LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division

The LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division (RHD) is a division of the Detective Services Group within the Detective Bureau of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The RHD was established in 1969 by combining the once separate Robbery Division and Homicide Division, today’s Robbery-Homicide Division is comprised of approximately 60 sworn personnel, 10 civilian support staff, and 20 reserve officers under the command of Captain Shane R. Mattsen. RHD is comprised of four sections (Robbery, Homicide, Gang Homicide, and Special Investigation Sections), each tasked with investigating or providing surveillance support for a wide variety of select crimes that are often high profile in nature. The sections also serve as liaisons between other law enforcement agencies regarding cases of mutual interest and, when required, orchestrate multi-divisional and/or multi-agency task force investigations.

The Detective Bureau consists of several divisions and sections responsible for investigating a variety of crimes. The Detective Services Group comprises the Robbery-Homicide Division (RHD); the Juvenile Division; the Gang and Narcotics Division; the Commercial Crimes Division; the Detective Support and Vice Division, which includes the Mental Evaluation Unit and Threat Management Unit; the Forensic Science Division (FSD), and the Technical Investigation Division (TID).

## Overview

The Robbery-Homicide Division (RHD) is responsible for investigating select homicides, bank robberies, serial robberies, extortions, sexual assaults, human trafficking, kidnapping, incidents that result in injury or death to an officer, and threats against officers.

## Organization

### Robbery Special Section

The Robbery Special Section (RSS) is responsible for investigating the following on a citywide basis:

Robberies when:

* A prolonged investigation is required, or the investigative personnel required exceed geographic Area detective divisions resources;
* Robbery involves a bank, bank employees, bank messengers, credit unions, savings and loan institutions, or armored car facility;
* Any series of robberies that involves multiple divisions within the Department and/or outside jurisdictions;
* Any high profile/ media driven robbery investigation.

Extortions or Threats of Extortion when:

* A prolonged investigation with threats of unlawful injury to the victim;
* Directed against a bank, bank employee, bank messenger, federally insured credit union, savings and loan institution, or armored car facility;
* Extortions determined to be virtual kidnaps which require liaison with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for investigation.

Kidnappings when:

* A ransom demand is anticipated or has been made;
* There is the potential for serious bodily injury or death;
* The facts indicate a connection to a major citywide problem;
* A prolonged investigation is required which exceeds the geographic Area detective division resources;
* Incident involves smuggled, undocumented persons when kidnaps and extortions are involved.

In addition to the above investigations, Robbery Special Section has the following ancillary duties:

* Coordinates all live line-ups for the Department;
* Provides instruction at the Department Detective School in the areas of robbery investigation and identification procedure;
* Provides subject matter expertise to Legal Affairs Division in the field of robbery investigation and identification procedure;
* Investigative and technical support for the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.

### Homicide Special Section

The Homicide Special Section (HSS) is responsible for investigating the following on a citywide basis:

* Homicides that involve multiple victims (generally three or more) in one incident;
* Serial murders;
* Homicides that involve intense media coverage or are high profile;
* Arson as the manner of death;
* Assaults against on-duty police officers in the City limits wherein serious bodily injury occurred and resulted in hospitalization or death.
* Incidents in which officers were shot at and did not return fire;
* The criminal aspect of an OIS requiring a prolonged, complex investigation;
* Incidents that involve death or serious injury to a department employee that are non-traffic-related and officer involved, or result of suicide or an attempted suicide:
* Outside law enforcement agency shootings that occur on and off-duty in the City;
* Solicitation, extortion or conspiracy to commit murder (murder for hire);
* Illegal Abortions;
* Any special investigation assigned by the Chief of Detective Bureau;
* Requests for assistance from Area detectives;
* Requests from outside law enforcement agencies.

In addition to performing directed, periodic audits of divisional Murder Books, reviews of select investigations and/or case-specific habeas corpus issues, this Section reviews all murder Follow-Up Reports submitted for clearance as “Cleared Other.”

### Gang Homicide Unit

The Gang Homicide Unit (GHU) targets specific gangs and their involvement with certain criminal activity including, but not limited to, murder and other associated gang related crimes. There is also a full-time Crime Intelligence Analyst assigned to the unit to assist with telephone call data analysis, case charting, and link analysis. The GHU has specific knowledge of and experience with federal Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) prosecutions, and a great deal of experience in preparing court orders and search warrants to obtain business and telephone records related to Dialed Number Recorders (DNR), cell site towers, cell phone tracking, text message retrieval, and state and federal wiretap applications.

### Special Investigation Section

The Special Investigation Section (SIS) is the Department’s tactical surveillance unit. The primary objective of SIS is to determine if a suspect(s) under surveillance is connected to the crime(s) under investigation, and, if probable cause exists to arrest, to locate and arrest the suspect(s). Although assigned to RHD, SIS is available to any Department entity seeking surveillance on active criminals/crimes.

The SIS was formed in 1965 as the first official law enforcement tactical surveillance squad. It went on to serve as the inspiration for the FBI's Violent Crime Unit in the mid 2000's and HSI's Major Case Group in the early 2010's.

## Additional RHD functions

### Cold Case Homicide Unit

The Cold Case Homicide Unit (CCHU) is staffed by 12 Reserve Officers with prior Homicide experience and are supervised by one Detective Supervisor/Homicide Investigator. The CCHU is primarily responsible for the following:

* Investigating cold Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) hit cases Citywide;
* Screening cases for possible Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) or Familial DNA search submission;
* Screening select cases and identifying solvability factors;
* Submitting requests to FSD for various types of analysis;
* Submitting annual requests for grant funds to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).

### Hate Crime Coordinator

* Collects, maintains, and disseminates statistics for all incidents motivated by hate or prejudice throughout the City;
* Analyzes the data for patterns, trends, and modus operandi (MO) to assist the Department with the appropriate response;
* Provides hate crime education, prevention and enforcement training to community groups, schools, and Department personnel.