LA police chief slams ‘Britney’s law’

A few days after photographers chasing Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan were arrested in West Hollywood, Los Angeles police chief William Bratton has denounced the proposal for new legislation – dubbed 'Britney’s law' - that would give police more powers to arrest paparazzi. Chief Bratton was blunt: "We don't need additional laws.... I've got laws coming out my ears to deal with this issue." Instead, he advised "airheads" like Spears to "stay home instead of traipsing all over town" if they want to avoid the media.

Bratton told a Los Angeles radio station: "What you have is several young women in this town and several young men basically making fools of themselves and tying up not only my resources but the resources of the media that would do better covering legitimate stories instead of a bunch of airheads running around out there. Quite clearly, some of these characters so favoured by the paparazzi are clearly in need of services. Not police services, but psychiatric services."

That Bratton should take the side of the media comes as no surprise to the people of LA. He was recently the subject of a Playboy cover article 'The Country's Smartest Cop'. Before coming to LA, Bratton ran New York City's police department for Mayor Rudy Giuliani – a job he was famously fired from after Time magazine gave him the cover in 1996, lauding the police chief for bringing down the city’s crime rate. Giuliani was furious - he was the man cleaning up New York – and Bratton was out.

Bratton, 60, now serving his second term running the LAPD, is not immune to the lure of the Hollywood scene. Since arriving in 2002, Bratton and his fourth wife, Court TV personality Rikki Klieman, have attended the Oscars, invited Adrien Brody over for dinner and reportedly swooned when they got the chance to take a picture out and about with Mickey Rourke. And there's always a smile for the paparazzi.

He'd better enjoy it while it lasts: he's considered a top nominee to run the Department of Homeland Security, or even the FBI, if Hillary Clinton gets to the White House.