The nose dive for morale began when the departments were merged, but it wasn't merger that did it. It was the way they handed control of districts, now called divisions, over to the Lt's who happened to get in with the political in-crowd. The creation of the Major position has been the downfall of LMPD. It was a lot harder to fire a Captain and the division commanders are now just puppets of the Chief's office. The Chief's office also had more separation from the Mayor. Now they might as well put