LAPD Officer of the Quarter: Why PALS Made It Public

At one point the board established quarterly meetings, open to anyone who wanted to come. Part of the reason was practical — PALS needed a regular forum. The larger reason was that most people in this community had never spoken to a police officer who wasn't responding to something.

Those meetings became the place where the LAPD Officer of the Quarter is recognized.

What being named LAPD Officer of the Quarter means

The award itself is not unusual. Departments recognize good work all the time, and most of that recognition happens internally — a note in a file, a handshake at roll call, a mention at a briefing.

What our board created was a system for putting that recognition in a public setting. The officer is named in front of residents, not colleagues.

That distinction is the entire point. An officer hearing "good work" from a supervisor is being told they did their job well. An officer hearing it in a room of neighbors is being told the neighborhood noticed.

Why the meetings mattered as much as the award

Our records describe the meetings as a way to build relationships with community members who had no prior experience with the LAPD. That is a plain description of a real gap.

Most contact between residents and police happens on the worst day of someone's week. A quarterly meeting is one of the few settings where a resident and an officer are in the same room and nothing has gone wrong. Some of the people who came to those meetings later joined PALS. Some became sponsors.

Where this leads now

The same idea drives our Annual Appreciation Luncheon each November — officers recognized in front of the community that funds them, rather than in a conference room at the station.

That event is also where our sponsors are recognized. Businesses, families, and foundations who support the Division get named in the same room, on the same night, as the officers their money supports. Both halves belong to the same idea.

North Hollywood PALS is an all-volunteer board. Every dollar raised stays inside the North Hollywood Division.

Support the Division → · See upcoming events →