Ed Lavalle

San Diego Police: Case Files (Images of America) Ed Lavalle

A Pacific Coast metropolis famous for beautiful beaches and perfect weather and an American municipality since 1850, San Diego is America's eighth-largest city. Known as America's "Finest City," it contains a wealth of history--evolutionary as well as revolutionary--in its crime files. Among those are the founder of the California wine industry, Judge Roy Bean, a black officer before the Emancipation Proclamation, a 19th-century Native American police chief, and women who had the power to arrest before they had the right to vote. Major incidents include massive floods, civil unrest, wildfires, and some of the largest police gun battles in history. San Diego also witnessed mass murder, America's first major school shooting, the worst aviation disaster in American history, and the deadliest streets, per capita, to police. How the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) handled it all became textbook for many other police agencies.