In outlining his plan Monday, Beck said his goal is for uniformed officers to visit the public school campuses on a daily basis, a major change in LAPD deployment strategy that will add an additional logistical stress on a police force already stretched thin by the city's fiscal crisis.

The chief stressed that he and his aides were still drawing up the details of the plan, which he said will begin when students return from winter break next month. Any private or charter school that wants to be included will be, he added.

Until Friday, Beck said, he and his command staff didn't much worry about elementary schools. The school walls, he trusted, effectively sealed off the youngest of the city's students from whatever violence or other crimes may be unfolding outside them. The relatively few LAPD officers assigned to school issues focused almost entirely on the high schools.  Read more at The Los Angeles Times