The Hawthone Police Department of Hawthorne, California in Los Angeles County, was established in 1922. The Hawthone Police Department serves a community of 84,293 people and employs 100 officers and 60 support staff. The Department has its "own Helicopter, Tactical Medicine Program, Armored Rescue Vehicle, and state of the art Police Facility.".
Service and innovations
The Department has its "own Helicopter, Tactical Medicine Program, Armored Rescue Vehicle, and state of the art Police Facility." The department introduced programs such as Coffee with a Cop, Ride to Live, Tactical First Aid, and 'Scottie'.
Background
The Hawthone Police Department was founded in 1922.
Chiefs
Chief of the Hawthone Police Department, Michael Ishii, was selected in January 2019. Ishii served as Interim Chief in 2018. After serving as a Reserve Officer with the Hawthone PD for two years, Ishii became a full-time officer in 1992. Chief Robert Fager was Hawthorne PD Chief from 2010 to 2018. Former Chiefs include Harry Severns, Coleman E Young, Kenneth R. Stonebraker, and Mike Heffner
Incidents
In 2016, a Hawthorne police officer with six years service was shot in the leg during a gunfight. On April 7, 2019 A Hawthorne police officer, with 15 years of service was shot in the leg near a shopping center in Manhattan Beach. Police arrived at the scene in response to reports of a man chasing a woman in a "domestic dispute at a Marriott hotel" on Sunday morning. Police exchanged gunfire with the shooter who dressed in military fatigues and used a "high-capacity weapon to shoot at officers." There were approximately "60 SWAT officers in full gear" responding to the incident. In early April 2019, 30-year-old Jacob Ryan Munn allegedly fatally shot his ex-girlfriend, 28-year-old Brenda Renteria, during a custody exchange. As Renteria stepped outside the Hawthorne police station where she had dropped off their 17-month-old son, Munn shot Renteria with his shotgun. According to a Hawthorne PD June 9, 2019 press release, two of the three suspects in an alleged assault and robbery at a gas station on June 7 were arrested and booked. A video of the arrest of one of the men, a 24-year old, was widely shared on social media. The woman who uploaded the video of the arrest identified herself as the girlfriend of a man killed by police in 2015.
