LAPD Working Manual, on Homicide Procedure including Discussion of Sexual Violence and Illegal Abortions, 1981 to 1983

LAPD Bulletins

Pamphlet

Los Angeles Police Department homicide investigation manual from 1981, produced as the department revised detective practice amid growing reliance on forensic evidence, eyewitness identification, press management, and judicial control of crime scene searches. Prepared by the Investigative Analysis Section of the Operations Headquarters Bureau, the manual converted current law and departmental experience into numbered instructions designed for replacement and expansion. A February 1983 Training Bulletin on suspect show ups shows that Sergeant Rodriguez continued using the binder as identification procedure and evidentiary standards developed.

Los Angeles Police Department. The Los Angeles Police Department Homicide Manual: A Guide to the Investigation of a Death. Los Angeles: Investigative Analysis Section, Operations Headquarters Bureau, April 1981. Departmental duplicated manual in a reddish brown post binder, with the ownership label “SGT RODRIGUEZ” on recto. The preface states: “The Los Angeles Police Department Homicide Manual was first published in 1970. This revision represents the first major effort to reevaluate and expand the manual,” and describes a decimal system permitting frequent updates. Contents address crime scene wrap up, witness canvassing, reenactment, notification of relatives, suspects not in custody, informants, press releases, prisoner interviews, gag orders, coroner’s photographs, poisoning, sexual homicide, and expanded searches. The section headed “Abortions” states that murder resulting from criminal abortion was “practically nonexistent under current law and practice,” but retains the subject “because of the possibility of a change in the law, and for those unique occasions when an unlawful abortion may be performed.” It distinguishes toxic and mechanical methods, listing phosphorus, quinine, ergot, saffron, red lead, hormone preparations, and powerful laxatives, then describes instruments and liquids introduced into the womb, with infection, air embolism, and death among the consequences. Witnesses might refuse cooperation because of “the imagined stigma of the incident or the fear of publicity,” prompting instruction on dying declarations. Inserted material includes the February 1983 bulletin on show ups and photographic identification, issued under Chief Daryl F. Gates, and auxiliary police and civil defense instructions.

The manual records detective work being reorganized through modular training, forensic specialization, constitutional limits, and scrutiny of identification evidence. Its expanded search section incorporates Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, instructing detectives that no general “murder scene” exception permitted a warrantless search. The 1983 bulletin distinguishes formal lineups, photographic identification, and field show ups while warning that procedural errors could damage a prosecution. Such instructions shaped how officers classified deaths, handled witnesses, secured evidence, and prepared cases during the decade’s later homicide investigations. Scattered toning, handling wear, punched filing holes, occasional spotting and marks, and binder wear; contents remain legible and securely held. Overall good condition. A working record of the procedures through which LAPD officers investigated death and constructed prosecutable cases in 1980s Los Angeles.

Item #23681

Price: $450.00