Bratton is sworn in for second term

Flanked by a procession of bagpipe-playing officers, an audience of celebrity friends and his own father standing ready to pin on his badge, William J. Bratton took the oath of office Thursday for a second term as Los Angeles police chief.

The 60-year-old Bratton became the first chief to be reappointed since charter reform arose from the 1991 beating of Rodney G. King and the riots that followed when four Los Angeles Police Department officers were initially acquitted of brutality. By law, this will be Bratton’s final five-year term.

The second act, the chief vowed to the audience, will be better than the first.

“We have saved thousands of lives over the last five years,” he said, alluding to the 31% drop in major crime recorded over his first term. “So crime is down and will continue to go down. Fear is down, and we hope that it will continue to go down, as will disorder.”

It was an emotional ceremony that reflected Bratton’s Boston roots and Hollywood ties. It was conducted on the athletic field of the storied Los Angeles Police Academy in the heart of Elysian Park. After taking the podium, Bratton thanked everyone present, including an elementary school buddy, his police academy classmates, a cadre of colleagues from his tenures as chief in Boston and New York, as well as his wife, Rikki Klieman, son and father.

The chief -- dubbed “Broadway Bill” when he served as the New York police commissioner in the 1990s -- has developed new ties to celebrity after five years in L.A. “As you know, Rikki and I are the all-time movie buffs,” he said, introducing actors James Caan, Sylvester Stallone and TV’s “Police Woman” Angie Dickinson, who the chief noted was a favorite of “policemen.”

But as well as laughs there were near-tears as Bratton -- the personification of the tough, no nonsense cop that Hollywood loves to portray -- showed rare signs of emotion.

His father, William E. Bratton, has attended each of the chief’s promotion ceremonies or swearing-ins except the one in 2002 in L.A.

Bratton, with his voice quavering and a glistening in his eyes, said: “Five years ago my mother, June, was very ill and he was unable to travel to the ceremony. This summer she passed away. My father is here today. I would like him to have the opportunity for the first time in his life and my professional career to pin that badge on my chest.”

The chief’s father then stepped forward and pinned an LAPD badge to the left shirt pocket of his son’s uniform as Bratton’s wife and son, David, stood alongside.

Bratton quickly recovered his composure and reeled off a record of accomplishment since taking charge of the LAPD.

When he arrived in 2002, Bratton said, “crime was up and police officers were leaving the department in droves.”

Above all else, Bratton said he arrived promising to “remove that tarnish [of past police scandals] from this most famous badge.”

Doing that meant he could achieve his other goals of cutting crime, complying with the federal reform requirements and improving the department’s counterterrorism abilities.

Even under Bratton, the LAPD has seen controversy. In 2004 a TV news helicopter crew recorded an officer beating a car-chase suspect with a flashlight. In 2005 an LAPD officer fatally shot 13-year-old Devin Brown but was cleared of wrongdoing by an internal disciplinary panel. And May 1 this year, an immigrant rights protest at MacArthur Park ended with officers striking 246 demonstrators and journalists with batons and foam rounds.

But city leaders have remained steadfast supporters of the chief, whom they admire for his decisive actions and straight talk.

Bratton attributed his reappointment to the 9,500 men and women of the LAPD.

“Crime does not go up and down by itself; that is one of the things I have learned in 37 years in this business. The most significant factor is cops. Cops count. I am proud to be a cop and proud to be chief of this great department,” he said. “These men and women have made this a safer city.”

Bratton was unanimously approved for reappointment by the city’s civilian Police Commission in June.

During his first five years, homicides dropped 36%, and they are expected to fall below 400 this year -- the lowest number since 1970, when the city had a third fewer residents.

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown told the audience that “in Chief Bratton, you have the foremost leader in American policing.”

In moments of crisis, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said, Bratton shows what true leadership is about. In the aftermath of the MacArthur Park melee, Bratton issued a report highly critical of the officers who struck demonstrators and journalists but also the commanders who might have prevented it from happening.

“Never in the history of the LAPD have we as honestly self-examined ourselves and criticized ourselves the way that he did after May 1,” Villaraigosa said. “That in my mind is an absolute reflection of the kind of leader he is.”

Also on Thursday, Villaraigosa nominated Robert M. Saltzman, associate dean of the USC law school, to a seat on the Police Commission, which oversees the LAPD and sets its policies.

Saltzman, currently vice president of the city Ethics Commission, would replace Commissioner Shelley Freeman, who will resign Nov. 20 to devote more time to work, said a spokesman for the mayor. Freeman is regional president for Wells Fargo’s Los Angeles Metro Community Bank, and recently took on additional national responsibilities for the company, according to a news release from Villaraigosa’s office.

Saltzman, 52, said he would focus on expanding the size and diversity of the force, as well as on efforts to strike a balance between policing and guarding citizens’ rights.

“I think we all have concerns about ensuring that the police appropriately protect those they are sworn to protect,” he said. “Sometimes that is a difficult thing to do.”

The City Council must confirm Saltzman’s nomination. Councilman Jack Weiss, who is chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, predicted a smooth ride for the Harvard law school graduate, an expert in legal and professional ethics who has worked as special counsel to the director of health services for Los Angeles County and as a senior deputy to former county Supervisor Ed Edelman.

“He is a deep and thoughtful person who doesn’t bring ideology to the table,” Weiss said. “He just brings very solid analytical tools, which makes him eminently smart and reasonable.”

richard.winton@latimes.com

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Times staff writer Duke Helfand contributed to this report.