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The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday bid farewell to its inspector general; received a somewhat encouraging update on the saga to install video cameras in patrol cars; and heard that the city\u2019s crime rates continued to plummet.<\/p>\n
Andre Birotte Jr.<\/a>, who has served in the watchdog capacity for the last seven years, was awarded the Distinguished Service medal by the civilian oversight panel. As inspector general, Birotte ran a department responsible for conducting investigations and audits of the department\u2019s handling of officer misconduct and other sensitive issues. <\/p>\n Birotte departs this week to assume his new position as United States attorney for Southern California. <\/p>\n On a less celebratory note, Maggie Goodrich, the Los Angeles Police Department\u2019s top technology official, briefed the commission on the department\u2019s error-plagued effort to install video cameras<\/a>\u00a0in its roughly 1,200 patrol vehicles.<\/p>\n Fed up after hearing about the latest technical glitches and inadequate testing, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck reassigned the previous project director and put Goodrich directly in charge in January.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Goodrich told commissioners that problems with the cameras\u2019 image quality and internal time-keeping system had been remedied. Testing by a few officers will begin soon and a general rollout could begin late next month, she said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n