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About the LAPD In February 1955, the Los Angeles Police
Department, through the pages of the internally produced BEAT magazine, conducted a contest for a motto for the police academy.
The conditions of the contest stated that: “The motto should be one that in a few words would express some or all the
ideals to which the Los Angeles police service is dedicated. It is possible that the winning motto might someday be adopted
as the official motto of the Department.” The winning entry was the motto, “To Protect and to Serve” submitted
by Officer Joseph S. Dorobek.
“To Protect and to Serve”
became the official motto of the Police Academy, and it was kept constantly before the officers in training as the aim and
purpose of their profession. With the passing of time, the motto received wider exposure and acceptance throughout the department.
On November 4, 1963, the Los Angeles City Council passed the necessary ordinance and the credo has now been placed alongside
the City Seal on the Departments patrol cars.
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Former Los Angeles Police Department police officer Charles Stoker blasted
1940s corruption in the LAPD. In 1951, Charles Stoker published “Thicker’n
Thieves.” According to the book cover, “where corrupt police officers,
venal politicians and office-holders claimed to have been fighting the underworld, Stocker fought it personally, furiously
and with everything at his command to the point where he was framed and fired for “CONDUCT UNBECOMING A POLICE OFFICER”
because he testified to the fact before the 1949 Los Angeles Grand Jury. Aside
from being a cold steel account of what transpired during his tenure as an officer, this is the highly human story of young
Texan, Stoker.” Stoker’s 1951 bombshell is now a 2006 collectable,
selling for as much as $500.
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