By Kate Mather
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved significant changes in the way the LAPD handles shootings by officers, directing the department to release information to the public more quickly and expand training designed to reduce the number of shootings.
The proposals came from two commissioners — Matt Johnson, the board’s president, and Sandra Figueroa-Villa — and stemmed from an extensive study of how other major departments deal with police shootings. The report, made public last week, found that some provide the public with more details faster and used more training based on real-world scenarios.
“The commission and the department are ultimately accountable to the public, and therefore, it is important that we are constantly self-critical so that we are always improving,” Figueroa-Villa said.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck signaled his support for the recommendations, but noted that the other agencies cited in the inspector general’s report operate under different state laws and union agreements — “not one size fits all,” he told reporters Tuesday.
The chief, however, said he liked some of the approaches adopted by police in Las Vegas and San Diego on releasing information about police shootings, which he said the department has been examining.
“It’s important to reach out, it’s important to realize that not everything is invented here and it’s important to look into other agencies’ experiences so that we can make this the best police department it can possibly be,” he said. “All of these things are worth considering.”
But the union representing rank-and-file officers blasted the recommendations, accusing the Police Commission of avoiding more pressing issues facing the LAPD — such as keeping an adequate number of officers working in the field or reducing the uptick in violent crime — and instead folding to pressure from police critics.
“The commission has become nothing more than a group of pandering apologists in support of misinformed professional protesters,” the union’s board of directors said in a statement. “These latest batch of proposals are more of the same, solutions in search of a problem.”
The commission’s weekly meetings have been the focus of regular protests and criticism over shootings by police and other force used by officers, particularly against African-Americans.
The size of protests has swelled at times, including in July, when hundreds demonstrated as the commission cleared an officer who fatally shot a black woman armed with a knife in South L.A. After the meeting, a group of activists affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement spent weeks camped outside City Hall demanding that Beck be fired.
This month, demonstrators took to the streets of South L.A. to protest the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Carnell Snell Jr.
How officers use force and how departments share information about deadly encounters are two of the most scrutinized issues in modern-day policing, drawing fresh attention this summer after a series of deadly police shootings across the country.
The inspector general’s report and the commissioners’ proposals have long been in the works. Last fall, the Police Commission directed its inspector general, Alex Bustamante, to compare the LAPD’s policies, training and investigations regarding use of force with four other major agencies that recently made changes to try to reduce force incidents.
Eleven months later, the result was a 33-page analysis looking at how police in L.A., Dallas, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and San Diego address officers who fire their weapons, emphasize ways officers can try to avoid using force, and share information — including video of deadly encounters — with the public.
Beck generally has resisted releasing those videos outside of court, citing concerns over victim privacy and the need to protect investigations. He recently made a rare exception in the shooting of Snell, releasing a security video showing the man holding a gun moments before he was fatally shot by police. Beck said he released the footage out of concern over public safety and a desire to clear up what he called “significant misinformation” in the case.
The commission proposals would direct the LAPD to start a “comprehensive process” for gathering public feedback on the video-release policy that would include community forums, online questionnaires and focus groups. The two commissioners called on the department to determine what other information about police shootings could be released quickly and develop rules to ensure that information is accurate.
The inspector general’s report also looked at how LAPD officers are trained to avoid using deadly force and the amount of so-called reality-based training they are given.
Law enforcement agencies are increasingly turning to role-playing training to provide officers with a realistic simulation of stressful encounters — often involving people who appear to be mentally ill or suicidal — that can result in shootings or other serious force. The goal is for officers to practice de-escalating those moments so that it comes more naturally in the field.
The LAPD offers some reality-based training, according to the inspector general’s report, but other agencies use it more frequently. The commissioners’ proposals call on the department to look for ways to regularly provide that training.