Michael Applegate

• Rank: Captain III
• Division: Pacific Division
• Email: 34613@lapd.online

Bio

Captain Michael Applegate was born and raised in Southern California. He joined the Los Angeles Police Department in April 1998 and has been honored to serve the varied communities of Los Angeles.

As a Police Officer, Captain Applegate work patrol in Rampart, Van Nuys and West Los Angeles Divisions. He also worked a crime suppression unit and as a Detective Trainee.

In 2006, Captain Applegate was promoted to Detective and assigned to Southeast Division. For the next year and a half, he worked Auto Crimes, Major Assault Crimes and Robbery. He then transferred to Commercial Crimes Division where he worked a surveillance unit specifically focused on major financial crimes suspects. This unit was responsible for the arrest and prosecution of numerous credit card fraud and identity theft suspects.

Captain Applegate then spent the next four years working as a detective at South Bureau Homicide. He was assigned to homicide investigations in the Southwest Area, but handled cases throughout South Bureau. This was an opportunity to further develop his investigative expertise, especially as it related to processing crime scenes and authoring search warrants. While at South Bureau Homicide, the Southwest Homicide team investigated several high-profile cases, including the murder of two Chinese national graduate students.

In December of 2012, Captain Applegate promoted to Sergeant and transferred to Central Division. In 2014, he transferred to Internal Affairs Group.

In 2017, Captain Applegate promoted to Lieutenant and was assigned to Wilshire Area. He worked as a Watch Commander for two years, overseeing officers working patrol. While in Wilshire, he was also tasked with overseeing complaint investigations and related administrative duties.

In 2020, Captain Applegate was selected to be the Adjutant to the Director of the Office of Constitutional Policing and Policy.

In March 2022, Captain Applegate promoted to the rank of Captain and was assigned to Pacific Patrol Division. in March of 2023, Captain Applegate was promoted to Captain III and assigned as Commanding Officer of Pacific Area.

Captain Applegate is focused on leveraging the various patrol resources to reduce the fear and incidence of crime in the Pacific Area. This is done in cooperation with the other police resources at Pacific and the various groups within the community.

When not working, Captain Applegate enjoys spending time with his wife and kids.