Commander Donald Graham, LAPD Officer with Heart
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Los Angeles Police Department Commander Donald Graham
The twenty-year-old finally broke the tension by explaining that she was an 11-year-old girl whose single mother cleaned homes for a living and belonged to the Jr. Neighborhood Watch group that then-LAPD Senior Lead Officer Graham ran in an isolated community of Los Angeles. The lunch shift she worked now supported the young woman as she studied nursing at California State University at Northridge. Her major choice was inspired by a discussion on jobs led by Graham at one of the Jr. Watch meetings. Upon graduation, she benefited from the guidance of Amy, a Nursing Manager, in finding her first nursing position in a San Fernando Valley hospital.
Police Chiefs of Filipino descent came to take a tour and visited Commander Graham at the Los Angeles Police Headquarters.
Today, Don Graham is an LAPD Commander and Commander Graham relates this chance encounter to illustrate Heart, which along with Family and Food, are the Three Fil-Am Treasures that he heard described during a college scholarship fundraiser for the Filipino American Law Enforcement Association (FALEO).
He was promoted to Commander in 2019 and is the highest ranked Fil-Am in the LAPD. As the son of Amelia Mendoza Graham, a nurse originally from Aklan Province, Officer Graham witnessed early on the influence of Heart in drawing Filipinos to medical professions.
“Being an LA Police Officer is a similar way to express Heart,” says Officer Graham. “I’ve been with people on the worst days of their life. I had to be a shoulder to cry on.”
In any conversation with Commander Graham, it’s immediately clear that he has a soft spot in his Heart for neglected communities. LAPD Chief Michel Moore certainly detected this Filipino trait in appointing him LAPD’s Homeless Coordinator to oversee services to the most disregarded community in modern society. (Homeless Coordinator is the latest among the series of positions Graham has held throughout his career, as listed in his official LAPD biography.)
In summing up his role, he states, “I connect people, who’ve lost all hope, with family and get them off the streets and into housing.”
Commander Graham’s team when he was the Homeless Coordinator at the Office of Operations.
A talent for building relationships has been critical throughout Graham’s more than 25 years on the police force. He takes special pride in his work with nonprofits, social service agencies, and housing providers to place more than 2,600 homeless individuals into shelters during the height of the Covid pandemic.
“When I think of all the things I’ve done in community relations and in identifying essential resources, they all converge at this crossroad when the entire world was facing a public health crisis. As I look back, having been able to marshal resources from the community and bring a vulnerable population under protection are accomplishments I’ll be most proud of.”
Commander Graham grasps the complexities of police involvement in homeless initiatives. “First and foremost, homelessness is not a crime and the criminal justice system isn’t a solution,” he emphasizes. “The mission of a police department, to quote our LAPD vision statement, is to create a society free of the incidence and fear of crime. There are three elements that determine whether a crime will be committed: There has to be a will to commit a crime, an opportunity to commit a crime, and a perception a perpetrator can get away with the crime, escape custody and avoid repercussions.”
Regardless of how an individual became homeless, he says, “A person experiencing homelessness belongs to the most vulnerable population in the City and is highly susceptible to crime. If our job is to help society become free of crime, the most impactful solution is to get these at-risk people into housing.”
A Mentor and Friend
Filipinos represent 1.5 percent among a police force of nearly 10,000 officers and 3,000 civilian staff members. Commander Graham is conscious of his responsibilities as the ranking Fil-Am in the LAPD. He was mentored when he began his career and always makes time to mentor others, whether they’re officers or civilians in the LAPD.
Before he was made Commander, he was a Lieutenant, which made him at the time, the highest ranked Fil-Am on the Force. “A young Filipino officer made an appointment to ask me for career advice.” He recounts, “Toward the end of our one-hour session, I asked him if he any additional questions. The young man told me I can’t believe I’m sitting here with you. When I asked him why, he said, ‘You’re the Filipino Lieutenant.’”
Commander Graham says, “The blessing of being the first Fil-Am Commander is an amalgamation of hard work, mentoring and the foundational traits of being a Filipino American.” Those elements are prevalent in the guidance he provides when he participates in panels of local Filipino organizations, including FALEO and Leadership, Excellence, Aspiration, Platform (LEAP) Career Development Forum.
Commander Graham and members of the Los Angeles Filipino Association of City Employees (LAFACE)
His Filipino Heritage Comes from Mom
As the offspring of a biracial couple, Commander Graham received his education in Filipino traditions from his mother, Amelia. In 2018, his family visited her native province of Aklan for the 50th reunion of her class at St. Antonious Nursing School. He has fond memories of the special Mass and Kamayan feast. The regional ties led to his nickname of “Aswang,” a monster rooted in Aklan folklore, among the Filipina staff at the Devonshire Record’s Unit back in the early 2000’s.
Commander Graham is fond of cooking, but he admits that Filipino cuisine isn’t a part of the Filipino culture passed down to him by his mother. He laments that she tried to master American dishes while he and his brother and sister were growing up. But she didn’t give up on Filipino cooking entirely.
During a recent visit with his mother, he recalls being treated to “rice porridge combined with adobo and ginger. It took me back to my childhood in New Jersey. When we were sick, she fed us this with 7-Up and crackers.”
Nothing is more Filipino than arroz caldo, 7-Up, and crackers.
[SIDEBAR] Tips to Avoid Becoming an AAPI Victim of Violence
Commander Graham is concerned about the uptick in violence against elderly or disabled members of AAPI communities across the nation. He advises people at risk to engage in:
Self-Awareness: Take a close look at the way you live your life in public to see what you can change. If you belong to a group, seek their company when you go on a walk.
Situational Awareness: Avoid areas with extensive graffiti. Don’t go walking with your eyes glued to your phone or with your head down. When you’re distracted, you give up your ability to see what’s coming.
Neighborhood Awareness: Stay informed of what’s going on in your neighborhood. Visit the website of your local police department to sign up for its version of the LAPD’s E-Policing Program. Download the police department’s community app, similar to the LAPD HD app.
Relationships: Develop good relationships with neighbors. You can watch each other’s homes when you’re away and report suspicious activity.
Communicate: Don’t be too proud to talk to the police. If you encounter persons using racial slurs, a police officer will take an incident report. Leave it to the police department to decide the significance of the information. We’ll conduct an investigation. Oftentimes, an offensive incident you consider harmless or tolerable is part of a more dangerous problem.
Anthony Maddela is a staff correspondent for Positively Filipino and covers Southern California.He is on leave from his position in Watts with the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. He is grateful for your prayers and thoughts after having completed chemo and extensive surgery and now embarks on daily radiation treatments. Follow him on Instagram @
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