Consultant’s Report on Inglewood Police Greeted Gingerly by Officials

A lengthy consultant’s report on the Inglewood Police Department has been dropped in the collective lap of city officials, police officers, elected representatives and community leaders.

And the pages, which recommend an array of far-reaching and sometimes controversial changes in police procedures, are being turned gingerly.

The $65,000 study by Public Administration Services of McClean, Va., found the Police Department overall is in good shape and it praised the department’s accomplishments in crime analysis, establishing a strong relationship with the community and developing interagency programs that target habitual juvenile offenders.

“You don’t have to worry about this patient,” chief consultant Peter Bellmio told the Inglewood City Council on Tuesday. “This is an opportunity for a healthy shop to get more healthy.”

Expansion and Reorganization

The study recommends a series of steps to strengthen the 187-officer department by expanding the patrol force and reorganizing some specialized field units.

The report concludes that the department should field 10 to 13 more patrol officers by hiring five new sworn officers and 11 more civilian employees, who would free other officers for street duty.

City officials said that expansion would cost more than $800,000 and require some type of tax increase.

Although Inglewood police at both the command and street level agree on the need for more patrol officers, many of the other suggested changes in the department are being met with resentment.

Inglewood officers said privately that some members of the force disagree with the finding that Inglewood has allowed big-city style, specialized tactical units to proliferate at the expense of street patrols. They criticized the recommended disbanding of the Office of Special Enforcement, which encompasses the gang, narcotics, metro, canine and transit safety units.

Better Coordination

The consultant said those units can be streamlined and integrated into the investigative and patrol bureaus to better coordinate the fight against gangs and drugs. But some police feel those units have led the department’s most effective anti-crime efforts and should not be changed.

Inglewood Police Assn. President James Boggs declined to comment specifically on disagreements about the consultant’s methods and conclusions.

But Boggs said: “Some of those recommendations are impossible because of contract language.” The association’s two-year contract expires in June, 1989.

City Manager Paul Eckles said the study will be analyzed and discussed thoroughly before changes are made.

“I don’t think we’ve reached any conclusions,” he said. “The recommendations seem to me to be fundamentally sound. But we’re not going to ram anything down anyone’s throat.”

No Change for Its Own Sake

Police Chief Raymond Johnson said he was open to the report’s suggestions but would resist “making change for the sake of change.”

“I’m not going to discard any of it outright,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to work with people in the department and in the community. As an administrator, I have to be concerned about morale issues.”

Johnson said some officers’ objections are based on self-preservation.

“Nobody’s going to get fired,” he said. “We might have to reshuffle.”

Although Bellmio sought responses, Tuesday’s meeting was notably lacking in any substantive questions from council members and community leaders, many of whom did not appear to have read the more than 200-page report.

Call for Initiative

Councilman Anthony Scardenzan has called for a June ballot initiative asking voters whether they would pay a special tax to raise approximately $1.5 million needed for 20 new officers. The deadline for placing such a question on the ballot is March 8.

Scardenzan said Thursday he remains committed to seeking to put the question before the voters. He said many of the consultant’s recommendations are experimental and may not be implemented.

Inglewood should not “sit back and experiment” while the city and county of Los Angeles are adding new police officers to fight drug and gang problems, Scardenzan said.

He said his proposed tax assessment district would cost about $60 per household.

Mayor Edward Vincent used the Tuesday meeting to introduce community leaders who will be members of a newly formed an anti-crime task force. Vincent said he will ask the group to advise him about budget issues raised by the study and to help mobilize the community against crime.

Community Effort Needed

“Controlling crime in Inglewood will require a community-wide effort,” Vincent said in a prepared statement. “The police cannot do this job alone, not even if we double the department budget.”

The study found that response time is not a major issue in Inglewood. The consultant said the average police response in Inglewood is slightly more than four minutes and he predicted that following the report’s recommendations would lower it to 3.7 minutes.

Public Administration Services recently completed a study of deployment practices by the Los Angeles Police Department that has sparked a debate over whether all areas of Los Angeles get equal police service.

Other recommendations in the Inglewood study include:

Expanding the role of patrol officers in policing known trouble spots, participating in preliminary investigations and fighting street-level drug sales.

Rearranging work schedules to put more officers on the street during peak periods and to improve communication between investigators and patrol officers.

Increasing the number of dispatchers and taking more non-emergency crime reports by telephone.

Establishing a court liaison program to free officers from administrative work.