Officer Redican Says Farewell to Pacific Palisades

LAPD’s John “Rusty” Redican Will Begin a New Position in the Elysian Park Area

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter 

Officer John “Rusty” Redican, a familiar face in Pacific Palisades, recently announced his departure from West Los Angeles, effective Friday, September 24.

Redican said he will begin a new full-time position at the Los Angeles Police Academy, located in the Elysian Park area as a firearms instructor.

“This is a bittersweet transition for me,” Redican said in a statement. “I’ve been a working police officer in the field for almost a quarter century, in a variety of uniformed and undercover assignments. I hope to use that experience to help train, guide and mentor new officers to pick up the torch and run with it.”

Redican said he learned his policing style from his father, who was a policeman in his home state of Massachusetts.

“I watched how he interacted with the community”—he knew everyone in the neighborhood—“that’s what I try to do,” Redican said to the Palisadian-Post in 2016 .

At the age of 14, Redican told his mom he wanted to be a policeman just like his dad when he grew up. She wept with joy.

“You could say my dad was proud,” Redican said at the time.

After spending several years in the Marine Corps, Redican tried out for LAPD in ’94 but ended up in Hollywood. Through friends, he secured an apprenticeship as a camera assistant on the first season of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and continued to work in film and TV.

On the set of “Pirates of Silicon Valley,” the last film he ever worked on, he met his wife, Kelly, who was an extra in the film. In 1998, Redican moved back to a small town in Massachusetts to work as a cop and fulfill his childhood dream. Kelly went with him.

In 2002, the couple returned to LA—and this time, Redican was accepted into LAPD.

In his years with LAPD, Redican went on to become a friend of many Palisadians and a longtime partner of the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness as beach patrol.

“Officer Redican is a combination of the consummate professional and a genuine, caring, compassionate human being,” PPTFH Co-President Sharon Browning said to the Post. “He went above and beyond to serve our community, serve our homeless people, and put his broad shoulders behind PPTFH’s work and vision for a community-based, collaborative working relationship between law enforcement, professional homeless outreach workers and committed local volunteers. He was tireless in his devotion and work commitment. We learned so much from him, and respect and admire him … it is comforting to know that he will be training new LAPD officers, hopefully to become just like him.”

 “There will never be another Rusty and we all will miss him deeply,” Co-President Sharon Kilbride added.

Redican assured the community that he will be around, riding his bike through the Palisades, his “favorite part of the city.”

“It has been one of the most personally rewarding, sustained efforts to help people, that I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of,” Redican said. “While doing so, many of you helped me strive to be a better person, every day.”

Redican will be thanked for his service at two upcoming community meetings: the September 23 Pacific Palisades Community Council board meeting, which begins at 5:45 p.m., and by PPTFH on Monday, September 27, beginning at 7 p.m.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story described Sharon Browning and Sharon Kilbride as co-founders of Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness. Browning and Kilbride are co-presidents of the organization.