LABOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Cliff Ruff
Detective, Los Angeles Police Department (retired)
Cliff Ruff's 4l-year career in law enforcement took him to the center of one of America's most notable riots to the side of a noted American senator and to the depths of an infamous shootout. These experiences, along with countless others, also led him to lead the union that represents the largest police department in California and the third-largest local law enforcement organization in the country.
Ruff, who spent his early years in the United States Air Force as a missile systems research specialist, joined the Los Angeles Police Academy in August 1965. His class was assigned to the field during the Watts Riots, one of the most severe riots in the city's history. He was on the job during some of the most tumultuous periods in L.A.'s history. Ruff and his partner, Herm Landry, were assigned to protect Senator Ted Kennedy, as personal bodyguards, shortly after the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Ted Kennedy's brother, at the Ambassador Hotel. Ruff worked undercover tracking radicals in the 1970s, oftentimes in cooperation with the FBI, and was present at the South L.A. shootout in 1974 and the demonstrations following the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in the late 1970s.
Although he made sergeant on the first list, Ruff says the best times he had with the Los Angeles Police Department were when he was assigned to the field.
He was elected to the board of the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) in 1990. Over the next 19 years, he served as a director, treasurer and secretary. He was also the League's president from 1995 to 1996. One of Cliff’s earliest experiences as a director was the high-profile campaign the League conducted in 1991 after the police were denied a salary increase. The League organized downtown demonstrations and a "sick-out," an action whereby sworn officers, who are legally banned from striking, claim illness as a cause for not showing up for work. He also fought to modify the Board of Rights system and increase the League's influence in the political arena. In addition, he was instrumental in negotiating and implementing the 90% pension and the Deferred Retirement Option Plan. He considers the securing of those benefits for members as his "shining moment" and biggest accomplishment.
Cliff Ruff retired from the LAPD and the LAPPL in 2007. He currently serves as a director for the Los Angeles Police Federal Credit Union.
