ABSTRACT
The Professional-Reform Model (PRM) established and created as the “new” general model of police operations for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 1950 by Chief William H. Parker. Parker’s PRM policing methods quickly caught the attention of countless other US police agencies that were quick to copy LAPD by replacing the old political model with their own version of PRM. This chapter discusses the history of PRM in terms of four distinct eras: the pre-Parker era (prior to 1950), the Parker era (1950–1966), the Davis era (1969–1978), and the Gates era (1978–1992). It examines each of these eras and provides a brief history of PRM within the LAPD organization. Supporters of Parker’s new LAPD were mainly Caucasian working- or middle-class persons who were taught by Parker to believe in and to support the department’s efforts in maintaining the Parker's thin blue line.
