The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially the Police Department of the City of Los Angeles, is the law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, in California. The LAPD's mission is to "protect the lives and property of the people we serve, reduce the incidence and fear of crime, and improve public safety while working with diverse communities to improve their quality of life." Our mandate is to do so with honor and integrity, while conducting ourselves at all times according to the highest ethical standards in order to maintain public trust” (Ministry). The essential task of the department is to prevent crime and disorder as an alternative to repression by military force and the severity of legal sanctions. The organizational structure of the department plays a central role in the effectiveness of the department. The department operates under a philosophy that holds police leaders directly accountable for fighting crime in their assigned area and gives them the authority to deploy their resources to achieve the desired results. Policing authority is linked to accountability because managers are responsible for achieving certain outcomes and must have the authority to use resources to achieve organizational goals. To coordinate the activities of people, functions and divisions and enable them to work together, managers must develop a clear hierarchy of