officers off the streets and into the jail to operate it.

The new Metro Center Jail facility (apparently be referred to by LAPD as “MDC” or Metropolitian Dention Center) is taking the place of the out-dated jail known as the Parker Center. The Parker Center jail was nearly a half-century old and inmates are known to use the plumbing system as a way of sabotage, by flooding it and making it run into other floors of the jail.

Michel Moore, the LAPD Assistant Police Chief, stated in regards to the opening of the new prison and reassigning the 83 law enforcement officers they currently have as the “least unfavorable option, given the circumstances that we’re in.”

Moore also stated to the Los Angeles City Council Budget and Finance and Public Safety Committees that, “The department is not attempting to argue that this is a good thing to do. It is instead trying to argue that it is a necessary effort [because] to continue to operate within Parker Center jail in its current conditions, we do not believe is the most responsible use of our resources.”

He also assured the committees and public Read more »

On Monday, a city panel reassigned 83 LAPD officers to the new Metropolitan Detention Center Jail in efforts to get it running by the end of January. Although many city officials and the LAPD are apparently against the approval of taking officers off the street and relocating them to the jail, because of the hiring freeze, it’s the only viable option.

According to City Councilman Greg Smith, “Other options are even worse.”

The approved plan will take police officers from the street and relocate them to the jail for six-month periods.

The Metropolitan Center was finished 18-months ago, but the LAPD have been unable to open the new facility due to under staffing. The new facility was built in order to take place of the Parker Center jail. Parker Center jail is an outdated and smaller jail facility with a capacity of 440 inmates. Chief Michel Moore said that keeping the Parker Center jail open is an unsafe Read more »

Approximately 90 Los Angeles Police Deparment officers will be taken off the streets and reassigned to work in a new LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) jail facility that has previously gone unused.

A recent decision made by LAPD officials is the solution to the current “hiring freeze” as well as operating the $74-mililon structure that hasn’t been in use since May of 2009.

Another solution this decision will provide is the closing of the old Parker Center jail, which has increasingly been an issue, due to health and safety risks. With the closing of the old jail, approximately 100 officers and jailers will be available to run the new jail.

Assistant Chief Michel Moore stated that the department has acted on its own and created the plan to use officers as jailers. They will also keep the doors open on four other smaller jails. The plan enlists 83 officers who have been with the force for a year and completed the probationary period. It will also include, five sergeants, all of whom will attend a six-month stint with the jail until another fresh group of young officers come in to replace them.

There is some speculation around the plan to move the officers from the street to the jail facility, as the department currently sees many struggles with their officers. The officers have been Read more »

The Los Angeles Police Department’s new Metropolitan Detention Center is set to replace the failing 60 year old Parker Center Jail, but the budget crisis continues to prevent the new jail from opening.

Greg Rynerson Bail Bonds continues with our “Inside the Jail” series this week: Inside the New LAPD Metro Center Jail. Here you will learn:

• The costs and reasons for a new jail.
• Problems at the current Parker Center jail.
• The jail layout and purposes.
• Staffing considerations.
• The benefits of the new jail and the down side.

The $74 million jail is state-of-the-art, but the staffing needs and the city hiring moratorium keep the bars shut. Will Los Angeles make an exception and allow hiring of new jail staff? Or, will there be a major crisis at Parker Center?

If there’s a jail you’d like to “go inside,” let us know and we’ll add it to our series.