Special Operations Bureau

Special Operations Bureau
Patch of the Special Operations Bureau
Abbreviation	SOB
Motto	Prevent, Protect, Pursue, Prepare
Organizational structure
Part of	Los Angeles Police Department Office of Operations
Headquarters	C. Erwin Piper Technical Center, 555 Ramirez St, Los Angeles
Command staff
Commanding Officer	Fritz Howard, Deputy Chief
Assistant Commanding Officer	Ann McGinnis, Commander

The Special Operations Bureau (SOB) of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has three primary missions: provide specialized uniformed and tactical resources in support of daily field activities, unusual occurrences, and during serious disturbances and elevated threat conditions; provide intelligence and surveillance support, and investigate terrorism, organized crime, and other illegal actions that could result in a significant disruption of public order; and respond to and investigate incidents involving explosives, destructive devices, and hazardous materials.

SOB also provides line supervision over all of the department's gang and narcotics enforcement strategies as well as geographical area Gang Impact Teams. The mission is to establish collaborative, consistent and coordinated approach to abating criminal gang activity and narcotics trafficking with an emphasis on enforcement, intelligence gathering, investigation, prosecution, intervention, and prevention.

Headquarters

Piper Tech

In the Major Crimes Universe, the main offices of SOB are located in the C. Erwin Piper Technical Center, Piper Tech for short, in downtown Los Angeles, next to Union Station and about one mile away from LAPD Headquarters. Other SOB components that are confirmed to be located at Piper Tech are the Special Investigation Section and the Air Support Division.

It should be noted that in the real LAPD, SOB's headquarters has never been located at Piper Tech; SOB was originally located at the Parker Center before moving to the new Police Administration Building (PAB) when it opened in 2009. A room labeled "Special Operations Bureau" was seen at the Parker Center when the building was still in use (Seasons 1–5 of The Closer), suggesting that SOB has not always been at Piper Tech and presumably only moved there after leaving Parker Center. Why the PAB, supposedly, did not have space allocated for SOB in the Major Crimes Universe is not known.

Back of Piper Tech

Command staff

Commanding Officer

The Commanding Officer is responsible for managing, supervising, and coordinating the activities of the Bureau. As a staff officer, they are also responsible for developing and recommending policies and procedures affecting those functions under their command.

By position, the Commanding Officer is also assigned some specialized duties:

• Permanent member, K-9 Bite Review Board — responsible for reviewing incidents in which a member of the public is bitten by a LAPD canine wherein hospitalization is required. The review board shall evaluate the propriety of the incident as well as the associated policy, training, risk management, and disciplinary issues.

• Rotating member, Operations Communications Committee — responsible for developing communications procedures affecting both the Office of Operations and Communications Division. The Committee shall not establish policy, but instead meet as needed to develop procedures based on existing policy.

• Department Gang Coordinator — responsible for developing policies and procedures for gang and narcotics enforcement strategies as well as providing citywide oversight of geographical area Gang Impact Teams and geographical bureau Gang Coordinators. This includes the scheduling of Bureau Gang Coordinator audits, development of audit methodology, and the review of audit findings.

• Department Traffic Coordinator — responsible for coordinating the review of the department's Fleet Safety Program to assure equitable classifications and disciplinary actions; reviewing all completed Fleet Safety Report packages to determine compliance with department procedure and consistency of the final classification; providing the Assistant Chief of Administrative Services with information that will facilitate driver-training needs; and approving requests for the appearance of the Motorcycle Drill Team.

• Department Dignitary Security Coordinator — responsible for coordinating the use of protective details for select city officials, including the Mayor and Chief of Police, and other dignitaries, as needed.

• The Commanding Officer may approve a request from the Commanding Officer, Metropolitan Division, for the use of explosives during an entry by the Special Weapons and Tactics Team as well as other extraordinary methods utilized to protect public safety.

Deputy Chief Fritz Howard is currently the Commanding Officer of the Special Operations Bureau. Chief Howard was assigned as the Commanding Officer at the end of “Sweet Revenge”​​ of Major Crimes, Season 3. This is also the same time he was hired by the LAPD and appointed as a Deputy Chief, having previously been employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Based on episode dialogue, the position was left vacant by the beginning of Major Crimes, Season 3, for unknown reasons. It is not currently known who was the Commanding Officer during The Closer or Major Crimes, Seasons 1 and 2.

Assistant Commanding Officer

The Assistant Commanding Officer assists the Deputy Chief in coordinating the bureau's activities and will act as the Commanding Officer during the Chief's absence. As a staff officer, they are also responsible for developing and recommending policies and procedures affecting those functions under their command.

Commander Ann McGinnis is currently the Assistant Commanding Officer of the Special Operations Bureau. Based on episode dialogue, McGinnis has been the Assistant Commanding Officer for the entire duration of Major Crimes. Between the events of “Flight Risk” and “Sweet Revenge”, Cmdr. McGinnis was the Acting Commanding Officer after the post was left vacant by the previous Commanding Officer. McGinnis assumed the role of Acting Commanding Officer once again in “White Lies, Part 1” after Deputy Chief Howard was assigned as the Acting Assistant Chief of Operations. She remained in command until the end of “Shockwave, Part 2” when Chief Howard returned to SOB.

Subordinate components

Special Investigation Section

The Special Investigation Section (SIS) is the tactical surveillance unit of the LAPD. Its primary mission is to determine if the suspects under surveillance are connected to the crimes under investigation, and, if needed, to locate and arrest the suspects.

Air Support Division

The Air Support Division (ASD) is the LAPD's airborne unit and the largest municipal airborne unit in the United States.

Counter-Terrorism Division

The Counter-Terrorism Division (CT) is responsible for investigating crimes involving explosives or any type of nuclear, radiological, chemical or biological material, as well as other terrorism-related crimes.

Criminal Intelligence Division

The Criminal Intelligence Division (CI) is responsible for gathering and analyzing intelligence and criminal information, developing strategies for crime prevention as it relates to terrorism or other major crimes, and investigating organized crime.

Emergency Operations Division

The Emergency Operations Division (EOD) is responsible for providing service, training, and the direct support necessary to prepare the LAPD for response to special events, emergencies, natural disasters, and other unusual occurrences.

Emergency Services Division

The Emergency Services Division (ESD) is responsible for responding to incidents involving explosives and other destructive devices as well as hazardous materials.

Gang and Operations Support Division

The Gang and Operations Support Division (GOSD) is responsible for providing administrative and investigative support, expertise, and training on matters relating to gang issues.

Metropolitan Division

The Metropolitan Division (Metro) provides support to the department’s community-based policing efforts by deploying additional crime suppression resources throughout the City. These assignments include uniformed crime suppression details, as well as responding to high-risk barricaded situations, stakeouts, security details, and warrant service.

Specialized Collision Investigation Division

The Specialized Collision Investigation Division (SCID) responds to complicated collision scenes throughout the entire Los Angeles area, and completes traffic collision reconstructions for detectives and the District and City Attorney's offices.

Proposed SOB spin-off

During Major Crimes, Seasons 3 and 4, there was a possibility that SOB was going to be getting it's own show. While "SOB" was not officially piloted, the characters that would have appeared in the spin-off were introduced in the Season 3 episode “Two Options”​​​​​. Some of the old (and new) cast the new show would have featured would have been Jon Tenney as Deputy Chief Fritz Howard, Laurie Holden as Commander Ann McGinnis, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Lt. Chuck Cooper. Hampton Fluker and Brock Harris, who were introduced in “Two Options”​​​​​, would have also returned as SWAT officers Jamey Perez and Chad Stuart, respectively.

The spin-off had been proposed under Michael Wright, the President of TNT & TBS and Chief Creative Officer of Turner Broadcasting, but after he was replaced by Kevin Reilly, the proposal was scrapped.

Notes

In the real world, the Special Operations Bureau was merged with the Counter-Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau (CTCIB) (which does not exists in the Major Crimes Universe) in 2010 to create the new Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau (CTSOB). In the Major Crimes Universe, the merger between SOB and the fictionalized Counter-Terrorism Bureau was alluded to when Thomas Delk was sworn in as Chief of Police and he planned on restructuring the department to more closely match the real LAPD organization of the time.(“Unknown Trouble”)

Although Chief Delk died before he could see his changes through, it's presumed that Chief Will Pope also chose to implement this change, effectively merging the two bureaus for the beginning of Major Crimes (i.e. 2012), though SOB was not renamed in the process like had happened in the real world. This was confirmed just before Season 3 of Major Crimes premiered, when series creator James Duff stated in a TVLine article that "SOB is in charge of all the tactical elements of the LAPD, including the dive team, the bomb team, SWAT, criminal intelligence and, in our version, SIS, which is Special Investigation Section, the undercover work", meaning that a separate Counter-Terrorism Bureau no longer exists and that the responsibilities of the SOB now match the real world. However it should be noted that this has never been explicitly stated in the show itself, as SOB (or CTB for that matter) are not the focus of the show(s).

In “Two Options”, one of the systems Major Crimes got access to from SOB included a personnel tracker which they used to track the Major Crimes detectives and two SWAT officers attached to them. Other units visible on this system were two "Narco Groups" and two "Intell Groups" (i.e. Intelligence), though it was not elaborated what these meant. As SOB has oversight responsibilities of narcotics and gang enforcement (of which intelligence gathering is a component), it's presumed that these groups relate to the Gang Impact Teams and the SOB's Gang Intelligence Unit.

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