RUDY DE LEON COMMUNITY ROOM / HOLLENBECK DIVISION POLICE STATION

Motion - Former Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Captain Rudy De Leon grew up in a large household during the depression. He and his four brothers and sisters sold their mother's tamales door to door and raised chickens and pigs and grew vegetables. He joined the Navy in WWII. After his service he entered the Police Academy in 1947. He retired from the City in 1978 providing 31 years of service and protection to the communities of Central, Hollenbeck and Highland Park. In 1967, Rudy De Leon became one of the founders of Latin American Enforcement Association, known as La Ley, which provides scholarships for local students and sponsors study groups to help minority officers move up in the rank. In addition, he became Fullerton Community College's first minority instructor, with assignments in three schools, while holding a full-time police job. Rudy De Leon has had a stellar career highlighted by his distinction of becoming the first Mexican American/Latino to be named Captain of a Los Angeles Police Division in 1971 at which time he was posted to Hollenbeck Division. Rudy De Leon was instrumental in transforming the Hollenbeck Police Station's large basement into a boxing gym and providing a safe place where kids could learn to box and stay away from trouble. Rudy De Leon loved his job and the community. In return, the community loved and supported De Leon. Long before there was such a thing as "community policing," Rudy De Leon was, by his own example and inspiration, a proponent of his own style of "community policing." Rudy De Leon is a legend in Boyle Heights. He has tremendously impacted the Northeast communities in a positive manner. He also led the way to the creation of the Hollenbeck Youth Center. Over the many years of service to the Eastside communities and the LAPD Mr. De Leon has earned the respect of fellow LAPD Officers, citizens and other leaders in this community as well as statewide recognition. Among his other career achievements is his appointment to the State Parole Board and the State Attorney General's Office, as Special Assistant. And the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors also named Rudy De Leon to a very key position of Ombudsman after his retirement. In recognition of Rudy De Leon's contributions to the City and the community for many years it is only fitting that we honor him by naming the new Community Room in the Hollenbeck Division Police Station, which is currently under construction, as the "Rudy De Leon Community Room." THEREFORE MOVE that the new Community Room in the Hollenbeck Division Police Station, which is currently under construction, be named as the "Rudy De Leon Community Room" in recognition of Mr. De Leon's years of service to the City and the community.

14