LAPD Special Investigation Section

The Special Investigation Section (SIS), unofficially nicknamed the "Death Squad", is the tactical detective and surveillance unit of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). It is organized under the Robbery–Homicide Division (RHD), a division of the Detective Bureau, itself under the Office of Special Operations. Formed in 1965, the SIS's unconventional tactics and involvement in numerous shootouts and police shootings have elicited considerable controversy. The Special Investigation Section was formed in 1965 as a stakeout unit and the Detective Bureau's equivalent of the Metropolitan Division's then-new SWAT unit, in response to an increase in crimes committed by the same suspects in different locations across the city, which the LAPD was then unable to effectively respond to. The unit's creators, Chief William H. Parker and Chief of Detectives Thad F. Brown, "envisioned a nine-man squad of 'professional witnesses'—police officers who could produce irrefutable evidence against professional criminals by covertly watching them break the law." The SIS was involved in the arrests of Muharem Kurbegovic, William Bonin, and Mikhail Markhasev, among others. Between 1965 and 1992, the SIS was involved in over 50 shootouts, killed between 28 and 34 suspects, and injured dozens more suspects—considered disproportionately high for a police unit—making it the deadliest unit in the LAPD. In several SIS-involved shootings, the suspects that were killed or injured did not fire any shots, were not armed, or were carrying pellet guns. One of the SIS's most high-profile incidents was a shootout in Sunland-Tujunga on February 12, 1990. The SIS had been surveilling a group of four suspects wanted for robbing McDonald's restaurants in northwest Los Angeles, and was standing by to catch the suspects as they were robbing a McDonald's in Sunland. When the suspects left the restaurant, SIS detectives blocked their car and opened fire after reportedly seeing a gun; SIS detectives fired 24 shotgun rounds and 11 bullets at the suspects, who fired none in return.