Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS. : CITIES : Newport Police Are Too Aggressive, Report Says

Last summer, when tensions were building between Newport Beach police and youths along the Balboa Peninsula, the City Council commissioned a management audit of the police force.

The result, a 700-page report, was unveiled last week, and while it gave the Police Department generally high marks, it concluded that department policies prod patrol officers into being more aggressive than they want to be.

The department insists on a strict enforcement posture “at all times and locations,” which has resulted in patrol officers being too concerned with logging enough arrests, citations and field interrogations, the report observed. Patrol officers are virtually unanimous in thinking that such logs are “very important to their careers, and most would welcome less emphasis on this aspect of their work,” the report states.

Critics of the department say its officers are too quick in stopping and questioning residents and visitors, especially youths and minorities. More than 100 lawsuits and claims alleging excessive force, false arrest or civil rights violations have been filed against the department during the last eight years.

The report, however, described the Police Department as “above average,” operated in “a professional and competent manner,” and “one of those rare police departments where experimentation and change are seen as a welcome challenge rather than a dreaded threat to the status quo.”

Acting Police Chief Arv Campbell said he would institute no changes in reaction to the report. That, he said, would be up to a new chief who is scheduled to be hired next month to succeed Charles Gross, who stepped down in January after seven years in charge.