Old L.A. police bulletins show city's history from a different angle (LA Times) [View all]

[petronius]

n a 1920s brick fortress near the gritty corner of York Boulevard and Figueroa Street in Highland Park, the intertwined history of Los Angeles and its police force is slowly being recovered from fragile documents that were never meant to be saved.

A few steps from the bullet-riddled patrol cars from the 1997 North Hollywood bank shootout and relics of the Symbionese Liberation Army on display at the former station, Los Angeles Police Museum volunteer Joan Renner, under guidance from the Getty Museum, is painstakingly archiving half a century of bulletins that provide snapshots of the LAPD starting in 1907.

In the last 2 1/2 years, Renner, 63, has read thousands of bulletins while archiving them. With the joy of a new mother, she describes her archival project as a perfect combination of her seemingly unrelated interests in vintage paper, women's history and crime.

...

It's unclear when the LAPD began issuing daily bulletins. The earliest surviving copies capture Los Angeles as the 20th century exploded across America, alerting officers to stolen bicycles, wanted men and new traffic regulations...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-harnisch-20120619,0,7602035.column?

This sounds like a really fascinating resource - I hope they get it on line for browsing...