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     Okay, so you see my “by” line with the title Senior Lead Officer next to my name. Maybe a few of you have wondered, what is a Senior Lead Officer and what do they do?

     A Senior Lead Officer (SLO) is a police officer who is assigned to lead and organize efforts to reduce crime and quality of life issues within a Basic Car Area.  As you might remember from one of my previous articles, Devonshire Area is divided into five separate Basic Car Areas.  As the SLO for one of those five areas I have many responsibilities and wear many hats.

     One of my most fundamental duties is to be the “face” of the Los Angeles Police Department to the people who reside and work in my Basic Car Area. Those outreach efforts are accomplished by conducting Neighborhood Watch meetings in the neighborhoods, leading monthly Basic Car meetings, participating in community events, writing articles for local publications (such as this one), and providing crime updates via e-mail through E-Policing which is available at lapdonline.org .

     In an average month, I have about ten pre-scheduled meetings I’m required to attend. That doesn’t take into account impromptu meeting requests that sprout up during the month, and I would say I get at least one of those a day.  In the course of a day, I easily receive 8-10 telephone calls from citizens, and an equal amount of e-mails.  Just responding to those communications can eat up a couple of hours of my time.

     The SLO for a Basic Car area deals with long-term problems the “regular” patrol officers can’t and don’t have time to handle.  Those issues include, but are not limited to abandoned houses/squatters, transients, graffiti, people living in motor homes etc.  In many instances, the SLO will work with various city and community entities to get a problem handled.  The coordination of those efforts often fall on the SLO for that particular Basic Car Area.

     In addition to dealing with quality of life issues, a SLO is held accountable for crime problems within their Basic Car Area.  In Devonshire Area, each SLO is provided the crime reports for crimes committed in their Basic Car Area.  The SLO reviews the reports then coordinates with the officers assigned to work in the Basic Car to develop strategies to combat the crime problems.  Often, the patrol officers provide the SLO’s with additional information on crimes they’ve handled, suspects they’ve dealt with, or alerts the SLOs to a situation that may become a long-term problem.  The SLO and the officers working a Basic Car join efforts to get problems solved.

     All the activity a SLO generates is documented on a daily report.  Long-term issues may be made into a “project” where more documentation is required.  Much of a SLO’s time is spent documenting problems and how the SLO resolved them.

     But the bottom line is Senior Lead Officers are police officers first and foremost.  We still respond to radio calls, take crime reports, write citations and make arrests – and the fact is, those times that I’m in the field being a “street cop” are my best days.  Catching bad guys is what I came on the job to do.  When I’m able to combine my “street cop” activities to help solve a long-term problem in my Basic Car Area I’ve truly had a good day and so have the citizens in my Basic Car area.  It’s a win-win situation…and who could ask for more?

     Kathy Bennett has been a Los Angeles Police Officer for 18 years and currently is assigned as the Senior Lead Officer for Basic Car 17A55 in Devonshire Area.  She can be reached at (818) 634-0495 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it