L.A.'S STREETS: BAGHDAD TRAINING CAMP.

Byline: Josh Kleinbaum Staff Writer

Whenever Army Reservist Tom Deluccia went on assignment into the streets of Baghdad, developing informants and getting tips about insurgent networks, he worried about losing a limb to a roadside bomb.

So the LAPD officer found it ironic that, after coming home unscathed from a year's deployment in the war zone, he was shot in the hand by a gang member in Cypress Park.

``That's what's so crazy: I made it through a year there without a scratch, and I come back here and get shot,'' said Deluccia, one of about 500 officers and civilian employees of the Los Angeles Police Department who also serve in the military reserves or National Guard. ``It's not really funny, but I have to see some kind of humor, I guess.''

In October, the Department of Homeland Security will present the Freedom Award to the LAPD for supporting its employees in the military. The LAPD currently has 54 employees on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan or working on Department of Homeland Security assignments in the United States.

``It's a different type of warfare,'' said Asatur Mkrtchyan, a patrol officer in the LAPD Southwest Division, who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Marine Reserves.

``(In Los Angeles) you're fighting the street criminals who are doing everything to try to get away from you. Over there, they're coming to get you. But you have to have the same mind-set, always being in that high level of risk all the time.''

Both Mkrtchyan and Deluccia believe their police experience helped prepare them for warfare.

``When I was in Afghanistan and Iraq, my job was almost the same as being a police officer,'' said Mkrtchyan, who was overseas as a staff sergeant in the Marine Reserves who provided security for American troops. ``I had to protect everything inside the camp.

``We had one suicide bomb that exploded. It was awful, seeing the aftermath of that. But being a cop, you see car accidents; you see people being shot - all kinds of stuff that normal people wouldn't see.''

Deluccia, who also applied his police skills to his military job, found that some of his LAPD Northeast Division experience - developing informants with gangs - prepared him for similar work as a staff sergeant assigned to an intelligence team in Baghdad.

``I don't think that the success rate that my team had compared to other teams' (rates) would have been the same if I hadn't been a police officer,'' said Deluccia, who is on disability leave because of his gunshot wound.

``The big thing is learning how to talk to people. As a police officer on the street, we develop informants, work with people.'' In Baghdad, he said, ``We were almost like police officers.''

Police work and military service have long been a natural fit. Soldiers discharged from the armed forces often join police departments, which recruit them because they often make good officers.

``People who spent time in the military, when they're getting out, this is a natural place for them to go,'' said Officer Dennis DeNoi, the LAPD's military liaison and a 22-year veteran of the Marines. ``They can continue to wear the uniform, have a chain of command and have defined orders, policy and procedures.''

While other police agencies have a similar ratio of officers in the reserves and National Guard, few offer the extent of services for those officers that the LAPD offers:

--The LAPD is the only police department in California with a full-time military liaison. DeNoi works with officers in the military and their families to cut through any red tape.

--The city ensures that all employees on active duty receive full salary and benefits, paying the difference between their military income and their regular LAPD salary and benefits.

--Officers remain on the appropriate lists for promotions while they are on active duty.

--Families of employees on active duty are invited to LAPD social functions. Each of these families received a $200 gift certificate for Christmas last year, thanks to a departmentwide fundraiser.

--Employees on active duty receive special recognition in the department. When Deluccia received the Bronze Star, the department flew his family to Los Angeles from New Jersey for a surprise ceremony.

``They do everything for the family,'' said Bill Hoston, chairman of California's Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, who recommended the LAPD for the Freedom Award. ``When you're in the military and you're in Iraq, and your wife and kids are in Los Angeles, that's important.''

The absence of the 54 officers who are on active duty doesn't hurt the department's ability to police Los Angeles, said Thom Brennan, commander of the department's personnel division.

Although the department does not backfill positions of officers on active duty, the LAPD is in the middle of a hiring initiative, so new officers are continually entering the department, Brennan said.

``It's very important as a department - and what we refer to as the LAPD family - to support our officers and provide them with the sense of security when they're off doing what needs to be done,'' Brennan said. ``When they're off performing their duty to their country, we're here to help watch out for their families.''

Josh Kleinbaum, [phone]

josh.kleinbaum(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) LAPD Officer Tom Deluccia finds it ironic that he came home unscathed from Army Reserve duty in Baghdad and was shot in the hand in L.A.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) Marine Reservist Asatur Mkrtchyan is back on LAPD patrol after duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News

(3 -- color) Army Reservist Tom Deluccia makes friends with Baghdad kids before returning to LAPD duty.