No walk in the park

WILLIAM J. BRATTON is up for a second term as Los Angeles police chief, and the Police Commission could reappoint him at its meeting today if it wanted to. But the panel won’t act today, nor should it. Commissioners have another two months before they lose their power to retain Bratton, so there is no need to rush -- especially because the probes into the May 1 MacArthur Park meltdown are just getting underway.

In his five years as chief, Bratton’s calling cards have been transparency and accountability. He has enhanced the LAPD’s crime-fighting effectiveness while instilling a deeper respect among officers for the communities they protect and serve. The chief also brought a new emphasis on training and command structure, and he made sure that his Metropolitan Division would supply the best officers available to handle a situation like the one that developed last week at the end of a long day of peaceful immigration marches.

So it was startling to see such widespread failures as that unit lost control, fired scores of foam bullets, pushed over TV cameras and advanced on confused demonstrators who were simply trying to get out of the way. It would be only natural for Angelenos to wonder whether the changes Bratton has brought to the department have been as profound as advertised. His reappointment process offers a chance to delve into that question, and the MacArthur Park incident provides additional opportunity for the public to participate in the assessment -- and thus for the Los Angeles Police Department to demonstrate both openness and accountability to its public.

The commission, when all is said and done, is still likely to retain the chief for another five years. There is nothing about his conduct in the last week that militates against this. In fact, Bratton’s response so far has been a model of police leadership -- and a change from LAPD chiefs past -- as he repeatedly apologized for the failure in the park even before the investigation began, removed officers from the street, liberally shared information as it became available, acknowledged a breakdown in the very systems he established and vowed to figure out what went wrong. There is nothing apparent in his public actions that should disqualify him from continuing on the same course he set five years ago for building and focusing the LAPD.

But if he is eventually reappointed, as expected, the commission must act with a full understanding of what happened in the park.