Ex-Officer Bradley Gets a Look at New Police Challenges

Tom Bradley quit the police force a quarter-century ago, “when the biggest problems facing schools were kids running in the hall, chewing gum and making too much noise.”

But on Monday, the mayor got a first-hand look at the serious problems now plaguing Los Angeles as he accompanied undercover narcotics officers who arrested a 14-year-old boy along with two others at a suspected rock cocaine operation in the 500 block of West 82nd Street.

Bradley briefly questioned a second youthful-looking suspect. When the mayor asked him where he got the more than $20 he was carrying, the suspect said he got if from his mother. Police later said the suspect was actually an adult.

Five other suspected narcotics dealers were arrested at a fortified rock house just three blocks from the Southeast Division station. Police found 21 rocks of cocaine in a search of the small frame house.

Bradley told a roll call of undercover officers before the arrests that he was “impressed” by the success of the Gang-Related Active Trafficker Suppression (GRATS) unit that boasts nearly 5,000 arrests, nearly 1,600 of them suspected gang members, since its formation in January.