Undercover Police Told to Protect Public First : New Policy Is Response to Reports of Failure to Intervene by Surveillance Unit During Crimes

After reviewing the activities of a secretive Los Angeles police surveillance unit, police officials have implemented a new department-wide policy that instructs officers to protect potential crime victims even if it jeopardizes an undercover investigation, it was learned Monday.

Adoption of the so-called “Reverence For Human Life” policy stemmed from controversy surrounding the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Investigations Section.

A Times investigation last year found that the 19-member unit had often failed to prevent the violent criminals it had under surveillance from attacking people in armed robberies and burglaries.

The new policy, signed as a special order by Chief Daryl F. Gates and placed Feb. 3 in the department’s manual, states that “. . . reverence for human life must always be the first priority when considering the extent to which (a criminal) incident is allowed to progress or deteriorate . . . during a stakeout or the surveillance of known criminals.”

The policy statement continues: “Whenever an operation designed to achieve an immediate goal, such as the arrest of a felon or the gathering of evidence to complete a criminal investigation, causes a victim, witness or other innocent person to be subjected to potential injury or death, our primary objective must be to protect that person.

“No arrest, conviction or piece of evidence can outweigh the value of human life.”

Gates could not be reached for comment Monday, but his spokesman, Cmdr. William Booth, described the policy as an articulation of a concept implicit in the LAPD’s longstanding motto, “To Protect and to Serve.”

Robert L. Talcott, president of the civilian-run Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, which oversees the department, said the five-member board believed there was a clear need for the policy statement.

“We wanted to specifically articulate this,” he said, “so that there was no doubt in the public’s mind, or the minds of the officers of this department, exactly what the priorities are here.”

The issue came to light in September when The Times documented numerous instances in which SIS teams of surveillance detectives stood by watching as victims were traumatized emotionally--and, in some instances, physically harmed--by felons. In many instances, the criminals could have been arrested beforehand for lesser offenses or on existing arrest warrants.

Delayed Interventions

Police officials explained that the detectives sometimes waited to watch potentially violent felonies because, with the officers as witnesses, the perpetrators could be linked irrefutably to the crimes, more easily tied to similar offenses and thus given longer prison sentences.

Mayor Tom Bradley, himself a 22-year veteran of the Police Department, subsequently ordered the Police Commission to review the SIS activities. Bradley said at the time that he had never heard of the unit.

Talcott said Monday that the Police Commission’s review of the SIS, which included an examination of the unit’s shootings over the last three years, found that the surveillance detectives had served a vital role in fighting crime and had not “purposely endangered the members of this community.”

Nonetheless, Talcott conceded that some “members of this community have been placed in danger during SIS operations.”

Increased Danger

Talcott said the surveillance officers thought that to intervene during a robbery or burglary could place the victims in even greater danger, perhaps prompting the criminal to act with greater violence.

Talcott said the commission intends to “continue to closely monitor the activities of this unit as we do other (sensitive) activities of this department.”

The Police Commission regularly audits the performance of other specialized units of the LAPD, including its anti-terrorist and organized crime intelligence divisions.

The policy signed by Gates on Feb. 3 became part of a thick collection of memoranda and regulations that lay down specific guidelines for officers in the field, addressing issues that range from the proper wearing of uniforms to the handling of barricaded suspects.