Schlei Bids a Tearful Farewell to LAPD

Departing Los Angeles Police Commissioner Barbara L. Schlei urged Tuesday that the Police Department dismantle its 42-officer anti-terrorist division, re-examine all of its undercover programs and rotate all officers, particularly those assigned to narcotics enforcement, every five years.

In a tearful farewell speech in which she said, “I have come to love you all too much,” Schlei also urged the Police Commission to closely examine LAPD practices of soliciting money and goods from the private sector for various “worthy causes.”

Schlei’s comments, made as she was being formally replaced by magazine writer Reva B. Tooley after serving almost five years as a frequent critic of LAPD policies, were termed “thoughtful and well meaning,” but generally impractical by Chief Daryl F. Gates.

While Gates and Schlei continued to disagree on issues, the mild tone of Schlei’s farewell and the equally mild response by Gates contrasted dramatically with earlier public fights between the Bel-Air attorney and the outspoken LAPD chief.

During her speech, Schlei began to cry as she spoke of some of her personal reasons for leaving the commission, including the “painful” moments that are part of the job.

“It has been painful during my five years to see eight of our officers killed in the line of duty, to mourn with their families and fellow officers,” she said. “It is heartbreaking to see small children, babies brought into this building having suffered torture by their own parents.”

Regaining her composure, Schlei turned to her proposals for the future, first calling on the commission to study the benefits of trying to impose a five-year rotation policy on all assignments throughout the LAPD.

“People who have stayed too long become bored, complacent and are targets for corruption,” Schlei said. “Today we transfer people when there is a problem. I propose that we automatically transfer people, unless there is a problem.”

Schlei’s most specific proposal was the elimination of LAPD’s Anti-Terrorist Division, formed prior to the 1984 Summer Olympics in the aftermath of the 1983 dismantling of the department’s scandal-ridden Public Disorder Intelligence Division.

“We must look at exactly how much (the anti-terrorist division) actually costs, what it can accomplish under the current stringent guidelines and ask if it is worth it,” she said. “I believe the time has come for this board and the chief to pursue its consideration of dismantling (the division).”

Responding to Schlei’s proposals after the hearing, Gates termed her five-year rotation proposal “foolish,” citing in particular the need to retain seasoned officers in their jobs in organized crime, homicide, vice and narcotics work.

“How are you going to take a homicide detective and move him in five years?” Gates asked. “It would be absolutely impossible from a management perspective.”

While criticizing the guidelines under which the LAPD’s anti-terrorist unit now operates, Gates said he thinks he would be “derelict in my duty in this day and age if I didn’t have a unit that was at least trying to protect against terrorist incidents.

“I will miss you, Chief Gates,” Schlei said in her speech. “We have disagreed on issues, but we have become friends. I will always admire your dedication to our department and to each individual man and woman who serves in this department.”

“I’m going to miss you, Barbara,” Gates said later. “At times you’ve been a real pain in the butt. But I admire you for saying what you think.”