08/06/2009 -Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton stunned the city when he resigned yesterday, announcing he will lead a subsidiary of a security company that will provide training, consulting, and information services to police forces around the world.

Bratton's next employer will be Falls Church, Virginia-basedAltegrity Inc.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

Altegrity is a company with several thousand employees and a significant presence in a secretive industry that, among other things, provides businesses and government agencies with intelligence-gathering and other investigative services. Bratton will head up a new subsidiary of the company called Altegrity Security Consulting (ASC), which will consult with local governments, primarily in developing and conflict-ridden countries, to help build and improve police forces.

In his new role as chief executive officer of ASC,Altegrity's press release said, Bratton "will oversee strategic growth, recruiting, business development, and program operations."

The LA Times reports it was Altegrity's CEO Michael Cherkasky, a long-time associate of Bratton's from his days in New York City, that lured him away from the LAPD and into the private sector.

"Chief Bratton was recruited for this leadership position because of his exceptional record of innovation and excellence in solving tough law enforcement problems and for his one-of-a-kind experience in both U.S. and international law enforcement and criminal justice system operations," Altegrity's press release said.

During Bratton's police career, he helped develop the statistical approach to crime fighting known as COMPSTAT, which led to a precipitous decline in New York City's crime rate during the mid-to-late 1990s. Having secured his reputation, Bratton was then persuaded to head the LAPD in 2002 after multiple scandals,including Ramparts, tarnished the department's reputation and led to widespread public loss of trust, especially in ethnic minority communities.

He is the only person to ever run both the NYPD and the LAPD.

During his tenure as chief of LAPD, homicides, forcible rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults all fell dramatically while the number of sworn officers on the streets increased. In Bratton's six years as top cop, violent crime has declined by 49 percent.

Another one of Bratton's accomplishments was to create a police force that looked like Los Angeles in an effort to improve race relations, reports the Associated Press.

The 10,000-officer force is now 42 percent Hispanic, 37 percent Caucasian, 12 percent black and 7 percent Asian, according to Gerald Chaleff, the civilian administrator in charge of the department's reform office.

"The people of Los Angeles are safer than they've been in half a lifetime," said City Council President Eric Garcetti, according to the AP.

Bratton's last day on the job is October 31.

Photo of Police Chief William Bratton byericrichardson/Flickr