LAPD Senior Lead Officer (SLO) Michael Moore invited the Palisadian-Post to spend the day on a ride-along to better understand how the LAPD addresses daily community concerns in the Palisades.
His cubicle is cluttered with official reports, family pictures and a fading “Paul Blart Mall Cop” movie poster. At 5:58 a.m. a steady stream of morning news murmured from the television while other officers shuffled into the makeshift downstairs office in the West Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to check their messages.
Moore slid on his glasses and stared intently at his computer screen.
“Only 35 emails, slow morning,” said Moore, chuckling to himself.
At 6:20 a.m. on Wednesday, May 27 Officer Moore chomped on a homemade muffin while using only his two pointer fingers to respond to emails from concerned Palisadians.
Working out of the West LAPD office in Santa Monica, Moore said most emails focus on homelessness, traffic and most recently the groundbreaking construction at Marquez Elementary School.
“Loud construction can be heard at midnight, which is unacceptable,” muttered Moore while scanning his emails. “We’re paid for people to vent. Not everyone around here likes it but especially as an SLO that’s what we’re supposed to do.”
Moore applauds the efforts Councilmember Mike Bonin is making in aiding homeless individuals living in the Palisades.
“I think he’s the real deal,” Moore said. “He is so dedicated to L.A.”
Moore has been working as the SLO in Pacific Palisades since 2006. Officers Jimmy Lavenson and Jon Iniguez can regularly be seen patrolling the Palisades and report directly to Moore.
“In all of West LA, the Palisades is really the best area. One of my bosses loves coming all the way over here just for lunch,” Moore said.
Moore faced one of his more trying personal life hurdles while working in the Palisades. In 2008 he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, which had been growing inside him for years.
“I found out I had cancer while working on patrol, it was devastating,” he said. “My lymph nodes were so swollen it looked like a golf ball was hanging off my neck. At UCLA medical center they surgically removed everything and today I am cancer free.”
Moore was never certain he wanted to become a cop. He first interviewed with LAPD when he was 22 years old but, “I bombed the oral interview portion of the test so I needed more practice,” he said.
He eventually landed an interview with Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to become an officer through LAPD.
“I passed, thankfully,” Moore said with a smile. “I was 24 years old. I graduated police academy and six months later, I was working at the airport.”
Moore said he breezed through police academy and was never very intimidated because he had experienced basic training when he was in the U.S. Army Reserves.
“For somebody like me it’s hard to be so straight-faced because I want to smile all the time, especially because I always knew the yelling was just a tactic and it wasn’t real,” he said.
After working at LAX for two years monitoring airport security, he moved on to work directly out of LAPD offices.
“As a young officer it was hard to be limited to LAX because you want to be out there arresting the bad guys,” said Moore.
This October, Moore will be celebrating 25 years with the LAPD.
4:00 p.m.: Moore heads into a closed-door meeting with LAPD officials and Councilmember Mike Bonin’s office to discuss the homelessness situation in West LA.
5:37 p.m.: More than 11 hours after he arrived, Moore’s workday is officially over.
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