so Bratton lied a few weeks ago. He and his wife put up their home for sale. When the media noticed he said that he wasn't going anywhere...that he and his wife wanted to downsize in homesWilliam Bratton announces he will resign as LAPD chiefHis decision to leave at the end of October takes Los Angeles political and police leadership by surprise. During his tenure, Bratton dramatically reshaped the force and pushed down crime rates.
By Joel Rubin
1:02 PM PDT, August 5, 2009
William J. Bratton today announced his plan to resign as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department to take over as head of a private security firm.
"There is never a good time to leave, but there is a right time," Bratton said at a noon news conference. "It is the right time."
As Bratton flew back to Los Angeles from a personal trip to New York on Tuesday night, aides to his boss, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, said the mayor knew nothing of the planned departure.
Likewise, members of the civilian Police Commission that oversees the LAPD, as well as the deputy and assistant chiefs whom Bratton entrusts with the day-to-day operation of the department, were caught off-guard when asked about Bratton's planned resignation.
"I'm really in shock. It's a great loss for the city and the LAPD," said John Mack, a civil rights figure on the Police Commission, after receiving a call from the chief this morning. "Bratton has done an amazing job of turning around this department in the aftermath of a tortured history and really created a new department for the 21st century."
Commissioner Alan Skobin echoed Mack, saying that Bratton "is leaving with a long list of accomplishments and on his own terms. . . . There isn't anyone who can argue credibly that this department isn't in better shape than it was before he arrived. That being said, there's still much work to be done and I am saddened that he won't be around to do it."
Bratton, 61, who leaves with more than three years remaining in his second term, will become the chief executive of a newly formed subsidiary of Altegrity, a company with a significant presence in a secretive industry that provides businesses and government agencies with intelligence-gathering and other investigative services. Bratton's group, called Altegrity Security Consulting, will focus on working with local governments internationally and in the U.S. to help build and improve police forces, said Michael Cherkasky, the head of Altegrity.http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bratton6-2009aug06,0,4239123.story