Police Commission Asks for New Unit to Test Rookies for Drugs

Hoping to achieve a “drug-free Police Department,” the Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday requested $403,000 from the city for a special unit to test probationary officers for narcotics use.

The proposed creation of the nine-member unit comes at a time when investigators from the Internal Affairs Division say they have their hands full with about 20 cases involving officers--veterans as well as rookies--who are alleged to have bought, used or sold drugs.

Four LAPD officers already have been fired this year on drug-related charges and four others are facing internal trial boards for similar offenses that will likely lead to terminations if they are found guilty, department spokesman Cmdr. William Booth said.

“What we hope to achieve is a drug-free Police Department,” Booth said. “We hope to see this random program expanded to include all of us, not just probationary officers.”

Abuse Has Increased

Booth said he believes that drug abuse among Los Angeles police officers has increased since the Vietnam War, but suggested that the incidence rate today is no better or worse than in other large organizations.

The problem can be found even in elite ranks of the 7,523-member LAPD. Last month, according to department sources, a longtime member of the special weapons and tactics team left the force, seeking rehabilitation for cocaine addiction.

The special testing unit for which the Police Commission is seeking funding would deal only with officers in the Police Academy or in their first year on the job. Money for the unit--$403,000 in salaries and equipment--would be allocated only after review by the City Council and mayor.

Police Commission officials said the unit would be made up of five sergeants, two clerks, a laboratory technician and a criminalist. It would be made part of the LAPD’s medical liaison section and would rely on a computer to randomly select the names of officers who, with little notice, would be required to provide urine specimens for analysis.

Testing Procedure

Lt. Ed Gagnon, head of medical liaison, said officers would be tested at least once while in the academy and once during the year after graduation. They may also be tested as many as four additional times in the interim if the computer selects their names.

Gagnon said testing of recruits and probationary officers actually began two weeks ago, after it was ratified as part of the latest contract with the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the LAPD’s largest union.

Five sergeants on loan from other areas of the department are administering the tests, according to department officials. More than 120 urine analysis have been administered so far, all with negative results--a statistic that was lauded by the commission’s acting president.

“Nothing could be more important,” Barbara L. Schlei said, “than knowing that the people in this department who are enforcing the law are obeying the law.”

More Investigators

Last year, police officials increased from nine to 17 the number of internal affairs investigators assigned to examine specific allegations, and even rumors, of drug use among officers or civilian LAPD employees.

Booth said that in 1987, the investigators logged 53 cases, resulting in seven officers and 18 civilian employees being terminated. Seven of those civilians, jailers assigned to the Van Nuys station house, were fired in one case alone.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates has proposed that all LAPD officers be randomly tested for drugs to deter them from narcotics use. However, the city attorney’s office put Gates’ plan on hold last year after several courts held that random testing programs in other cities were unconstitutional.

Random Testing Opposed

The Protective League also opposes random testing and is less than enthusiastic about probationary officers being tested. Frank Mezquita, a league director, said Tuesday that the union will likely sue the department to prevent testing of probationers the first time an officer in the academy or on probation formally protests.

“We’re agreeing with the chief” that there is a need for drug testing, Mezquita said, “but we have a duty to fair representation. The courts have said that this kind of thing is a violation of search and seizure, so if one of our probationers thinks it’s against the law, we’ll have to go to court.”

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday that his agency has no mandatory or random testing program for its employees.