Thomas Reddin | |
Office: | Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department |
Term Start: | 1967 |
Term End: | 1969 |
Birth Date: | 25 June 1916 |
Birth Place: | New York City, New York, U.S. |
Death Place: | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Party: | Republican |
Otherparty: | Independent (1973) |
Thomas Reddin (June 25, 1916 – December 4, 2004) was a Los Angeles Police Department chief from 1967 to 1969. He left May 6, 1969, to become a news commentator. He also owned a Los Angeles–based private security company, which was named for him.
Reddin helped modernize the department and introduced the community policing concept,[1] which "perceives the community as an agent and partner in promoting security rather than as a passive audience."[2] During his tenure, he allowed his department to give technical advice for the first three seasons of the revived version of the Jack Webb-created detective drama Dragnet (He even made an appearance at the end of the Season Two finale, "The Big Problem", in a plea for improved community relations between the department and the city) and during the first season (1968–1969) of the police drama Adam-12.