Bratton says there's more work to do

By Patrick McGreevy

April 30, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Crime is down, arrests are up and the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department are finally on the rise. Yet, Police Chief William J. Bratton continues to struggle with the task of mending historic divisions between the LAPD and some of the city’s most troubled neighborhoods as he seeks an unprecedented second five-year term.

“A major reason why I came to Los Angeles was to deal with this issue of the divisiveness in the city in a sense that it never seemed to be able to heal itself,” the chief said in an interview last week.

“I really felt that I could be that catalyst to use the police for racial healing rather than racial divisiveness,” Bratton said. “So if I were to get reappointed I would hope it would be around that idea, that the healing process is further along than it was five years ago.”

The department has taken a number of steps to bridge the gap, winning the praise of reform advocates, including former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who believe the LAPD is better today than it was when Bratton took over.

Christopher, a Los Angeles attorney, headed a panel that recommended reform of the LAPD after the videotaped police beating of Rodney King.

“My impression is that he has maintained a sound balance between the onerous requirements for effective law enforcement and concern for civil rights and the protection of minorities,” Christopher wrote in a letter to the Police Commission. “It is reassuring that Chief Bratton acknowledges that there is room for improvement.”

By most accounts, Bratton has made significant enough progress, especially in reducing crime, to win the confidence of Los Angeles’ political leadership, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

As a result, he is likely to be reappointed by the mayor’s civilian Police Commission next month, becoming the first chief to receive a second term since the City Charter was revised in 1992.

Serious crimes declined 29% from 2001, the year before Bratton became chief, to 2006, meaning last year there were 55,035 fewer victims of robberies, rapes, assaults and other felonies than in 2001.

“The goals that were set for me” by former Mayor James Hahn and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa “and those of the Police Commission -- I’ve met the goals they set,” Bratton said. “Just the numbers alone indicate that the city is a lot safer.”

However, some experts say the crime reduction in Los Angeles was part of a national trend of declining crime rates in big cities that is attributable to many factors, including an improving economy and a drop in the number of older teenagers and young adults.

Although the murder rate was cut in half in Los Angeles, it declined even more in New York. In addition, violent crimes declined in Los Angeles in three of the five years before Bratton took over from Bernard C. Parks as chief.

Stephen Tibbetts, an associate professor of criminal justice at Cal State San Bernardino, is among those who believe it is likely that crime would have decreased in Los Angeles during the last five years even if Bratton had not been chief.

However, Tibbetts said that Bratton brings great skill to the job, his leadership has improved officer morale and his use of a computer analysis system has helped pinpoint crime hot spots more effectively.

“He probably increased the rate” that crime went down, Tibbetts said.

Bratton’s record on noncrime issues is more mixed.

Many African American leaders were outraged by the Police Commission’s decision five years ago to not give a second term to then-Chief Parks, who was the second consecutive African American chief to lose the position after one term.

Bratton, 59, who previously had headed the police departments in New York and Boston, was appointed instead.

The chief’s work at improving relations with the minority communities has been further hampered by a series of high-profile incidents involving the use of force by police during his tenure.

The incidents included the fatal police shooting in 2005 of 13-year-old Devin Brown, the videotaped flashlight beating of suspected car thief Stanley Miller and one in which SWAT officers mistakenly shot 19-month-old Suzie Marie Pena during a gun battle with her father.

And, although Bratton has been credited with changes to make the LAPD more community friendly, the department remains under a federal consent decree after having failed last year to meet a deadline for completing reforms mandated by the courts five years ago.

The decree was imposed after a series of police abuse cases before Bratton came to Los Angeles, including the Rampart Division corruption scandal in which officers admitted to framing and beating suspects.

The failure to comply with all aspects of the decree in five years is a sore point for many of the department’s critics, who say it raises questions about the LAPD’s commitment to change.

Nation of Islam Minister Tony Muhammad said that Bratton is cordial and accessible to him and other black leaders but that there remains a “culture of disrespect” in the way rank-and-file officers treat African American residents in South Los Angeles and other areas.

“I have not seen a job well done,” Muhammad said. “If I was in Brentwood, I might say he has done a good job, but not in our community.”

Added Larry Aubry of the group Community Call to Action and Accountability, “The prevailing feeling in the community is still one of distrust of him and the department.”

However, the Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray, a retired minister and influential civic voice, said he believes Bratton deserves a second term in part because he has improved relations between the police and the African American community.

“I think he has been very positive,” Murray said. “He has brought fresh insights. He is a person of integrity who will follow through on promises.”

Latino community leaders also have a mixed view of Bratton.

The chief’s decision to name the most wanted gang members appeared to be counterproductive grandstanding to Xavier Flores, former president of the Mexican American Political Assn.’s San Fernando Valley branch.

“The man is a great politician, and he knows how to maneuver and make himself look good, but I personally am a little concerned about whether what he’s doing is mostly rhetoric or whether it’s really substantial,” Flores said.

But Bratton’s steadfast defense of Special Order 40, which restricts the ability of LAPD officers to ask people whether they are legal residents, wins high marks from Flores and John Trasvina, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Bratton said he got a fresh sense of the work that remained to be done when a task force appointed by the Police Commission issued a stern warning to the department.

The report, written in July by civil rights attorney Connie Rice, concluded that despite reforms enacted since the Rampart scandal, the department remains at risk of similar crises unless the LAPD is significantly expanded and trades its “warrior policing” model for a more community-friendly problem-solving style.

“I’ve finally figured out what is the culture they are all trying to change, and it’s one word here. It’s isolation,” the chief said. “Beginning back in [Chief William H.] Parker’s time, he consciously sought to isolate the LAPD from the community because he thought they were a corrupting influence.”

When Parker became chief in 1950, the LAPD was mired in scandal, with vice cops on the take. So Parker put officers in patrol cars rather than have them walk traditional beats that might expose them to temptation.

That turned LAPD into a quasi-military force that alienated many of the communities it served, Bratton said.

“What I want the next five years for is to truly reform that culture of isolationism and make it one of inclusion, that we are included in the lives of the community and we include them,” Bratton said.

The chief said that process involves making sure the police force is as ethnically diverse as the community it serves, completing reforms aimed at preventing officers from abusing citizens, making himself and his command staff available to neighborhood groups on a regular basis and assigning senior lead officers to work with residents to solve local quality-of-life problems.

In addition, Bratton has appointed a task force to come up with other tangible steps to improve police-community relations, according to Gerald Chaleff, a police administrator.

“For 20 years the department has said, ‘Keep away from us, and we will take care of the problem.’ ” Bratton said. “Another five years would allow me to be here long enough to create that cultural change and to institutionalize the change.”

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

LAPD before and after Bratton’s arrival

Here are some statistics on the operations of the Police Department in the year before William J. Bratton became police chief and in the most recent year of his first term:

Sworn officers

2001: 8,957

2006: 9,428

Arrests

2001: 130,605

2006: 162,606

Serious crimes*

2001: 187,069

2006: 132,034

Homicides

2001: 587

2006: 481