LAPD's Bill Bratton Will Join Altegrity Inc.

Chief Bill Bratton is expected to announce today that he plans to resign from the Los Angeles Police Department to take over as the top gun of a private security firm.

According to radio reports, he has accepted a job at Altegrity Inc., which is based in Falls Church, Virginia. The company is owned by Rhode Island's Providence Equity Partners of Providence, which focuses on media, entertainment, communications, and information investments, and manages more than $22 billion in equity commitments. Bratton's boss will be Michael Cherkasky who became CEO of its 8,000 global employees earlier this year. Cherkasky was CEO at New York-based professional services firm Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc.

Bratton will travel around the world helping cities institute a tracking system to follow crime. He will reportedly begin his new job in three months.

Bratton, who was hired in 2002, helped reshape the LAPD, and was highly touted for increasing the department's morale, which had sagged for years under former police chief Bernard Parks.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the termination of the LAPD's consent decree last month "seemed to signal a major turning point for Bratton and his outlook on his tenure at the LAPD. With the department now free of what he believed was the heavy stigma of federal oversight, there appeared to be little new for Bratton to focus his energies on."

In recent months, Bratton has been criticized for his political endorsements. The 61-year-old chief appeared on television endorsing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who was running for a second term. He did the same for former L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss, who was running for City Attorney. He also endorsed City Controller Wendy Greuel, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Critics argued that Bratton had no business endorsing political pals.

Bratton leaves with three years remaining on his term.