"Our policies have changed since then, but it really isn't because of the OJ Bronco pursuit. I think that the real question is what has changed about the LAPD since then. Really, the LAPD and all of the local agencies have changed the way we collect evidence, the way we document how we collect evidence. Those are the biggest changes that came out of the OJ trial. Working much better with the District Attorney, or whatever the prosecuting agency is, to make sure that we have the best witnesses on the stand and that they don't have things in their past that may discredit them."

"Absolutely, and this is, unfortunately all those lessons played out in grand theater, as you're well aware."

"I was a lieutenant and I think I was assigned to the Police Commission at the time, or watching part of it."

"No, that was not our drone. As everybody knows, or I think everybody knows, there is a massive industry in these unmanned aerial vehicles, these small helicopters that can carry a GoPro or whatever kind of camera. So there are many, many, many of them out there, hundreds and hundreds, and it is a rare exception where there would be a law enforcement drone. So the LAPD has a couple, we have never flown them, or used them.



"We're developing policies, we want to hear from the public. It's, as I've said many times, public trust to me is more important than any kind of police equipment, so I want to make sure the public has faith in us before we are to use these. If we use them, it would be in a tactical situation and not any kind of general surveillance. By tactical situation I mean a SWAT standoff, barricaded suspect, that kind of thing where it's much safer to put one of these vehicles overhead than a helicopter.



"I think many of your listeners may have seen the end of pursuit last week where a gentleman was standing up on a roof with an assault weapon at the end of the pursuit. Obviously, all of the helicopters have got to pull out, because an assault weapon has tremendous range and so we lose some visibility, we lose some intelligence gathering in a situation like that. Maybe, just maybe, a drone might be the answer to that."

"There's the safety issue, they have to piloted remotely...people use them over crowds. They're a fairly heavy piece of equipment falling from an altitude, they're dangerous in that way."

"Well, of course. The larger ones, the military sized ones can be used to deliver small packages, which could be a danger, so it is a brave new world. 

"I think they want to know what I intend to do over the next five year, what are my plans for the Los Angeles Police Department. What is my vision? What goals will I set and what kind of police department will I run? What I've told them is  you can look to the past to see my performance, but I look to the future to see my vision. This is not going to continue to be the exact same Los Angeles Police Department, we are in a constant evolution of becoming much more transparent, much more community oriented, and an organization that values the constitution more than we value the penal code."

"We very vigorously pursue crime reduction, and we do it through the Compstat process, we do it every day when we deploy police officers. This is the exact opposite of complacency. The way that we have been able to achieve crime reductions over what is now a 12-year period is by constant attention to detail, constantly paying attention to when crime occurs, where it occurs, who is involved and taking steps to mitigate that."

"I think if you look at my record in total, you'll see that I've had the unfortunate job to fire more police officers than my predecessor did over the same period of time. I don't think that's any kind of measure about whether you're tough or fair or not, I think it's just a reality. Certainly the fact is not that I'm afraid to discipline police officers, I don't relish it. I would prefer that we train people to behave correctly, but I always look at a number of things when I decide on discipline.



"The first thing I look at is what is the best thing for this city? Then I look at what's the best thing for the police department? Then finally, what's the best thing for the employee? If I can find the right solution to those three questions, then that's the discipline that I implement.



"I am a firm believer in recognizing whether an error is a mistake of the head or a mistake of the heart. Everybody makes mistakes of the head. Our judgment can be either fooled or faulty, but mistakes of the heart, when you do something that's intrinsically wrong, that you know is wrong and decide to do it anyway, then that is much more difficult. Those are the kinds of situations where I use the ultimate punishment available to me, which is to separate them from the police department."