Deputies’ Code of Silence Targeted

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca must try to end a code of silence among some deputies who refuse to report misconduct by fellow officers, a long-standing problem, a department watchdog has concluded.

In too many instances, deputies’ powers of observation and recall have failed during investigations of incidents involving use of force, despite training that demands attention to detail, said a report by Michael Gennaco, who was appointed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to independently review the department’s performance.

Gennaco cited the case of a deputy who told investigators that he had been looking for a flashlight and could not remember details of a 2002 use-of-force incident, despite his acknowledged participation in a scuffle with a suspect who had scratched fellow officers and ripped their clothing.

Tackling such issues marks a shift -- from creating the mechanism for independent review to identifying troubling patterns within the department and helping craft reforms -- in Gennaco’s two-year-old operation.

One result has been the department’s agreement to resume quarterly reports on the number of disciplinary actions against officers.

The department stopped collecting that data in early 2002. But in its most recent review, monitors found that the number of deputies discharged for misconduct had risen to 11 in the second quarter of 2003, from an average of fewer than three per quarter in 2001.

The number of those disciplined for unreasonable use of force or obstructing use-of-force investigations increased from an average five per quarter in 2002 to seven for the quarter ending in June. Suspensions for moderate misconduct rose to 31 in the second quarter of this year, compared with an average of 16 per quarter in 2001.

The category with the biggest jump involved deputies who made false statements or who falsified documents, the report found. Though such cases averaged five per quarter in 2001, they totaled 17 between last March and June.

Gennaco, former head of the Civil Rights Section of the U.S. attorney’s office, warned that it was too early to draw conclusions from the data. The rising number of misconduct cases could be due to better accountability, he said.

The Sheriff’s Department is “doing a better job of calling an offense what it is,” Gennaco said.

The independent review office was created in 2001 during the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart scandal. Staffed by six attorneys, it is charged with monitoring and recommending reforms to curtail misconduct and reduce civil liability.

In its second annual report, the sheriff’s watchdog said that, although the department was working with his office in the initial stages of investigations, a pattern had evolved in which penalties against deputies were later significantly reduced.

“Toward the conclusion of the disciplinary process, we found little or no consultation with our office,” Gennaco said. “We expect to be involved in cases from cradle to grave.”

But attention to detail or the lack of it was the report’s theme. Too often, deputies investigating injuries alleged by jail inmates submitted incomplete reports or none, Gennaco said.

Lawyers in the independent review office said that a civil rights case involving alleged mistreatment of an inmate in the county jail system suggested a wider problem. The investigation included leading questions and biased interpretations of inmate statements, as well as efforts to discourage complaints by inmates and a failure to account for documented injuries.

There also was a financial consequence, watchdog lawyers said. A jury skeptical about deputies’ thoroughness awarded the inmate $300,000.

To prevent such problems, the office recommended that supervisors at county jail facilities, which house 20,000 inmates, be trained on how to conduct objective, thorough use-of-force investigations, the report said.

In its first report, the Los Angeles County sheriff’s watchdog had said that the department had not investigated more than 800 claims of wrongdoing by deputies over the last decade, missing chances to uncover misconduct and limit liability.

But the watchdog group said that, although the department has issues to work through, there has been much progress.