LAPD Division map?

[JoeyC]

There are some excellent maps of California which show which areas are covered by which CHP offices and the associated frequencies/color channels.

I am wondering if anyone knows of any map of the city of LA which shows the borders of each division. Anyone have one or know of one?

 

[cousinkix1953]

LAPD's Main Map ... LA Community Policing

 

[JoeyC]

Thats a start, but pretty vague. Its hard (or impossible) to read the streets that divide. Thanks

 

[Mick]

Excellent LAPD maps

These maps are quite satisfactory:

NavigateLA Map Gallery

 

[JoeyC]

Those are excellent maps. Thanks Mick, just what I was looking for!

 

[LAflyer]

Actualy I would not call those Navigate LA maps excellent by any means.
They are old and are missing two divisions - Olympic and Topanga, plus the subsequent readjustments of borders in other divisions.

I'd use the maps on the LAPD site as they are current and also feature car beat maps.
Individual maps for each division are availble at;
Our Communities - official website of THE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT (right side of page)

 

[JoeyC]

Actually, I find the Navigate LA maps much nicer even if the LAPD site maps are more accurate. Thanks for the link.

 

[LAflyer]

Each to his own I guess.
If accuracy does not matter - sure the Navigate LA maps look nice.

 

[JoeyC]

Well, what I meant was it would be nice if the accurate LAPD site maps looked as nice as the Navigate LA maps. I really don't care about the beat maps, just the street boundaries.

 

[SCPD]

You may be missing the point here. There are two entire divisions, Century and Topanga that don't even show up on the Navigate LA maps at all. That's right they don't reflect the existence of two entire LAPD Divisions. What sense does it make that the street boundaries of the Divisions are easier to read on the Navigate LA maps if the streets that show the boundaries don't even show those two divisions.

You will hear unit numbers with a prefix of 20 and 21 that you can't even locate on the Navigate LA maps. Not something to disregard because one looks nicer.

Did you open up the individual division maps from the LAPD site? There is plenty of detail for the streets that form boundaries shown.

I would also like the Navigate LA maps to be as accurate as the LAPD maps. The Navigate LA site claims that the fire department maps are updated weekly, however, there is a fire station a mile from where I grew up, built sometime in the last 10-15 years, not shown on the Navigate LA map of the LAFD. That portion of the map is useless as it does not show the first in response areas between the existing fire stations accurately.

 

[DPD1]

I've always wondered why they use the division numbers on the copters, since they obviously don't have a copter for every division, and they kind of just go wherever they need them anyway. I'm sure there must be some administrative reason.

 

[KMA367]

Maps and Air units

You may be missing the point here. There are two entire divisions, Century and Topanga that don't even show up on the Navigate LA maps at all.

I'm sure you meant to type Olympic (Div 20) and Topanga (Div 21), Smokey. Century is LASD's.

I've put the maps from the LAPD website - all 21 areas - on one page, at http://harrymarnell.net/lapd-maps.htm

When Olympic & Topanga opened last January, the mapmakers uploaded Reporting District maps for all the Divisions (er.. "Areas") whose boundaries got changed, but not for unchanged divisions. Prior to that, West Valley was the only area for which I ever found an online RD map. On all voice-broadcasted calls, the RD is the last item they say, right after the (daily sequential) "Incident number."

I've always wondered why they use the division numbers on the copters, since they obviously don't have a copter for every division, and they kind of just go wherever they need them anyway. I'm sure there must be some administrative reason.

I've never heard a reason for why they use the specific division numbers for the air units that they do, other than the numbers include a division for which a unit has "primary" responsibility. If there are two copters deployed, one will generally cover the valley and get the number of one of the valley divisions, and the other will get the "metro" area and get its number from one of those divisions. If there are three up, they'll divide the city into thirds and do the same. It''s probably just a "traditional" thing that works, so they don't mess with it without some reason. But sure, any of them will go wherever they're needed.

It's analogous to the patrol unit numbering - patrol cars' numbers (the "21" in 10A21) correspond to one of the RDs in a unit's beat, though it, too, will go wherever it's needed.

It used to be that the primary beat cars (the "A" units) always got the number of the lowest odd-numbered RD in their beat, but that's not done consistently anymore, probably because they have so many overlapping watches with the different work schedules (3-12s, 4-10s, 5-8s).

 

[SCPD]

Yes, I mixed up my apples and oranges. Since the Century LASD area and the Olympic LAPD are more of less in the same neck of the woods I mixed them up. My recollection of the geography of the metro area is beginning to fade a little after moving away from there 36 years ago. It is interesting, however, that my knowledge of the wildland of southern California is better than it has ever been.

My recollection of where the divisions are and how they are numbered seems pretty good. When I'm down there I hear a call sign and my mind goes right to the general area without the need to translate the number into a division name and location.

My early tunable VHF High band radio and scanner days included hearing "Air 3" on most of the incidents located near me in the Westchester-Playa del Rey area. I always wondered what the logic was in assigning the basic cars a call sign. I will have to listen with that in mind next time I'm down there while keeping your disclaimer in mind.

It is interesting how they are structuring so many different shifts to meet the workload. In the past it seemed as though there were 3 hours of every day where the service level dropped, the last half hour of one shift and the first of the next. Then confusion came up when a unit from one shift would be held over in the field, duplicating the call sign of the next shift. "14A56 day, 14A56 day, meet 14A56 evening on Tac 2."

 

[KMA367]

Flying way off topic now...

Yes, I mixed up my apples and oranges. Since the Century LASD area and the Olympic LAPD are more of less in the same neck of the woods I mixed them up.

Kinda sorta... Olympic Blvd would be 10th St., and Century would be 100th St.

My recollection of the geography of the metro area is beginning to fade a little after moving away from there 36 years ago. It is interesting, however, that my knowledge of the wildland of southern California is better than it has ever been.

Similarly, I'm a L.A. rail (and trolley) buff, so I can still see in my mind's eye just about any line or junction or related landmark down there, even 21 years after having escaped to the north state. I'm still pretty good with the street layouts, and even many obscure roads and locations, since that was my job - but boy does it all look so different when I visit these days.

I always wondered what the logic was in assigning the basic cars a call sign. I will have to listen with that in mind next time I'm down there while keeping your disclaimer in mind.

It is interesting how they are structuring so many different shifts to meet the workload. In the past it seemed as though there were 3 hours of every day where the service level dropped, the last half hour of one shift and the first of the next. Then confusion came up when a unit from one shift would be held over in the field, duplicating the call sign of the next shift. "14A56 day, 14A56 day, meet 14A56 evening on Tac 2."

I think I've heard watch numbers as high as "7," maybe some divisions have even more. Back in the 5-8s days, though, you're right, there was somewhat of a drop in unit availability, but adjacent divisions had slightly different change-of-watch times, so the city was never stripped too bare. Venice may have been something like 08:00, 16:00, and 00:00, and next door in West L.A. perhaps 07:30, 15:30, and 23:30.

And all divisions ran two overlap "mid-watch" shifts: day-mids, along the lines of 11:00-1900, and PM-mids, 19:00-03:00 or so. Again it's now changed, but the primary watch units were always* odd-numbered (14A3, 10X25, 1A47, 7A99, 2T15) and the mid-watch cars were even (14X2, 10X86, 1X48, 7X92, 6TL84).

* Except for West L.A. Division which, for some reason nobody could ever explain then or since, had two even-numbered primary-watch A-cars - 8A4 and 8A68. There were perfectly good odd-numbered RDs in West L.A., but for some lost-to-history reason ("we've always done it that way"??) they had an A4 and A68 instead of A3 and A67. But today, odd and even seem to be almost interchangeable everywhere.

My early tunable VHF High band radio and scanner days included hearing "Air 3" on most of the incidents located near me in the Westchester-Playa del Rey area.

Other than their first (April 1956) helicopter, "Air 1," which was specifically used for traffic observation and only occasionally for other stuff, LAPD's use of air units for patrol didn't begin until 1968 or 1969 with an experimental period using University - now Southwest - Division as the guinea pig, hence the "Air 3" designation. Its obvious success was followed by adding "Air 10" for the Valley and later Air 11 helped cover the metropolitan area. Other numbers have, of course, been added over the years. BTW, the original LAPD copter, 1956 Hiller, N5315V is still airworthy and registered and flying - in England. See it at http://www.airliners.net/photo/Hiller-UH-12C/0675473/L/

I'm in occasional contact with one of LAPD's first two pilots, long-since retired, of course. Since their airborne duty was traffic, both were motor officers, and both had flown copters in Korea. Since this is a RADIO site, here's something on-topic which I received from him about three years ago. It may be a RR re-run, if so, my apologies:

"Interesting sidelight might be radio in the first police helicopter back in 1956. It was actually a police motorcycle transmitter & receiver that sometimes worked & sometimes didn't. An interesting experience on one occasion when, from the air, we saw a suspect crawl under a house with several police ground units looking for him. I triggered the mic to give his location. Nothing. Thinking the situation could be dangerous if the suspect was armed, desperate measures were called for. I landed in a nearby baseball diamond and ran for a pay phone. You can imagine the dispatchers surprise when I answered, "This is Air One on a pay phone." Thinking it was a crank call, it was a chore convincing her of the authenticity of the call. Our message was finally relayed and the suspect apprehended. - Bob VanAken #4772 (hel. pilot #1)"​

 

[radioprescott]

...My early tunable VHF High band radio and scanner days included hearing "Air 3" on most of the incidents located near me in the Westchester-Playa del Rey area...

I am a ex-Venice divison resident too - lived in Westchester just a stone's throw (literally) from the LAX north runway (across Linclon Blvd and an old flower field before it was a golf course). I listened on a cheap tunable radio; the front end was so wide I was able to hear all the LAPD freqs at once. Finally graduated to a Sonar crystal radio.

An I'll second the comment that while the demographics have changed, the geography hasn't: To me Venice divison is still Venice divison with a different name

 

[cousinkix1953]

I am a ex-Venice divison resident too - lived in Westchester just a stone's throw (literally) from the LAX north runway (across Linclon Blvd and an old flower field before it was a golf course). I listened on a cheap tunable radio; the front end was so wide I was able to hear all the LAPD freqs at once. Finally graduated to a Sonar crystal radio.

An I'll second the comment that while the demographics have changed, the geography hasn't: To me Venice divison is still Venice divison with a different name

I know what you mean. My uncle lived on the hill above San Pedro in the mid 70s. We used to hear all of the six LAPD dispatch frequencies (158-159 mhz) at once using an old Realistic Patrolman 7 tuneable radio. It was non-stop chatter until 3-4 am. No need to play with the tuner unless we chased a certain unit to to TAC 1 or 2...

 

[KB6KGX]

These maps are quite satisfactory:

NavigateLA Map Gallery

No, it’s missing “Topanga” Division. The map for “Devonshire” still shows Roscoe as the southern border. However, Topanga’s station is located NORTH of Roscoe, in what, according to this map, is Devonshire’s patrol area. How can that be? When Topanga was created, the southern border for Devonshire had to be moved up, as well as the northern border of West Valley moved down. This map is not current.

A little bit of digging turned up an older post from a few years ago, where it was stated that the northern border of Topanga Division is Plummer and the east border is Corbin. I haven’t found where the southern border between Topanga and West Valley Divisions are.

 

[KB6KGX]

I've always wondered why they use the division numbers on the copters, since they obviously don't have a copter for every division, and they kind of just go wherever they need them anyway. I'm sure there must be some administrative reason.

I’ve been listening to LAPD since the late 70s and have ONLY heard “Air 10” and “Air 16”. Although there are always 4-5 or more helicopters on the roof of Piper Tech/Hooper Heliport on any given day, from what I remember, there is only one helicopter patrolling over the city (south of Mulholland) and one over the valley at at any given time. They patrol in two-hour shifts. One goes in, for fuel and crew rest, and another goes up. Unless that’s changed, I don’t know.

The “10” and “16” designations had nothing to do with Division numbers, they were not based at West Valley and Foothill Divisions, and all LAPD helos are based at Piper.

 

[Engine104]

Here you go, guys: http://assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/TopSLOJan2015.pdf
Topanga Division goes all the way south to LASD Lost Hills area.

 

[kma371]

No, it’s missing “Topanga” Division. The map for “Devonshire” still shows Roscoe as the southern border. However, Topanga’s station is located NORTH of Roscoe, in what, according to this map, is Devonshire’s patrol area. How can that be? When Topanga was created, the southern border for Devonshire had to be moved up, as well as the northern border of West Valley moved down. This map is not current.

A little bit of digging turned up an older post from a few years ago, where it was stated that the northern border of Topanga Division is Plummer and the east border is Corbin. I haven’t found where the southern border between Topanga and West Valley Divisions are.

Probably because that map was posted here 6 years ago!