The Public Disorder and Intelligence Division (PDID) was a unit of the

Los Angeles Police Department The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...

between 1970-1983 that mobilized undercover officers to monitor the activity of local activist organizations suspected of criminal activity. Created by Chief

Edward M. Davis Edward Michael Davis (November 15, 1916 – April 22, 2006) was the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1969 to 1978, and later a California state senator from 1980 to 1992 and an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the United Sta ...

and later overseen by Chief

Daryl Gates Daryl Francis Gates (born Darrel Francis Gates; August 30, 1926 – April 16, 2010) was an American police officer who served as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1978 to 1992. His length of tenure in this position was second only t ...

, PDID was disbanded in 1983 amid public pressure.

Notable events

Mayor Tom Bradley

In 1981, the Citizens Commission on Police Repression successfully sued the Los Angeles Police Department and consequently obtained documents detailing PDID’s spying campaign on then-mayor Tom Bradley. The intelligence reports, gathered by undercover officer Edward Camarillo, centered on whether or not Bradley intended on supporting the

United Farm Workers The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the National Farm Workers Associatio ...

’ upcoming boycott of Gallo wines.

Seymour Myerson

In 1982, the LAPD paid $27,500 in damages to Seymour Myerson, an architect who had been a target of the PDID. The department confirmed that Myerson had been under its surveillance for three years, and Myerson was “tailed” by PDID on a 1974 trip to a protest march. Detective Ruff admitted to phoning a false police report that Myerson had brandished a gun at his home in front of his children. Of that incident, Ruff said “That era was the Watergate era, and that was the practice.”

Detective Jay Paul

In 1983, Detective Jay Paul was under investigation for allegedly leaking PDID intelligence to the right-wing group

Western Goals Foundation Western Goals Foundation was a private domestic intelligence agency active in the United States.Staff writer (Jan. 2, 1989)"Western Goals Foundation."''Interhemispheric Resource Center/International Relations Center''. Archived frothe original. ...

. An internal investigation confirmed that Paul kept PDID files at his home garage in Long Beach, California, Long Beach. Paul was suspended, but later reinstated with back pay, as his actions were sanctioned by his supervisors.

Dissolution

In 1978, Citizens’ Commission on Police Repression leaked an official list of over 200 organizations that had been subject to PDID’s surveillance. The same year, activists from the Coalition Against Police Abuse, the Citizens' Commission on Police Repression, and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit (''CAPA et al. vs. Gates, et al.''). This lawsuit was later consolidated to represent 23 groups and 108 individuals, charging that the LAPD illegally conducted spying operations based on political or ideological motivations. Throughout the trial, more PDID intelligence targets became public knowledge. Amidst several other calls from Los Angeles residents and city officials, on January 17, 1983, City Attorney Ira Reiner submitted a proposal to the city's Police, Fire and Public Safety Committee that the PDID be disbanded. The Police Commission and city council formally dissolved the PDID on January 18, 1983. ''CAPA et al. vs. Gates, et al.'' was settled for $1.8 million in early 1984.

References

{{Reflist Los Angeles Police Department units