Police Commission Agrees to Boost Latino Recruits

Heeding pleas from Latino activists, the Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday unanimously agreed to increase by one-third the number of Latino recruits entering the Police Academy.

In the same vote, the commission also directed Police Chief Daryl F. Gates to adopt a more flexible method to select officers for promotion, but Gates said afterward that he would not.

Some Latinos believe that the Police Department’s present system, in which applicants are tested, then ranked numerically on a list and promoted in strict order, is often subjective and discriminates against them.

The more flexible promotional system was approved as an affirmative action measure by Los Angeles’ voters in 1983 and was later adopted by other city agencies. In essence, it would allow Gates to promote officers who do not necessarily finish at the very top of promotional lists.

Gates, however, said after the commission’s vote that he will not change the manner in which Los Angeles’ police officers win promotion.The system endorsed by the commission is subject to “favoritism and manipulation, political or otherwise . . . I could promote my friends . . .,” he noted.

“I’m going to continue doing what I’m doing,” Gates said. “To do otherwise would be unfair to everybody.”

None of the five police commissioners--civilians appointed by the mayor to manage the Police Department--seemed eager to publically challenge the clearly adamant chief. “Reasonable people can have reasonable disagreements,” offered Commissioner Stephen D. Yslas.

Commission Secretary William G. Cowdin predicted that the commissioners will give Gates “a reasonable amount of time” to implement the ordered change in promotion selection procedures before taking action.

Tuesday’s vote came after the commission’s Hispanic Advisory Council spent more than a year investigating allegations that Latinos are frequently denied equal opportunity when seeking promotions or prestigious assignments in the Police Department.

The advisory council found evidence confirming complaints of unequal treatment and recommended, among other things, that the Police Department more closely monitor the recruiting, hiring, retention and promotion of Latinos. Commission members agreed to do just that.

They also adopted an advisory council recommendation that the department’s recruitment goal--to insure that Latinos represent at least 22.5% of each class entering the academy--be increased to 30%. Accordingly, Gates said Tuesday that the department would step up its hiring of qualified Latinos “as soon as possible.”

Gates has said he believes that the increase may be needed if the city’s predominantly Anglo Police Department is to achieve ethnic parity with Los Angeles’ growing Latino work force.

There are 1,084 Latinos among 6,968 officers in the department, although none is above the rank of captain.

The 22.5% target for Latinos, as well as recruiting goals for blacks and women, was established in 1981, when police administrators entered into a consent decree after a lengthy court battle with the American Civil Liberties Union.

The consent decree also required that each Police Academy class be 22.5% black and 25% female. Such hiring practices are to continue until women make up at least 20% of the police force and the combined percentage of blacks and Latinos is at least proportionate to their numbers in the Los Angeles-area labor force.

In 1981, according to U.S. Census estimates, Latinos and blacks comprised about 45% of the city’s work force. At present, Latinos comprise 15.5% of the Police Department’s ranks, blacks account for about 11% and women 8%.