In an effort to familiarize the Department and the Orange County community with the background of Assistant Sheriff Hillmann, the Department Blog is featuring a three part series on his law enforcement career.  The first part covered his time as a police officer. To read it click here. This is the second part and covers his record as a supervisor and manager with the LAPD. The third part will focus on his role with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. 

Assistant Sheriff Michael Hillmann, Field Operations and Investigative Services Command 

November 15, 2003 was the worst day ever for the Burbank Police Department.

“We had an officer killed, another officer wounded and a motor officer was injured in a crash going to the scene.  I was a Captain at the time and standing at the scene, it was awful,” said Burbank Chief of Police Tim Stehr.

Up drove a man he had never met and did not recognize. 

It was Mike Hillmann, then the Deputy Chief for Special Operations with the Los Angeles Police Department. He is now the Orange County Assistant Sheriff for Field Operations and Investigative Services. “He called me ‘sir’, despite his higher rank,” then Captain Stehr remembered of Chief Hillmann. 

“He asked, ‘How can we help?  I have 100 officers who can be here in an hour’.”

An hour later, Captain Stehr had 100 LAPD officers there to assist him and the City of Burbank. The shooting took place during a routine traffic stop when two gang members decided to open fire on police rather than give up their stash of meth. Both officers were shot. [more]

Officer Greg Campbell was paralyzed by his wounds. Officer Matthew Pavelka, the 26 year old son of veteran LAPD Detective Michael Pavelka, died of his wounds. One of the suspects was dead from gunfire returned by the officers. The other fled the scene.

Chief Stehr remembers Chief Hillmann joining the team that worked to find the missing suspect. He worked side by side with the Burbank police, providing law enforcement resources needed to take on one of the most powerful gangs in the Los Angeles area.

“Mike Hillman was there the whole time, backing us up every way he could,” Chief Stehr said. 

“He helped us work out strategies so we could both police the city and find the killer.”

Just 13 days later, the fugitive suspect in the shootings of Officers Pavelka and Campbell was under arrest. But the joint effort didn’t stop with the arrest of that suspect. “Afterward, he organized the task force that helped us take down the gang that had killed our officer,” said Chief Stehr.  

To view an interview with Chief Hillmann while the LAPD Gang Czar, click the icon below.

The Task Force peaked 19 months later in what the U.S. Attorney called Operation Silent Night, involving 1,300 law enforcement officers executing 43 search warrants, making 36 arrests and seizing 39 guns, 12 pounds of narcotics and $30,000 in cash. “There is one word for Mike Hillmann, he is a leader, “said Chief Stehr. “I felt it was an honor to work with Mike Hillmann. He’s a cop’s cop. He’s not the kind of cop who works behind a desk. He leads by example.”

Mike Hillmann had been with the LAPD for 37 years on the day he rolled up to offer help to then Captain Stehr. His early years with LAPD were spent on patrol and as a motor officer before joining the Department's fledgling SWAT team. It was with SWAT that he appeared to have found his true calling.

“As a Sergeant he was a key member of the team planning for the Olympics,” said former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates. 

“He used the intelligence element as a key to SWAT preparations during the Olympics,” Gates recalled.

What that meant was that before the Olympic teams came to town, potential troublemakers were identified all over the city and placed in check before they could disrupt the event. The tactic helped keep the games peaceful and created a calm atmosphere for the millions of visitors who flocked to the city. Chief Gates recalled that it was Sergeant Hillmann who made Intelligence a key element of the SWAT team’s arsenal. Sergeant Hillmann also engaged military forces such as Marines, SEALS and Delta Force and helped them train for urban warfare.

“They would conduct exercises in the early morning hours,” Chief Gates recalled of the military training. “The Mayor would call and say they had so many helicopters over a neighborhood and nobody knew why.“I’d say ‘I’ll check’,” Chief Gates said. “But I wouldn’t get back to him.”

Running interference for Sergeant Hillmann’s military-style exercises got Chief Gates more than just early morning calls from the Mayor.

“I got an award from Delta Force,” he recalled. “I was one of the only civilians to get an award from Delta Force. It was because of Mike.”Mike Hillmann also received awards from Marine and Army Special Operations Command for his training and superior performance. After Mike Hillmann was promoted to Lieutenant, he had a goal in mind. He wanted to be placed in command of SWAT.“I had to relay the news to him,” Chief Gates said. It wasn’t good news; he was not getting the command. “Mike was his old solid self,” Chief Gates said. 

“I knew he would have loved to have it. I said, “Mike you can make Captain and run all of Metro.” He said he just wanted to be the Lieutenant.“I’ll live with it,” he recalled Hillmann saying of not getting the SWAT command. Metro was one of the most elite units in the LAPD; it included SWAT and other special operations platoons.   

Mike Hillmann was later appointed Commander of Metro while still a Lieutenant. That was in the days leading up to the Rodney King riots. Metro was known as the shock troops of the LAPD and included the most formidable firepower in the LAPD, including submachine guns and armored personnel carriers with battering rams. Its specialty was crime suppression in gang-ridden South Central.

Lieutenant Hillmann and his superior officers had some fundamental differences on how to prepare for the Rodney King verdicts. 

It started while the police officers charged with assaulting Rodney King were on trial.

Lieutenant Hillmann asked for permission to deploy Metro during daylight hours, when the verdict was expected. The LAPD brass brushed off the recommendation.

“Riots don’t happen during the day,” a Deputy Chief told Lieutenant Hillmann.

Chief Gates and other top LAPD officers believed the officers on trial would be convicted and there would be no trouble in the streets.

Hillmann wanted to be prepared for the worst-case scenario and went as far as to commandeer a police helicopter to transport borrowed body armor for 100 of his Metro unit officers.  He placed his command in an out-of-the-way location, undergoing riot training. Lieutenant Hillmann was reprimanded for too aggressively arguing in favor of preparing for a riot as the jury in the trial of LAPD officers in the Rodney King case began deliberations.  

He wanted his officers in riot gear ready to go on the street when the verdicts were returned. Instead, higher ranking officers opposed his plan and quashed his preparations. When the verdicts did come in and the officers were acquitted, riots broke out in gang-dominated areas. The LAPD was forced to retreat from the area where the riots began.

It was 1996, close to four years after the King Riot when Mike Hilmann was promoted to Captain. 

He focused on his job and won commendations for developing the LAPD’s Mobile Field Force, an Achievement Award for Leadership, Emergency Planning and Response, and planning and management of a gang task-force investigation.  

One of his first assignments as a Captain was to command the 77th Street Patrol Division.  On the night of December 16, 1996, Captain Hillmann pulled up to a terrible scene. Two of his officers had been in a shootout with suspected gang members.  

Officer Jay Cincinelli, just two weeks out of the Police Academy, was shot six times. 

One bullet took his left eye. His partner returned fire and protected him from further assault. Officer Cincinelli was able to give a description of the assailant. Captain Hillmann rolled up to the scene while Officer Cincinelli was still on the ground bleeding from his wounds.  

“I was dying. I was in ICU for eight days and when I got out of ICU, I insisted on going home,” Cincinelli recalled. When he went home, gradually fewer of his colleagues came to the house. One of the only ones who kept coming to see him was Captain Hillmann. “He came to visit more than anyone,” Cincinelli said.

Right after the shooting he was promised by LAPD brass that they would take care of him, that he could stay on the force. Those promises evaporated with time; there was no place for a one-eyed police officer. “I was still on probation so they were just going to drop me,” Cincinelli said.

The one ranking officer who had no intention of dropping him was Captain Hillmann, his Patrol Captain. Of all the wounds, the worst one was the one that took out his left eye.“I was promised by the world, by every level of command in the Department, that if I worked my rehab I’d always have a job. 

They said that at a press conference,” Jay Cincinelli recalled. “Then everybody backed off, except Captain Hillmann,” Jay Cincinelli said.  “He took me under his wing; he put his career on the line to help me. “Even before the controversy, when I was at home doing rehab, Captain Hillman would take his own time to come and visit me and give me encouragement.

“It was a long battle and he helped me keep my job. He gave me a second chance to save my career at the risk of his own.  He stood up for me when everybody else took cover. He said if they make a promise, they should stick to it.

“I was still on probation when I was shot and they were going to terminate me.

"He took my side and stood toe-to-toe with higher ranks, all the way to Chief (Bernard) Parks. I don’t think that helped his career.

“I think he had a lot to do with getting me this job, I know he was good friends with (Fullerton Police) Chief Pat McKinley. How many departments are going to hire an officer with one eye?

“Everybody knows what he did. It was a two and a half year battle.

“When he stood up to Chief Parks, I think it hurt his career. Chief Parks wanted everyone to do what he wanted. But Captain Hillman stayed at my side after the others all backed down. He was the only one who helped me fight the battle.

“He believes in command from the bottom up. He cares about the lowest ranks.  Some say he’s the greatest. I say, ‘He’s a cop’s cop’.” Cincinelli went on to serve in Fullerton as a K-9 officer and on a surveillance team.

He is now a corporal working patrol and studying for the Sergeant’s exam. 

Chief McKinley retired earlier this year.

Mike Hilllmann was a Captain in the LAPD from January 1996 until December of 2002. At that time the LAPD Police Protective Association had their union members rate their superior officers. Ron McCarthy, an author on police issues and a retired LAPD SWAT Assistant Commander, recalled those ratings.

“After the Rodney King riots and changes in department command there was discontent in the ranks. The Police Protective League started conducting ratings of Captains.

“For eight years in a row, Captain Hillman came in first out of 112 Captains.

“He was in different commands but it didn’t matter, he still came in number one,” McCarthy said.

Chief Gates had retired before the union’s rankings but he also remembered how Mike Hillmann had scored. 

When Chief Bratton came in, Gates said to Bratton. “I know this Captain. He’s probably the best Captain you have.”

William Bratton was appointed Chief of LAPD in October 2002.

In December of 2002, Chief Bratton did something that was unprecedented in the history of the LAPD. He promoted Hillmann from Captain to Deputy Chief, jumping over all of the Department’s Commanders. 

Deputy Chief Mike Hillmann became the first officer in the history of LAPD to be appointed Deputy Chief without first having served as a Commander.

One of the most controversial events of Chief Bratton’s tenure was the confrontation that arose during the May 1, 2007 immigration rights rally at McArthur Park.

The confrontation resulted in 146 less-lethal impact munitions being fired, over 100 uses of police batons and injuries claimed by 246 civilians, including members of the media, and 18 police officers.

Chief Bratton wanted to know what had taken place and he called on one of the nation’s foremost experts on crowd control to investigate: his own Deputy Chief Mike Hillmann.

As a result, several high ranking officers were removed from their command and the elite Metropolitan Division was ordered to stand down until the entire unit had undergone training on crowd management. The officer assigned to oversee the training was Mike Hillmann.

For online memorial to Burbank Officer Matthew Pavelka click here:

The final installment of the series will focus on Chief Hillmann since he arrived at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in September 2008.