Police Magazine

Richard Valdemar

Sergeant (Ret.)

Sgt. Richard Valdemar retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after spending most of his 33 years on the job combating gangs. For the last 20 years, he was assigned to Major Crimes Bureau. He was also cross-designated as an FBI agent for 10 years of his career when he served on the Federal Metropolitan Gang Task Force. From 1995 until his retirement in 2004, Valdemar was a member of the California Prison Gang Task Force, helping prosecute members of the Mexican Mafia.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•January 11, 2013

Keeping a Holiday Gang Truce

I don't remember any of these holiday truces actually working, but like those classic holiday movies they seem to make us all feel good for the moment, even if they are works of fiction.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•December 28, 2012

Gangs Often Drive Hate Crimes

Today, it's the street gangs, primarily black and Latino that are the real problem, and until law enforcement and the public puts these gangs in check, they'll continue to destroy lives and communities while motivated by blind hate.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•December 5, 2012

Cultivating Effective Gang Informants

In the long war between police gang fighters and the outlaw criminal gangs, gang defectors can be important and valuable allies. Unless someone in your team has the ability to recruit, cultivate, and utilize criminal informants, you're just functioning as procedural processors relying on chance to develop cases.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•November 26, 2012

Sureño Fight Club

While in custody, most Sureño gang members are educated in martial arts fighting tactics and are primarily trained in fighting with edged weapons. The culture of jails and prisons is a knife culture. Jail-improvised weapons start with "shanks" but can include spears, clubs, zip guns, and bombs.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•November 7, 2012

Gangs In the Courtroom

Every victim or witness had heard the stories in the ghetto about gang retaliation against those who were foolish enough to snitch on gang members. Most of these stories were only urban legends that grew with each telling. Some were absolutely true. Gangs do target witnesses.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•October 22, 2012

A Financial Weapon To Fight Gangs

MS-13 will now be targeted for the seizure of its criminal assets just like infamous foreign-born criminal organizations such the Yakuza of Japan and Mexican drug trafficking organizations such as Los Zetas.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•October 2, 2012

Gang Intelligence and the Need to Know

No matter how small or large a town they work in, and whether they work urban or rural, gang cops need to know about and recognize the signs of criminal gang activity associated with national and international gangs.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•September 12, 2012

Inside the Black Panther Party (2 of 2)

By the late 1960s, many of the Black Panther Party leadership had become entangled in criminal trials or were serving long prison sentences. Some had been killed. The remaining BPP leaders could not agree on how to overcome these issues.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•September 6, 2012

Inside the Black Panther Party (1 of 2)

The Black Panther Party was formed to protect and defend African-American neighborhoods from police brutality. By the late 1960s, it represented a major threat to the Oakland Police Department.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•July 17, 2012

The Black Guerrilla Family Prison Gang

The Black Guerrilla Family was founded by George Jackson, a former Black Panther and excellent orator who rallied inmates by speaking about the system's injustice to prisoners, especially black inmates. He vowed to form an organization that would support his imprisoned people like a family and become a vanguard in the coming revolution against the U.S. government.

Prev Next