Common name Torrance Police Employees 246 | Abbreviation TPD | |
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Legal personality Governmental: Government agency Operations jurisdiction* City of Torrance in the state of California, U.S. Size 20.553 sq mi (53.233 km2) | ||
The Torrance Police Department is the police department serving Torrance, California.
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The department employs 223 sworn officers and 124 civilians. The department is the largest law enforcement agency in South Bay, and is one of the largest police departments in Los Angeles County.
Since April 2014, the Chief of Police has been Mark Matsuda.
Overview
The Torrance Police Department has jurisdiction in the city limits of Torrance. Other sections with a "Torrance, CA" address are served by either the Los Angeles Police Department (the Harbor Gateway area east of Western Avenue) or the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in an unincorporated area adjacent to the Harbor Freeway with the ZIP code of 90502. Both areas are easily identified by their Los Angeles County-styled street signage. The department patrols an approximate one mile (1.6 km) area of Torrance Beach.
The department's patch shown at the right depicts the historic Pacific Electric Railroad Bridge which spans Torrance Boulevard at Bow Street. It was first used on January 1, 2000, and is only the third such change in the agency's history.
Bureaus/Units
Controversy
During the massive multi-agency manhunt for Christopher Jordan Dorner, the prime suspect in the 2013 Southern California shootings two separate incidents in the early morning hours of February 7, 2013, police shot at people unrelated to Dorner. Dorner was not present at either incident. Officers of the Torrance Police Department initiated the shooting in the second of these two cases.
Torrance police officers first rammed the truck with their car, then opened fire. The vehicle was being driven by David Perdue who was on his way to the beach for some early morning surfing before work. Police claim that Perdue's pickup truck "matched the description" of the one belonging to Dorner. However, the Los Angeles Times reports that "the pickups were different makes and colors ... Perdue looks nothing like Dorner: He's several inches shorter and about a hundred pounds lighter ... Perdue is white; Dorner is black."
Six months after the assault, the police paid Perdue $20,000 for the damage to his truck. The city has offered Perdue a half million dollars to settle the case, but he insists on almost four million dollars. As of August 2013, the city has not allowed outside investigators to see the truck.
In contrast, the Los Angeles Police Department paid $4.2 million for the damages caused by their attack on the two women within a month without going to court.
Fallen officers
Since the establishment of the Torrance Police Department, four officers have died while on duty.