Photographer William Karl Valentine grew up visiting the Pasadena Police department, where his father was a reserve police officer. When Valentine enrolled at Arizona State University to study photography, he decided that his first project would be a documentation of the police department.
Over the course of four years at ASU, Valentine logged over 1,000 hours shadowing officers in the Pasadena police department, photographing every major operation and event that he was there to witness. What has resulted is a fantastic time capsule of what it was like to be police officer in the LA suburb when the Drug War was on full blast.
Valentine shared a number of photos with us here, but you can check out the rest at his website.
At the time Valentine began his photo project in 1984, Pasadena was extremely dangerous. Valentine was given the chance to document officers like Officer Bill Walton, seen here, because he was well known around the department due to his father.
Growing up, Valentine would visit the station while his father did paperwork. This is a view of the "report writing room," where much of that paperwork was done.
Valentine continued the project any time he went home for holiday breaks. During the summers, he worked as a reserve officer in the department’s photo lab. This helped him gain trust with the officers, who gave him “almost unlimited access” to the department, he says.
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by Harrison Jacobs via Business Insider
