Baldwin Park Police Department

I was driving my rented sprinter van down the 10 yesterday when Officer #2868 Leiebl, I think, Can’t read his handwriting. He pulled up beside me on his motorcycle, then behind me and on to the other side. I couldn’t understand what this cop was doing, since I have not disobeyed any traffic laws. Then he pulled me over and said the reason was to check how many seats I had. A strange reason, but I was compliant and respectful. After counting 12 seats, with no passengers, he said I was only allowed 10, with a class C license, and preceded to write me a ticket. Then he said the van was going to have to be impounded. This guy was a real dark cloud on a sunny day. So I took a lyft all the way back to Santa Monica. He must have really been low on his quota and searching. Has anyone else had this ticket?

A police officer is meant to protect and serve, however most officers in this department abuse their power. They use intimidation tactics to make sure civilians know their place. I called the police for protection against a man making threats towards me, my daughter and my sister, yet we were treated like the criminals. What’s the point in calling in?

I gave the Baldwin Park police department a call yesterday regarding harassing calls for a debt collector which i truly 100% knew it was a fraudulent call. A SCAM! I had all the information to file a report for this caller. The lady who answer the phone was very inconsiderate and gave me the worst advice ever! She said the only thing i can do was change my number or block the number. I told her i initially called to file a report so people can be aware of this scam. Again she said the same thing. I was very unhappy of the service i got from her. She kept on placing me on hold and then answer on hold again, and when she will get back at me she would forget about the whole situation and I had to explain myself again and again. I felt like i was not being taken care at all. It was a waste of time. They do not care at all. They just care about being such assholes.

So from what i heard the other officers on the side speaking the officer who pulled me over, D. Newton #4408, was in training. If that is so Im sad to see that his female partner who seemed to be leading him with head nods on the other side of me is also training him to be as rude and condescending as she. I was pulled over because i did not notice my headlights were not turned on when i seen the blue and red lights flash up behind me i was wondering to myself what did i do wrong. So he asks if i knew why of course i answered no and when he told me i immediately apologize and continue to reach for my license, now mind you i am in my husbands car and he was driving my car because we had just driven out of Firestone and he wanted to feel how it was running and if our car problem from earlier had gotten fixed (its been a very long day). I rarely drive his car and have no idea where what is what. So he asks for insurance and i open his car dispatch or whatever its called and there is just a mess of paper and remembered i could get it off the internet and then i see my husband parking close by and ask the officer if he could come over and get it because i had no idea where it would be and that this was his car. Officer keeps looking up for reassurance from his trainer and says no just look for it. I repeated well this isnt my car and it would be a lot faster if my husband gets it hes only a few feet away, and then he starts to lose his patience, no just look for it. Ok so i pick up my phone and start to get it from online and he tells me to look for it and i said i am trying i have it here online if he would only wait and he tells me well you have 30 seconds to pull up your insurance or else im going to fine you for not having any. I say again im sorry this isnt my car the insurance is in here i just dont know where and im trying to show you it on my phone. He starts to hurry me up with threatening he was going to fine me for not having insurance even though he clearly knew i did «well hurry up or else» he says so i start to panic a little and tears of fustration start to stream down my face and i just went to call my husband in the middle of freaking out and tell him to get over here to show him the insurance from his phone because i couldnt even concentrate on finding it he comes walking and the female tells him to go back into his vehicle hes coming with his hands up shouting i have the insurance with phone in his hand trying to explain to her that im driving his car and i have no idea where his stuff is at she tells him to stay back that i have to look for it in the car, and my husband is like but i am telling you i have the insurance right here on my phone the officer in training says well ive told her to look for it in the car and she hasnt even tried to. I hear my husband say come on dude look at her shes crying and the female officer tells him shes a big girl she shouldnt be crying she should know where your insurance is. I speak outloud to say well i dont know and she is just mean answering back well you should, but i dont, well you should she says again, even though shes already been told the facts. so they gave me a ticket with the description vaguely saying: lights required. And just now remembering early on it slips from training officers lips that he was going to let me go but then… and then with the no nodding of the female officer he just looks down at his pad and pen. But then what? What did i do? Will someone explain to me where in this situation did i go wrong because it was ovious he thought i deserved this ticket, this ticket for simply not having my lights on, in light traffic only a couple blocks away from home, on what seemed to be just not my day. why is it that they abuse their power and simply think that because they are cops they can basically do and say whatever they please, including mentally degrading civilians they swore to serve and protect. Some hero hes training out to be.
Dont get me wrong there are officers like Lopez who i find him to be awesome and fair but then there are cops like newton and his trainer who give the good ones a very bad name.

How am I the first person to write a review about this department?
Without going into exact specifics the jist of my experience is that Officer V-​something (he didn’t write his name legibly on the fix it ticket) ID# 2868 who rides a motorcycle is a complete power-​case and abuses his role as a man of the badge.
I was pulled over for a reason that I cannot determine even now… my guess is that he was gambling that I would have something invalid or out of order with my CDL, Insurance or possibly within their computer and when I turned up clean he chose to create something and say I had a headlight out… I disagreed and asked to check the lights with him — so we tested my headlights together which all worked, but he wrote me up for a flickering headlight anyways…
When I asked him why I would receive a ticket for something that was not broken he informed me that I’d better cooperate or he would be making this a whole lot worse for me. He was combative, unfriendly and very unprofessional. He chose to use his time with me barking orders and making threats as to how much worse he could make my day. When I said that I was upset that he would do this for no reason he pulled his baton out and put it back in place as if to demonstrate that he would use it.
Once he was done with whatever it was he got out of acting this way — I went straight to the police department to file a complaint to at least document this man’s very poor way of handling himself. It is very sad that he is able to have so much at his discretion… because he could use some further training in my opinion…
However, the above being said, once at the department on Pacific, the officers that I dealt with there were polite enough, and helped me with courtesy.