Timothy M. Brennan and Robert Ladd

Timothy M. Brennan was born in Chicago, IL and grew up in Park Ridge, near O'Hare International Airport on the northwest side of the city. Brennan's family had a long history in construction and law enforcement. His father Richard and brothers Mike and Pat were carpenters. His mother Madeleine had been a longtime secretary and matron for the Park Ridge Police Department, and both of his grandfathers and his great uncle were Chicago cops from the 1920s through the 1950s and had worked through the gang wars of Al Capone and the Italian gangsters against Bugs Moran and the Irish gangsters. Brennan joined the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve at seventeen while still in high school. He was stationed in New Jersey, Virginia, Louisiana, and Illinois. He worked construction by day and got his high school diploma by going to school at night. Eventually, the Chicago winters took their toll, and in February 1981, Brennan put his motorcycle and clothes in the back of his mini pickup and headed out west with $1200, a new lease on life, and a desire to be a cop - a real cop in an area with a high crime rate, where real police work could be done. After looking for work and a place to stay in Arizona and Nevada, and with only $500 left, he decided to try Long Beach, California. He stored his bike and, as his money dwindled, slept in his truck. He eventually found construction work and got an apartment in downtown Long Beach.

Robert Ladd was born in Hawthorne, CA and was raised in and has lived in Garden Grove, CA all of his life. He met his wife Kathy when they were in junior high, attended high school with her, and they were married shortly after graduating. Ladd worked several different construction jobs until he decided that he wanted to become a police officer.

In January 1982, Brennan joined the Compton Police Department. Even though Compton was not ranked nationally because the population was under 100,000, the city consistently had murder rates topping the nation's major cities. In the fall of that year, Brennan met his future wife, JoAnna Ramirez, who also worked for the department. Two-and-a-half years later they married and had two children, Brian (born 1987) and Jamie (born 1990).

In 1983, 24-year-old Ladd was fresh out of the police academy. He had been working as a reserve officer at the Garden Grove Police Department. By this time, Ladd had one child, his son Brian, and his wife was pregnant with his daughter Shannon. He was struggling financially, working construction at Miller's Outpost at the time, making just $200 a week. His pregnant wife Kathy was working as a waitress at Coco's Restaurant. Ladd was working several days a week at the Garden Grove Police Department trying to learn how to be a cop, but he needed a full-time position. During that time, however, Garden Grove P.D. had a hiring freeze. Ladd started applying everywhere. One of his arrest and control tactical officers during his time in the academy was a guy from the Huntington Beach Police Department named Barry Case. Case had started his career at the Compton Police Department and Ladd could tell the man loved his time there from the war stories he told. Case had advised Ladd and others in the academy that if they wanted to be a real cop, go work for Compton. Compton had been among the many police departments where Ladd had put in an application and they were the first to offer him a position. Remembering Barry Case's words and wanting to learn real police work, he took the job.

In 1985, Brennan and Ladd became partners and remained a team for the next 15 years, until 2000 when the Compton Police Department closed.[6]

In 1988, the Compton Police Department formed a gang unit, but because there was a manpower shortage,[7] it only consisted of two men: Brennan and Ladd. Even though the police department was predominantly African-American, Brennan and Ladd, who are both white, were promoted because of their reputation for being exceptional at gang work and the regard they had among gang members and citizens who often felt they could be trusted to treat them with respect and humanity. Their sergeant, Reggie Wright Sr., chose them for the positions and Lieutenant Hourie Taylor approved the promotion. It didn't take Brennan and Ladd long to start infiltrating gangs, solving murders, and drive-by shootings. Over the next twelve years, they developed an exceptional level of expertise regarding the dynamics of gang culture.

On the night of February 22, 1993, veteran Compton police officer Kevin Burrell and reserve officer James MacDonald rode together. James had just gotten hired full-time as a police officer in Northern California and was working his last night as a part of the Compton force. Both men were brutally murdered by "Bounty Hunter" Bloods gang member Regis Deon Thomas. Brennan and Ladd were a part of the task force that was formed in the wake of these murders that ultimately led to the arrest and conviction of Thomas, who was sentenced to California's Death Row.[8]

On September 16, 2000, the Compton Police Department was disbanded by the City Council[9] and law enforcement services were provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Brennan joined the LA Sheriff's Department and served as a Gang Investigator on a Gang Homicide Task Force. Ladd joined the Garden Grove Police Department and served as a Sergeant in charge of the gang unit. Both men retired from active duty in law enforcement in 2014, but still act as consultants on gang training and are experts on the Los Angeles riots, the Tupac Shakur murder case, and the murder of The Notorious B.I.G.