The Riverside Police Department is a

law enforcement agency A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...

responsible for the city of

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. As of the 2020 census, the city has a population of 314,998. It is the most populous city in th ...

History

The Riverside

Police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

Department was founded in 1896 and has grown from a small frontier town police force to a large metropolitan police department with over 409 sworn police employees and 200 civilian employees. A leader in developing officer safety tactics and emergency response approaches, Riverside PD has long provided training materials to police academies and other law enforcement agencies across the nation. For example, the current method of initiating a traffic stop on a high-risk offender in a moving vehicle, known in law enforcement as a "felony traffic stop", was first put into use by Riverside officers. This safety technique spread throughout the police profession with nearly all law enforcement agencies in the nation utilizing it. In 2010, Sergio G. Diaz was sworn in as the new Chief of Police, replacing former Chief Russ Leach, who left after a drunken driving incident. Fast forward to 2020, police chief Larry Gonzalez was named as The next police chief of Riverside, California after the former chief Sergio G. Diaz announced his retirement in September 2019.

Controversy

In 1998, a woman named Tyisha Miller was found by her relatives unconscious and foaming at the mouth in a locked car, with a gun on her lap. Her relatives called

911 911, 9/11 or Nine Eleven may refer to: Dates * AD 911 * 911 BC * September 11 ** The 2001 September 11 attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda, commonly referred to as 9/11 ** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that ousted the ...

and four Riverside Police officers arrived. An officer forced his way into the car and attempted to remove the weapon. The officers claimed that Miller sat up and grabbed the weapon, at which point the officers opened fire, hitting her with at least 12 shots. Later, it was not proven that Miller had reached for the gun and it was suggested she may have still been unconscious at the time. The

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

announced an investigation of the shooting; ultimately, the officers were fired but not prosecuted.

Organization

The RPD is situated in several police buildings. The downtown headquarters building houses the Office of the Chief of Police, Community Services Bureau, Administrative Division (Personnel), Records Bureau, Communications Bureau, and the Emergency Operations Center. The Field Operations Division includes Patrol, the Traffic Services Bureau, and Vehicular Homicide Unit, and is located at the Lincoln Police Station (8181 Lincoln Ave). The Internal Affairs, General Investigations, and Special Investigations offices are located in the Magnolia Police Station (10540 Magnolia Avenue).

Leadership

References

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External links

Official website
Municipal police departments of California Organizations based in Riverside, California Law enforcement in Riverside County, California Government of Riverside, California 1896 establishments in California