BRIEFLY : LAPD DEPUTY CHIEF GETS INGLEWOOD JOB.

LAPD Deputy Chief Ronald Banks, who last year filed a claim against the city for $500,000 alleging he was wrongfully demoted, has tentatively accepted the job of chief of police in the city of Inglewood, he said Thursday.

Banks, a 31-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, said contract details still must be worked out, but the Inglewood City Council offered him the job Wednesday and he tentatively accepted the job.

Currently serving as the commanding officer of Operations Central Bureau, the 58-year-old Banks was the chief-of-staff for former LAPD Chief Willie L. Williams, but was demoted from assistant chief to deputy chief by current Chief Bernard C. Parks.

Banks said he has no plan to drop the $500,000 claim against the city, which he said is a separate issue from taking another job.

- Daily News

Simi board booting top school official

SIMI VALLEY - Simi Valley school trustees asked Dan Flynn to resign Thursday as superintendent, contending his lack of experience in running a district has shown through in less than four months on the job.

Flynn's hiring was contentious, with the 3-2 vote a clear sign he needed to prove his ability to run Ventura County's second-largest school district, said trustees and educators. A majority of the board decided after his initial evaluation Tuesday that Flynn should go sooner rather than later, trustees said.

The board was scheduled to meet in closed session Thursday night to review Flynn's status, as a continuation of the closed-session evaluation Tuesday. Flynn's contract called for an initial review before March 31, so the board could either keep him on the job through September or dismiss him.

Flynn said he expects to agree with the board on a buyout.

- Daily News

Woman sentenced for killing her baby

A former women's shelter worker was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison for killing her newborn, whose body was wrapped in plastic and placed inside a box that was found in a ravine in Agua Dulce.

Miriam Guerrero, 23, pleaded guilty Dec. 4 to voluntary manslaughter in the death of her daughter, whose body was found last Sept. 5 near the Antelope Valley Freeway.

Deputy District Attorney Karen Tandler said Guerrero worked at a battered women's shelter and lived in Sun Valley.

She gave birth to the girl Sept. 4 and was arrested four days later.

Authorities said the child suffocated.

- City News Service

False alarms give police a hard time

The LAPD answered more than 150,000 security alarm calls in homes and businesses last year, and only 3 percent were real emergencies, a city councilwoman said Thursday.

``Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Police Department's efforts to fight crime are weakened if they are frequently responding to chronic false alarm calls,'' said Laura Chick, chair of the City Council's Public Safety Committee.

Chick said residents can do a few things to help cut down on the number of unnecessary responses, including:

Knowing how to cancel a false alarm;

Not ``blocking'' beams or motion detectors;

Not turning off the system's electrical power;

Checking doors and windows before activating the alarm.

- City News Service

Officer injured after colliding with truck

A police motorcycle officer was slightly injured Thursday when he hit the back of a flatbed truck on a freeway near the Police Academy, authorities said.

The officer may have been heading to work Thursday when the crash occurred shortly after 6:30 a.m. on the southbound Pasadena Freeway near Elysian Park.

Officer Ulysses Taylor, 29, who works out of the LAPD's South Traffic Division, was reported in good condition at an area hospital, authorities said.

- Associated Press