The Los Angeles Police Division launched a report that identifies a number of shortcomings in its response to the devastating Palisades fireplace, together with communication breakdowns, inconsistent recordkeeping and poor coordination at occasions with different companies — most notably town’s Fireplace Division.
The after-action report referred to as the January blaze a “once-in-a lifetime cataclysmic occasion” and praised the heroic actions of many officers, however mentioned the LAPD’s missteps introduced a “beneficial studying alternative” with extra climate-related disasters seemingly looming sooner or later.
LAPD leaders launched the 92-page report and introduced the findings to the Police Fee on the civilian oversight panel’s public assembly Tuesday.
The report discovered that whereas the Fireplace Division was the lead company, coordination with the LAPD was “poor” on Jan. 7, the primary day of the fireplace. Although personnel from each companies have been understanding of the identical command put up, they did not “collectively set up a unified command construction or determine shared goals, missions, or methods,” the report mentioned.
Uncertainty about who was in cost was one other persistent situation, with extra confusion sown by Nationwide Guard troops that have been deployed to the world. Division leaders got no clear pointers on what the guard’s function can be when it arrived, the report mentioned.
The combination-ups have been the results of responding to a wildfire of unprecedented scale, officers mentioned. At occasions the flames have been advancing at 300 yards a minute, LAPD assistant chief Michael Rimkunas instructed the fee.
“Hopefully we don’t should expertise one other pure catastrophe, however you by no means know,” Rimkunas mentioned, including that the endeavor was “one of many largest and most complicated visitors management operations in its historical past.”
Between Jan. 11 and Jan. 16, when the LAPD’s operation was at its peak, greater than 700 officers a day have been assigned to the fireplace, the report mentioned.
The report discovered that officers failed to take care of a chronological log in regards to the comings and goings of LAPD personnel on the fireplace zone.
“Whereas it’s comprehensible that the life-threatening scenario at hand took priority over the completion of administrative documentation,” the report mentioned, confusion on the command put up about what number of officers have been within the subject “resulted in diminished situational consciousness.”
After the fireplace first erupted, the division obtained greater than 160 requires help, lots of them for aged or disabled residents who have been caught of their properties — although the report famous that the disruption of cell service contributed to widespread confusion.
The communication challenges continued all through the day, the report discovered.
Encroaching flames compelled authorities to maneuver their command put up a number of occasions. An preliminary staging space, which was within the path of the evacuation route and the fireplace, was consumed inside half-hour, authorities mentioned.
However due to communication breakdowns attributable to downed radio and cellphone towers, dispatchers typically had hassle reaching officers within the subject and police have been compelled to “hand ship” vital paper paperwork from a command put up to a staging space on Zuma Seashore, about 20 miles away.
A number of commissioners requested about stories of journalists being turned away from fireplace zones within the weeks that adopted the fireplace’s outbreak.
Assistant Chief Dominic Choi mentioned there was some trepidation about whether or not to permit journalists into the fire-ravaged space whereas authorities nonetheless have been persevering with their seek for our bodies of fireside victims.
Commissioner Rasha Gerges Shields mentioned that whereas she had some issues in regards to the LAPD’s efficiency, total she was impressed and instructed that officers needs to be counseled for his or her braveness. The division has mentioned dozens of officers misplaced their properties to the fires.
The report additionally beneficial that the division situation masks and private protecting gear after there was a scarcity for officers on the entrance traces all through the primary days of the blaze.
The Palisades fireplace was one of many costliest and most damaging disasters in metropolis historical past, engulfing almost 23,000 acres, leveling greater than 6,000 buildings and killing 12 folks. Greater than 60,000 folks have been evacuated. The deaths of 5 folks inside L.A. metropolis limits stay beneath investigation by the LAPD’s Main Crimes Division and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The LAPD stories particulars how at 11:15 a.m., about 45 minutes after the primary 911 calls, the decision was made to situation a citywide tactical alert, the report mentioned. The division stayed in a heightened state of alert for 29 days, permitting it to attract sources from different elements of town, but additionally that means that sure calls wouldn’t obtain a well timed police response.
For the file:
6:58 p.m. Nov. 4, 2025An earlier model of this story mentioned an LAPD contingent had been offering safety at an occasion by President Trump. The safety was for President Biden, who was visiting L.A. when the Palisades fireplace started.
Because the flames started to engulf a close-by hillside, extra officers started responding to the world, together with a contingent that had been offering safety at a go to by President Biden.
Initially, LAPD officers operated in largely rescue and traffic-control roles. However as the fireplace wore on, police started to conduct crime suppression sweeps within the evacuation zones the place opportunistic burglars have been breaking into properties they knew have been empty.
In all, 90 crimes have been reported within the fireplace zone, together with 4 crimes in opposition to folks, a theft and three aggravated assaults, 46 property crimes, and 40 different circumstances, starting from a weapons violation to identification theft. The division made 19 arrests.
The brand new report comes weeks after town of Los Angeles put out its personal evaluation of the fireplace response — and on the heels of federal prosecutors arresting and charging a 29-year-old Uber driver with deliberately setting a fireplace Jan. 1 that later grew into the Palisades fireplace.
The LAPD’s Main Crimes and Theft-Murder models additionally labored with the ATF to research the fireplace’s trigger.
