I was there, so to speak.
I was in the Air Force at the time stationed at Norton AFB in San Bernardino.
I listened in horror to the radio net and the robbery started in Riverside and ended in San Bernardino County. 7 officers wounded, 1 killed.
I had a 12 man ERT team ready to go complete with (2) M60's, (2) M79's with smoke and HE rounds, .38's, and M16A1's, and plenty of ammo for each, NVG's, and radio's. We had everything except a radio to call in an airstrike with.
JAG said no, mentioned something about Posse Commitatus. I was soooo pissed.
Got to go later that night to the command post near Lytle Creek, unarmed, to bring them jackets for the officers on the mountain.
To Ghetto: They must've had a Barrett to take down that copter , Nope a well aimed shot with a .308 hit the radio console and caused a lot of smoke in the cokpit forced the Hughes 500 helicopter to land. (Call sign 40 King 1)
The next day after the capture of the remaining suspect(s) The Sheriff of the county sent one of his DC-9's to Sturm - Ruger and purchased 250 Mini-14 rifles with (6) 20 round mags each. Another van was sent to a local ammunition merchant and within 2 days of this incident deputies were carry rifles in their cars. Officers who had their own rifles, and could quailify, could carry those too. They have been carrying since and nobody said a thing against it. The sheriff was not going to let it happen again.
It took the North Hollywood shootout and the "Texas 7" escape to get the rest of LEO Admin's to pay attention.
Sometimes for Law Enforcement Administration, the learning curve is a little slow.