It began with a package taken from a Hermosa Beach porch. It ended with the seizure of 10 firearms, ammunition, narcotics, a wanted man in a murder case, and a list of investigating officers longer than a kingpin’s rap sheet.
Sgt. Eric Cahalan, nine other members of the Hermosa Beach Police Department, and officers from five additional law enforcement agencies were honored Tuesday night by the Peace Officers Association of Los Angeles in a ceremony at USC for breaking up a fraud and identity theft ring last year. Cahalan, the case’s primary investigator, and the HBPD, along with officers from the police departments in Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Torrance, as well the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, received the Centurion Award for Excellence in Multi-Agency Investigations for their roles in the complex and lengthy case.
The case demonstrated that officers have to follow an investigation wherever it leads, said Chief Scott LaChasse of the Burbank Police Department, president of the peace officers association.
“You never know where it’s going to take you. This one started with the HBPD, spread throughout the South Bay, and then a whole family of federal agencies got involved,” LaChasse said.
It was one of two awards for the Hermosa department that night. Chief Sharon Papa received the Joe Rosen Lifetime Achievement Award. Among other accomplishments in a nearly four-decade career in law enforcement, Papa created the nation’s first animal cruelty task force that combined police officers and animal control personnel, an accomplishment that landed her on “Animal Planet.”
She also became the first woman to serve as an assistant chief in the Los Angeles Police Department. After receiving the award, Papa recalled how joining the LAPD involved a demotion. She served as Chief of the Los Angeles Transit Police before that agency was absorbed into the LAPD and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. On joining the LAPD, she went from the rank of chief to that of commander.
It was one of several struggles that she faced in a career that began at a time when women faced significant obstacles in becoming police officers. She recalled that her first training officer said it was his goal to make her quit.
That attitude, she said, only made her work harder. Today, she is a sought-after consultant for departments trying to get more women in leadership roles.
“You’re going to have your ups and downs. It’s how you deal them with that matters,” Papa said.
