Laguna Chief Gives Police Integrity a Lift : * Purcell Acts Quickly and Openly in Alleged Kicking Incident During an Arrest

Laguna Beach Police Chief Neil J. Purcell said recently: “We must assure the public and the judicial system that our integrity and honesty is unquestionable. No defendant is worth an officer lying or stretching the truth. . . . “ He was responding to questions raised in a recent Times article about the credibility of some Orange County law enforcement officers and how the quality of their investigations had been questioned in a number of cases.

Judging by his recent actions in a controversial and potentially explosive case involving his own department, Purcell does not seem to be taking a “do-as-I say, not-as-I-do” approach.

In the Laguna Beach case, an officer is accused of kicking a 24-year-old homeless man who was being subdued and arrested on charges of interfering with a police officer, drunkenness and other charges in connection with an incident in which officers responding to reports of a loud party were reportedly pelted with rocks and bottles.

In a videotape, made by an area resident and produced by a defense attorney, as five officers are apparently trying to handcuff their suspect, another officer appears to be kicking at him. That’s disturbing. The use of needless and excessive force, or even the hint of any police brutality, always is.

But the two-minute videotape leaves other key questions unanswered. It doesn’t show what happened before the apparent kick. Or if any of the kicks actually struck the man police were wrestling with. Or if the tape was edited in any way.

The department is now investigating to see if any disciplinary action is warranted. The officer has been taken out of the field until that is determined. The district attorney’s office will also investigate. And the chief has expressed his concern about the officer’s performance declaring: “. . . Sometimes you have to say, regardless of what happened preceding (the kicking), it may not excuse an officer’s conduct. . . . I understand that officers are human. Sometimes they can lose it.”

Chief Purcell has acted quickly, responsibly--and openly--as police should in such sensitive cases. That is the proper reaction and it speaks well not only for police in Laguna Beach but for all law enforcement in general.