Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums |
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Patch of the Los Angeles Police Department CRASH division
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| Abbreviation | CRASH |
| Motto | "To Protect and to Serve" "We Intimidate Those Who Intimidate Others" (unofficial) |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1979 |
| Dissolved | March 4, 2000 |
| Superseding agency | LAPD Gang and Narcotics Division |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Size | 498 sq mi (1,290 km2) |
| Population | 3.8 million |
| Operational structure | |
| Officers | 300 (estimated) |
| Parent agency | Los Angeles Police Department |
| Facilities | |
| Areas |
18
Central
Rampart Southwest Hollenbeck Harbor Hollywood Wilshire West Los Angeles Van Nuys West Valley Northeast 77th Street Newton Pacific North Hollywood Foothill Devonshire Southeast |
The Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) was a specialized unit of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) tasked with combating gang-related crime between 1979 and 2000. The unit was established in the South Central district of Los Angeles, California, United States, to combat rising gang violence during the period. Each of the LAPD's 18 divisions had a CRASH unit assigned to it, whose primary goal was to suppress gang-related crimes in the city.
CRASH was subject of the Rampart scandal from 1997, which exposed widespread police corruption within the unit. CRASH was disbanded in 2000 and was replaced by the LAPD Gang and Narcotics Division.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of C.R.A.S.H. appears as the main antagonist faction in the 2004 open world action-adventure video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
The 1988 film Colors stars Robert Duvall and Sean Penn as two members of C.R.A.S.H.
Although corruption in L.A.'s C.R.A.S.H. unit had yet to be exposed when Training Day was written, Antoine Fuqua has stated that the emergence of the Rampart Scandal in the late 1990s catalyzed the completion of the film. Denzel Washington also grew a beard in order to emulate the appearance of Rafael Pérez, an LAPD officer involved in multiple scandals.
The police drama series The Shield (2002-2008), which revolves around a corrupt anti-gang unit called the Strike Team, is based on the Rampart scandal. Rampart was the original name for the show.
