Burbank Police Department

If you, a family member or a loved one is arrested or under investigation by the Burbank Police Department, you most likely are interested in knowing what the bail amount is associated with the charge, the requirements for a prosecutor to show to convict one of the charge, the defenses that are common and the punishment possible for such a violation.

We at Greg Hill & Associates think it is wise to know a few more things to help make any interaction you, your family member or your loved one has with the Burbank Police Department more meaningful, respectful and nuanced.  For example, we believe it is helpful to know how big the Burbank Police Department is, what crimes the department most often handles, what the demographics of Burbank is and any relevant history of the police department.

For this reason, we present the following short article.

The Burbank Police Department is staffed by up to 160 sworn police officers, making it one of the largest police departments in Los Angeles County, which is particularly notable because the city is only 17.25 square miles in size.  This staffing is much higher than in other cities within Los Angeles County. 

Fifty-five percent of the officers are White, twenty-seven percent are Hispanic, eight percent are African American and five percent are of Asian descent. 

Sixty percent of the population of Burbank is White, twenty-six percent is Hispanic and eleven percent is Asian.  According to the 2010 United States Census, Burbank had a median household income of $66,240, with 9.4% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

In the month of May 2024, 590 crimes were reported, which was down 4% from May 2023.  A little over half of the crimes reported did not result in arrests of further investigation.  However, of the more serious crimes, there were six officer assaults and one hate crime reported. 

There were 192 larceny offenses (which includes shoplifting), seventy-two drug / narcotic offenses, fifty-two fraud cases, twenty-six auto thefts and twenty-eight burglaries reported.  There were seventeen arrests for DUI and sixteen arrests for disorderly conduct. 

The City of Burbank is often known as “The Media Capital of the World” because it is home to numerous media and entertainment companies that are headquartered or have significant production facilities in Burbank, including Warner Brothers Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, Nickelodeon Animation Studio, The Burbank Studios, Cartoon Network Studies and the West Coast branch of Cartoon Network. 

The Hollywood Burbank Airport was the location of Lockheed's Skunk Works, which produced some of the most secret and technologically advanced airplanes, including the U-2 spy plane. Burbank also is home to the largest IKEA store in the United States. 

Burbank, like other cities in California, has been facing many economic, political and social challenges in recent years.  One of the main issues is the lack of affordable housing in the city. The cost of single-family homes in Burbank topped $1 million by early 2021.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average rent price in Burbank is around $1,800 and 29% of Burbank residents spend over half of their income on rent.  These high housing costs are putting a strain on many residents, and as a result, a rent-control ordinance known as Measure RC was put on the ballot in 2021 to cap rent increases at 7% annually on at least 24,000 residential units; the measure failed to pass 36 to 64%.

The murder of Burbank police officer Matthew Pavelka in 2003 by a local gang known as the Vineland Boys sparked an intensive investigation in conjunction with several other cities and resulted in the arrest of a number of gang members and other citizens in and around Burbank.  Among those arrested was Burbank council member Stacey Murphy, implicated in trading guns in exchange for drugs.  Mr. Pavelka was the first Burbank police officer to be fatally shot in the line of duty in the department's history, according to the California Police Association officials.

Today, an estimated 100,000 people work in Burbank.  The physical imprints of the city's aviation industry remain.  In late 2001, the Burbank Empire Center opened with aviation as the theme.  The center, built at a cost of $250 million by Zelman Development Company, sits on Empire Avenue, the former site of Lockheed's top-secret "Skunk Works", and other Lockheed properties.

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Below is the Google Map to the Burbank Police Department.