Burbank police, city leaders meet over ongoing reforms

Burbank police leaders were praised this month for implementing a series of reforms in recent years that one City Council member said averted the Burbank Police Department from federal oversight.

During a series of presentations during a recent joint meeting of the Burbank City Council and Police Commission, police officials pointed to several achievements reached since Burbank Police Chief Scott LaChasse took the helm six years ago, including a more detailed internal review of uses of force, a more accessible complaint procedure for the public and increased diversity on the police force.

“It’s clear to me that we avoided a consent decree six years ago,” said Councilwoman Emily Gabel-Luddy, referring to a time when the agency was reeling from allegations of police brutality as well as racism and sexual harassment within its ranks.

The discussion came on the heels of a deadly attack in Dallas, Texas, that claimed the lives of five police officers, along with unrest nationwide that followed the fatal shootings of two black men amidst an ongoing national debate centered around police reform.

In Burbank, reform efforts included establishment of a critical-incident review board, made up of a group of top cops who meet monthly to evaluate uses of force and pursuits.

“We review, we evaluate, we make recommendations,” said Deputy Chief Mike Albanese. “It’s during that process where we try to identify if there’s a training need, a training component, if there’s an equipment need.”

Also several years ago, the agency — which officials said is one of 15 in California accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies — hired the Office of Independent Review to evaluate and give feedback about force incidents, internal affairs investigations and bias policing cases.

“When there’s an officer-involved shooting, we get a call, and within a week or two, we get briefed on the preliminary information that has come out from the investigation,” said the group’s chief attorney, Mike Gennaco. “This real-time involvement allows us to have more of an imprint in the decision-making process instead of an after-the-fact review when nothing can be done at that point but criticize.”

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FOR THE RECORD
8:44 p.m.: An earlier version of this article misspelled the last name of Mike Gennaco, chief attorney of the Office of Independent Review.
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Officials have updated policies centered around uses of force, as well as vehicle and foot pursuits, though some in the agency feel the new policies are overly restrictive and convoluted.

Gennaco chalked that up to a yearning among veteran officers to “retain the good old days,” when police were expected to simply “chase bad guys and take them to jail.”

“I don’t see a way in which progressive policing can be responsive to the modern-day community and the expectations of our community by going back to the old way,” he said. “It is not a smart way of policing to chase at all costs.”

Since 2009, the Burbank department has also increased hiring minority and women officers, together, by 26%, department statistics show.

That includes two more Latino officers, bringing the total to 35, four more black officers for a total of nine, three more Asian officers, raising the total to eight, two more Armenian officers, bringing the total to seven, and five more women, bringing the total to 18.

“[The number of Armenians] is a number we’re working very hard on,” said Burbank Police Lt. Eric Deroian, who oversees recruiting. “In a city where we have quite possibly up to 20% of the population Armenian, we’d like to see those numbers increase.”

As city and police officials begin drafting a new strategic plan, they reopened the debate about equipping officers with body cameras, a proposal the city nixed last year due to the steep price tag, as well as concerns about the still-developing technology.

“I know there’s a price tag attached to it, but it’s just direction we have to make the commitment to go,” LaChasse said, noting that officers currently have audio recorders on their belts to capture interactions with the public. “When we first got here, there were no types of recordation at all.”

The department, however, is not without blemishes.

A recent police union-administered survey revealed that about 75% of the 118 sworn officers who participated felt that morale at the agency was low or extremely low.

Staffing shortages, fewer opportunities for job growth and a perception of bias in promotions and policy enforcement were contributing factors. According to the survey, one member called the department a “depressing” place to work, while another wrote that “pretty much everyone dreads going to work.”

The joint meeting was put on the books after a police commissioner sought the authority to investigate an email scandal involving the agency’s former deputy chief Tom Angel, who forwarded emails from his work account in 2012 and 2013 that mocked Muslims, Latinos and others.

The Burbank Police Officers’ Assn. board of directors criticized the agency’s response to the discovery of the emails, raising concerns that Angel’s emails weren’t properly investigated, as the offenses apparently were not reported to the management services director, nor to Gennaco.

At the meeting, the emails were only briefly mentioned, with LaChasse noting that a lieutenant recently met with representatives of the Burbank Islamic Center.

Gennaco’s team, which is expected to deliver an annual audit of the department in the coming weeks, is reviewing the incident.

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Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek