Abbreviation SMPD Population 10,917 | Formed 1903 | |
Legal personality Governmental: Government agency Operations jurisdiction* City of Sierra Madre in the state of California, USA Size 2.597 square miles (6.73 km) | ||
The Sierra Madre Police Department is the police department serving Sierra Madre, California. The headquarters of the Sierra Madre Police Department is located at 242 West Sierra Madre Boulevard, and adjacent to Sierra Madre City Hall. The department employs 17 sworn officers, 4 non-sworn dispatchers and 1 non-sworn compliance officer. The police chief is Larry Giannone who was appointed in the year 2011.
Overview
The Sierra Madre Police Department was founded in 1928 when Gordon MacMillan was inaugurated as the first chief of police. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Sierra Madre was praised as the safest city in Los Angeles County while the City of Los Angeles was experiencing a drug fueled crime wave. As of 2014 it continues to be one of the safest cities in the county which crimes trend experts have attributed to inaccessibility and a primarily single-family population. In 2006 the Sierra Madre Police Department made history when their Mayor appointed Marilyn Diaz, the first ever female police chief for Los Angeles County. Five years later, Chief Diaz retired with the support of the Mayor but after conflict between her and the other sworn members of her police department who gave her a vote of no confidence through their police association in 2008. In June 2014 two men were caught by the Sierra Madre Police at a local Valero station while they were attempting to install a credit card skimming device. The crime was investigated by the department's one sworn detective who is responsible for investigating all crimes that can not be investigated by the patrol division.