The LPM “Magpie” Awards offer a means to celebrate industry accomplishments on an ongoing basis, recognizing the loss prevention professionals, teams, solution providers, law enforcement partners, and others that demonstrate a stellar contribution to the profession. Nominate your peers at Excellence[at]LPportal.com.
Joe Hopkins, Detective III, Los Angeles Police Department
“When building public-private partnerships, or any meaningful partnerships for that matter, I believe that it’s extremely important that all parties involved carry an open mind and be considerate of the issues and responsibilities impacting their counterparts,” said Hopkins. “While we may ultimately share the same goals, quite often the priorities of each organization may not always fully align. We can have different perspectives and different approaches, so it is imperative to establish common ground. Cooperation and mutual respect provide the foundation that everything else is built upon.”
A twenty-three-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Hopkins has worked various detective assignments such as crimes against persons, burglary, financial crimes, and commercial crimes, among others. His current assignment is with Commercial Crimes Division, Cyber Crimes Section, and he is the section’s community business coordinator where he serves as the liaison to numerous public-private partnerships, including the Los Angeles Area Organized Retail Crimes Association (LAAORCA). He is an advising board member for the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators (IAFCI), a director of Law Enforcement and Private Security (LEAPS), and was instrumental in the founding of the California Organized Retail Crimes Association (Cal-ORCA). He was recently named a board member for the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail (CLEAR).
“Early in my career I realized the value of working together—employing resources outside of my department to further my investigative efforts and resolve issues,” he said. “My advice to young leaders is to be both receptive and outgoing while forming strong professional relationships. It is equally important to cultivate relationships through flexibility, creativity, ongoing communication, and genuine respect.”
