No Longer a Sacred Cow : Law enforcement: Bradley’s tough Police Commission appointments may mean that the LAPD’s free ride is over.

In practically every urban area across the nation, the police department is the sacred cow of local government, and Los Angeles is no exception. As a result, politicians as well as political hopefuls walk a predictably straight line on police issues, harping on crime in knee-jerk fashion.

It is not surprising that critics make little headway in this crucial area of governance. So it follows that the entity responsible for governing the Los Angeles Police Department, a five-member civilian Police Commission appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council, would be composed of people who would respect the unique role of the LAPD and find every conceivable way to defend its reputation and that of its leader, the chief, who for more than a decade has been the inimitable Daryl Gates.

Recent events, however, may cause us to reconsider how we view matters of police governance. For the past few months, considerable attention has been focused on the LAPD because of Chief Gates’ now famous remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 15, in Washington, in which he said that “casual drug users ought to be taken out and shot.” That statement shocked the sensibilities of friends and foes alike. Then, supporters as well as critics were further infuriated by the revelation that a police sergeant spent months doing investigative work for the defense of officers accused in the “39th and Dalton” raid in South-Central Los Angeles instead of performing his regular duties.

These two incidents set off a verbal confrontation between Mayor Tom Bradley and Chief Gates.

The fact that the chief and the mayor have had periodic clashes is no secret. However, Gates has rarely felt the consequences of crossing the city’s chief executive, who is less inclined toward public displays of conflict and more prudent than the city’s top lawman. Gates, on the other hand, in closed-door meetings with community leaders, has demonstrated a surprising ability to listen to and respect other points of view. But his public persona communicates just the opposite. It must be calculated.

For years, Bradley has deployed senior staff and loyal police commissioners to appeal to LAPD critics in the African-American community to refrain from harsh criticism of Gates because of the negative effect it could have on the mayor. The fear was that a majority white electorate would conveniently forget that Bradley put in better than 20 years as an LAPD officer and somehow view him as anti-police or at least soft on crime. Neither posture is smart politics in light of the protected place law enforcement holds in local government and in the voting booth.

But the Bradley era of fearing the Anglo voter’s irrationality or racism may be history. This time, however, Bradley has neither acquiesced nor deferred to Gates. It is as if the mayor has decided that the chief has had a free ride long enough and has also gone too far. The nominal oversight exercised by the Police Commission is inadequate. Departmental immunity to control and resistance to change could be relegated to the past.

Bradley has ordered probes, requested audits, welcomed resignations and swiftly made new appointments to the commission--all in the space of a few weeks. This is first time we’ve seen such mayoral action directed toward Parker Center since Bradley took office.

The appointments of Dan Garcia, a skillful power broker and influential insider, and Melanie Lomax, a hard-hitting civil-rights lawyer and avowed feminist, both Bradley loyalists, are sure to dramatically change the dynamics at Police Commission meetings. Hopefully, the message these two appointees will carry is: No more sacred cow.