Gates Memo Tells Police to Report Abuses : Misconduct: Statement does not mention King beating, but refers to failure to prevent actions by fellow officers.

Los Angeles police officers have been given copies of a memo from Police Chief Daryl F. Gates that emphasizes their obligation to intervene if they see another officer engaged in misconduct and to report the matter immediately to their superiors.

The two-page memo, dated April 17, has been given to every officer in the 8,300-member force. While it does not specifically mention the March 3 beating of Rodney G. King in Lake View Terrace, it referred to “the failure of . . . officers to prevent continuing misconduct by fellow officers.”

Gates wrote that “an employee who observes serious misconduct shall take appropriate action to cause the misconduct to immediately cease.”

At the King beating, 17 Los Angeles police officers watched as their colleagues struck the Altadena motorist more than 50 times with batons, repeatedly kicked him and twice fired an electrical stun gun at him.

The incident was videotaped by a amateur cameraman and four officers have been indicted on charges of assault. None of the officers present had come forward and reported any misconduct.

Gates took pains to point out that “an officer’s obligation to report and prevent misconduct begins the moment the officer is sworn in as a member of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“Experience, rank or tenure are not factors in knowing the difference between right and wrong action,” he wrote.

“The reporting of misconduct and prevention of the escalation of misconduct are areas that demand an officer to exercise courage, integrity and decisiveness.”

Four rookie officers who were at the scene of the King beating told prosecutors they were frightened and confused by what they saw. Because a supervisor was also watching and not intervening, they said, they assumed King’s behavior justified the use of force.

The police officers were among 27 law enforcement officers who were at the beating.

In explaining the purpose of the memo, Gates wrote that it was to “reiterate and clarify the responsibilities of all officers in these matters.”

The memo reminds officers that the department manual already requires them to stop and report misconduct. All officers are required to know the manual’s contents.

Officer Don Lawrence, a department spokesman, said Thursday that in addition to being given to each officer, the memo was read at station roll calls. Lawrence said that it “falls on the responsibility of the officer to make himself informed of what the memo says, because each of us can be held accountable.”

Cmdr. Rick Dinse, an aide to Gates who is acting as a liaison between the Police Department and other agencies involved in the King case, said there was nothing unusual about Gates issuing such a memo.

“He does this as things come up, special orders, changes in the manual. It usually doesn’t change anything,” Dinse said. “It’s a vehicle for the chief to reiterate, to clarify and to bring management issues to the attention of the department.”

In other developments Thursday, a Los Angeles lawyer, citing the California Penal Code, asked Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner to file additional charges against the four indicted officers and also file new charges against the 17 onlookers.

Geoffrey Taylor Gibbs sent a letter dated May 1 to Reiner along with a written copy of testimony he gave by at a public hearing of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department. He testified as a representative of the John M. Langston Bar Assn., a group of 900 black lawyers.

Gibbs cited two sections of the penal code under which, he contends, the 17 onlookers could be charged with tolerating a “riot” against King. All 21 of the Police Department officers could also be charged under state law with violating King’s civil rights, Gibbs maintained.

Mike Botula, a spokesman for Reiner, said the district attorney has not had a chance to examine the letter.

In a related development, a California Highway Patrol lieutenant who was supervisor to two CHP officers who were at the scene of the King beating has been quoted in state documents as saying excessive use of force is commonplace in the Los Angeles Police Department.

Lt. John Kielbasa told Sacramento-based CHP investigators, “If there was not a video on it, you wouldn’t be down here in Los Angeles. That’s the only difference between what goes on down here in Los Angeles--I would say half a dozen times a week any given week--is the fact that it hasn’t been recorded.”

Kielbasa has been recommended for demotion for allegedly downplaying information about the King beating given him by two CHP officers who were at the scene. Kielbasa’s comments were contained in documents filed with the State Personnel Board.