Charlie Beck had a public swearing in as the 56th chief of the Los Angeles Police Department Thursday, and it was his father, retired LAPD Deputy Chief George Beck, who pinned the top-cop badge on his son for all to see in the plaza of the new Police Administration Building downtown.

The elder asked, “Are you ready?'' And Beck replied, “I'm ready… Thanks, pop.”

But, as Beck has put it many times, this isn't his father's LAPD: “The Los Angeles Police Department has a vast and glorious history,” he said. But “it is the responsibility of the chief of police to continue the glory and to put behind us the ghosts of the past — I take that obligation very seriously.”

Beck was quietly sworn in Nov. 17 but Thursday had his ceremonial unveiling as the man to officially succeed Chief William Bratton.

He has said he'll make it a priority to drill Bratton's reforms into the hearts and minds of rank-and-file officers. But Beck's biggest challenge might be just over the horizon as the state of California prepares to release 40,000 prisoners as a result of a court order. Sources tell the Weekly a majority of those convicts will end up on the streets of Los Angeles County, which puts far more criminals behind bars than any metropolitan area of the state.

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