L.A.'s Top Cop Steps Down ... On A High Note

Philip Scott Andrews/AP

William J. Bratton, right, announces that he is resigning as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department during a news conference with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, Aug. 5

While here hammering away at final details for tomorrow's program, we're seeing reports that William Bratton has decided to step down as head of the the Los Angeles Police Department.

This is interesting to us because we were already piecing together a conversation about how the department — for years known more for its corruption than actual policing — was recently issued a clean bill of health by the U.S. Department of Justice. The feds in Washington had been watching the LAPD closely, sort of like "big brother," for eight years after it was suspected of being so awash with dirty policing that it couldn't be trusted to function by word of its own integrity.

Bratton, two years into his second five-year term, is widely credited with transforming Los Angeles' rogue law enforcement culture — with all the classic underpinnings of racism and thievery — into a more noble and ethnically diverse police operation, which has seen crime fall in recent years.

And so while Los Angeles still has yet to become a Mayberry, of sorts, we think the "retooled LAPD" story — of having gone from bad to notably better — is one ripe to be explored by Tell Me More ... especially at a time when police interaction with citizens (as in the Henry Louis Gates case, for instance) has become a national issue of debate.

But on a different note, maybe there's also something to be said about how witnessing so many public servants resign over the years in disgrace — sadly — can almost make it it seem a bit strange when someone decides to actually step down on a good note, so it appears.

And, of course, maybe the 61-year-old has just had enough of it all. (The New York Daily News credits Bratton as the only top cop to lead both the LAPD and the New York Police Department at different points in his career.)

Oh, and by the way, how's civic life where you live? We're especially interested if something is working in your town that other cities just can't seem to get right (i.e. safety, education, race relations, police-citizen relations, etc.)

Meet you back here tomorrow.