Life on the line: 911 breakdowns at LAFD

Audit of LAFD’s ‘alternative’ investigations

By Ben Welsh and Robert J. Lopez

The Los Angeles Fire De­part­ment has failed to prop­erly in­vest­ig­ate mis­con­duct al­leg­a­tions against the fire chief, top uni­on of­fi­cials and mem­bers of an elite unit that delves in­to charges in­volving rank and file fire­fight­ers, ac­cord­ing to an audit presen­ted to the city Fire Com­mis­sion Tues­day.

The re­port by the agency’s top watch­dog con­cluded that the pro­cess is un­der­fun­ded, poorly run and plagued by sloppy re­cord keep­ing and in­com­plete field­work. The de­part­ment has ig­nored com­plaints and routinely al­lowed cases to drag on un­til after the stat­ute of lim­it­a­tions had ex­pired.

Sources: Los Angeles Fire Department

Credits: Ben Welsh