Vernon Police Department

If you, a loved one or a family member has been detained, cited or arrested by the Vernon Police Department, it is only natural to be curious about what is likely to happen next.

While this short write-up certainly cannot address the potential outcome of any specific case, there is some general information about the Vernon Police Department that may help quell one’s curiosity.

First, it is worth knowing that the police department itself is located at 4305 South Santa Fe Avenue in Vernon.  Its phone number is (323) 583-8811.

The Vernon Police Department is larger than one might expect.  There are 41 sworn officers and 12 non-sworn staff personnel.  While there are only 200 to 300 people that call Vernon home, there are tens of thousands of people who work in Vernon each day in various factories and warehouses there.  The Farmer John meat packing plant, now closed, used to be the most well-known meatpacking factory in Vernon.  Until the late 1960’s, there were 28 slaughterhouses in Vernon.

Vernon is often regarded as “exclusively industrial,” but this is inaccurate.  Nonetheless, it has no parks.  

Vernon itself is just 5.2 square miles.  It is located about five miles south of downtown Los Angeles, to the east of the Harbor Freeway (“the 110 Freeway”).  

Vernon experiences one of the highest per capita violent crime rates in Los Angeles County, primarily because it simply has so few residents, skewing the per-capita rate.  Nonetheless, it remains true that there are a lot of auto burglaries and grand theft auto in Vernon.

Our office has never represented someone arrested in Vernon.  This may be explained by the fact that those who commit auto burglary or grand theft auto typically do not have the financial resources to retain private counsel (as would be suggested by the need for money motivating such a crime) and instead opt for a public defender.  It also may just be coincidence that we have not represented such a person cited or arrested in Vernon.

If one is cited or arrested in Vernon, the criminal case will be filed at either the Metropolitan Courthouse at 1845 S. Hill Street in Los Angeles (about three miles north of Vernon) or the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center at 210 West Temple Street in Los Angeles.  More minor criminal cases like misdemeanor DUI are filed at the Metropolitan Courthouse.  More significant criminal cases, such as any felony, are filed at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justic Center.

Vernon is perhaps best known by a well-publicized 2015 incident involving the Exide battery recycling plant in Vernon.  In March 2015, the facility was permanently shut down by California regulators due to decades-long arsenic and lead leakage and emissions that were expected to require extensive cleanup efforts.

The city is also stigmatized by repeated scandals involving government fraud.  On November 15, 2006, a governmental investigation into alleged public corruption in Vernon resulted in charges against the city's mayor, Leonis Malburg,  as well as his wife, his son, and the former city administrator.  

The Los Angeles District Attorney's office previously had launched an investigation in April 2005 upon allegations that the city's former administrator, Bruce Malkenhorst Sr., had misappropriated public funds for personal use.

Their investigation uncovered evidence of voter fraud on the part of the ruling family, which, it was asserted, tried to keep out new residents.  Leonis Malburg, who had been mayor since 1974, claimed he lived in a small Vernon apartment in the 2800 block of Leonis Boulevard (named after his grandfather, also a mayor), when in fact he was living in upscale Hancock Park, Los Angeles.  His wife and son also claimed to live in Vernon, voting in Vernon elections although evidence indicated they too lived in Hancock Park.  Charges against the Malburgs included voter fraud, assisting unqualified voters, false registration, and perjury. 

Malkenhorst, Sr. was charged with 18 counts of "misappropriation of public funds" for reportedly taking $60,000 of city money for personal use.  His salary from the city had been $600,000.  Malkenhorst at one time collected a pension of $499,674.84.  In 2010, Malkenhorst received a reported $510,000 annual pension, plus health benefits, as former city administrator, the most of any of the 9,111 retired California government workers receiving pensions from CALPERS.  Malkenhorst retired in 2005.