Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - City staffers told council members that the Police Department is following reforms listed in a federal consent decree approved in 2000 after a police corruption scandal was exposed.
Mayor James K. Hahn, who has expressed dissatisfaction with LAPD’s response, has cited the slow pace of reform as part of the reason he would not support reappointment of Police Chief Bernard Parks to a second term.
Hahn has said he believes the department is “falling short” in its implementation of the consent decree.
“They’ve done an outstanding job of meeting complex and difficult demands,” Chief Deputy City Attorney Terree Bowers told council members Wednesday.
“Overall progress is good. Although some of the most important work is ahead, I’m very optimistic,” he added.
The reforms include improved training, a computer system to monitor officers’ performance, new controls on the LAPD’s anti-gang unit, and a ban on making traffic and pedestrian stops based on race or ethnicity.
Under the terms of the 114-page decree, an independent monitor was hired last year and will have access to LAPD documents and personnel until 2005. The monitor also will publish a quarterly report on the department’s progress.
“They have more than met the mark,” Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who heads a committee tracking police reform efforts.
The Justice Department began investigating allegations of civil rights abuses and use of excessive force by police officers in 1995 and the probe was quickened when the Rampart scandal broke in 1999.
Since the scandal broke, more than 100 convictions have been thrown out and 20 officers have left active duty amid accusations anti-gang officers in the city’s poor, largely minority Rampart section shot, beat and planted evidence on innocent people, then lied in court to help convict them.
The federal agency has accused the LAPD of ignoring previous reform efforts, particularly changes recommended by the Christopher Commission after the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King in 1991. The acquittal of four white officers in the beating the following year led to rioting that left 55 dead, more than 2,000 injured and $1 billion in damage.
After Wednesday’s council session, a spokesman repeated Hahn’s stance.
“The consent decree is a floor and not a ceiling when it comes to reform,” Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook said. “We not only have to achieve total compliance in the consent decree, but we need to go beyond in reforming the department.”