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Section: Part A
Page: A-19
LAPD Culture Is Prime Reform Barrier, Study Says
Analysis:
Unwritten rules, values must change before any overhaul can work, union's
study finds.
By: BETH SHUSTER
TIMES STAFF WRITER
The Los Angeles Police Department's deepest problem is
an internal culture that not only gave rise to the Rampart corruption scandal,
but also tolerated it, according to the author of a new, highly critical
study of the LAPD.
Moreover, the report's principal author says, the department's culture--defined as its unwritten rules, codes, values and outlooks--must be changed before Los Angeles can expect meaningful police reform.
Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law professor at USC, undertook the analysis on behalf of the Police Protective League union, which sought an independent review of the LAPD's internal Board of Inquiry report. LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks convened the board to examine all aspects of the department after the revelations that have come to be called the Rampart scandal.
Chemerinsky's study, which is scheduled to be released at a news conference Monday, strongly criticizes the department's review, saying its authors neglected key issues that contribute to the deep problems in the LAPD.
One of those, Chemerinsky found, was that morale among officers has plummeted since the Rampart scandal began and that those officers now lack confidence in their department's leaders.
While Chemerinsky said he expected officers with whom he spoke to reflect the department's low morale, he described himself as startled by the depth and the hostility in the comments made by dozens of officers during one-on-one interviews.
The problems in the department's culture run so deep, Chemerinsky reports, that they are likely to thwart the kind of systemic changes city negotiators and the City Council are now working out with the U.S. Justice Department to forestall a federal civil rights lawsuit against the LAPD.
"Unless the culture is changed, there cannot be successful, meaningful reform of the Los Angeles Police Department," Chemerinsky said.
Among many recommendations in the 154-page report, he said a consent decree agreed upon by the city and federal authorities offers the only hope of changing the LAPD, which he says has been and remains "incredibly resistant" to change.
Chemerinsky's report was compiled with the assistance of several lawyers, including Paul Hoffman, a civil liberties attorney; Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor and former federal prosecutor; and Connie Rice and Carol Sobel, both veteran civil rights lawyers;
It comes on the heels of an independent survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the civilian Police Commission that found similar attitudes among officers. Sources familiar with that survey say an overwhelming majority of officers contend that the only way to improve morale is to remove Parks and that many are so fearful of criticism that they frequently avoid responding to reports of crime.
Police Protective League President Ted Hunt said the two analyses have a similar conclusion: a department desperately in need of leadership that the rank and file will respect and believes is fair.
"There are disparate issues between what management thinks and what the rank and file thinks," Hunt said. "The vision of what the Police Department should be, the missions, the values, the objectives are different. . . . When a leader has absolutely no respect from the people that he or she is supposed to lead, you have a tremendous, tremendous problem in the issue of credibility and whether or not the person can lead the organization forward."
LAPD officials said they could not comment on the Chemerinsky report because they had not seen it. Parks was out of town Friday. But Cmdr. David Kalish, a department spokesman, said that the chief is a strong believer in discipline and that he holds everyone in the department accountable.
Moreover, Kalish said, to suggest that the department's culture allowed the Rampart scandal to exist is simply wrong.
"I think a vast majority of the people in the Police Department want a strong discipline system that does not tolerate misconduct or criminal behavior," he said.
The scandal was triggered by information that former Officer Rafael Perez offered in return for a lesser sentence on cocaine theft charges. Since then, about 100 criminal convictions have been overturned because of improper police actions such as planting evidence. Five officers have been charged with crimes; 70 others face departmental discipline.
Chemerinsky, who strongly faults the department for failing to examine its own culture, alleges that the LAPD is far more interested in protecting its image--even if it means ignoring or covering for rogue officers.
He said the so-called code of silence not only contributes to officer misconduct, but also leaves police resistant to reporting it.
Additionally, Chemerinsky said officers believe that the department's disciplinary process is arbitrary and capricious, affecting their work and morale.
The department's problems, Chemerinsky alleges, are historic and tend to reflect top officials' resistance both to change and to civilian oversight.
He believes, however, that more such oversight is necessary, suggesting that the city needs a full-time Police Commission with substantially more resources and staff.
Chemerinsky suggested that judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys should all play a role in ensuring that defendants receive fair trials. For example, he said, judges should inform the department if they find that a police officer has made false statements or committed perjury.
Overall, Chemerinsky, who played a leading role in drafting the recently enacted reform of the City Charter, said he hopes his report will be incorporated in the negotiations between city officials and the Justice Department, which has threatened to sue the city, alleging a pattern of civil rights abuses.
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