7 Promoted to LAPD Rank of Captain

The Los Angeles Police Department promoted seven lieutenants, including one woman, to the rank of captain Friday, three days after the Los Angeles City Council voted to lift a freeze on promotions.

“It’s been a long time coming for the department,” Chief Willie L. Williams said during a ceremony at Parker Center.

“These men and women have been through a lot.”

Earlier this week the council voted to lift a citywide freeze on promotions, allowing Williams to restructure his command as part of a plan to institute community-based policing.

The freeze had prevented Williams from promoting 331 members of the department.

Williams called Friday’s promotions “probably . . . the first of what I hope will be many, many pleasurable and exciting times” for a police force that has been the subject of criticism and scrutiny in recent months.

“This department in the last 18 months probably went through more in terms of negativity than any police department that I’ve known in the last 38 years,” Williams said.

The new captains are David Doan, 38; Robert Gale, 44; Louis Gray, 47; Bruce Hagerty, 44; John Mark Leap, 44; Ronald Seban, 47, and Margaret Ann (Peggy) York, 51.

York, who has been with the department for 24 years, is the fourth woman to hold the rank of captain in the LAPD. The group also included an African-American, Gray, and a Latino, Seban.

For two years, the new captains had been on an eligibility list for promotion, but the list would have expired at midnight tonight.

Williams stressed the importance of promotions for department morale and vowed to mark such occasions with ceremonies attended by families and friends of the officers.

“Every time this department has a promotion we’re going to take time out . . . to have a ceremony,” Williams said.