The City of Los Angeles has named a new Chief of Parking Enforcement, who is promising to restore public confidence to an agency whose reputation was tarnished by a series of NBC4 investigations.
Outgoing Hermosa Beach Police Chief Gregory Savelli will run the Bureau of Parking Enforcement and Traffic Control, according to the LA Department of Transportation.
The bureau's 670 officers issue more than $100 million of parking tickets every year.
Savelli told NBC4 that issuing parking tickets is a "thankless job," but he added, "We want to make sure that when we take enforcement action, the public has confidence that action was taken with integrity and was ethical."
LA Parking Enforcement has been under fire since last May, when NBC4 exposed how two officers dressed in uniform appeared in a porn movie.
Then NBC4 discovered that numerous other officers had committed crimes while on duty, such as soliciting prostitutes.
As a result of the NBC4 reports, longtime Parking Enforcement Chief Jimmy Price was forced to retire early. Then Deputy Chief Rudy Carrasco, a 30-year veteran of the agency, was forced to resign.
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LADOT officials told NBC4 they wanted an outsider -- with no connection to the recent scandals -- to run the agency. Before heading the Hermosa Beach PD, Savelli was in charge of investigations for the Modesto Police Department, where he oversaw the high-profile murder investigation of Laci Peterson.
Savelli takes over LA Parking Enforcement on Jan. 17.
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