Report Is a ‘Learning Device’ for O.C. Officials : Reaction: The recommendations will probably find their way into law enforcement agencies here, they say.

Orange County law enforcement officials said Tuesday that the Christopher Commission recommendations--although triggered by scandal in the Los Angeles Police Department--could have far-reaching impact elsewhere, affecting issues from civil service status to training and patrols.

“We’ll have to take whatever we can from this (report) and apply it to our own circumstances,” said David L. Snowden, chief of police in Costa Mesa and president of the Orange County Police Chiefs and Sheriff’s Assn. “It’s a learning device.

“Everything in this report should be scrutinized by each department to see what fits and what doesn’t,” he said.

Among the elements of the commission’s report that drew response from Orange County officials were findings that little is done to control officers who use excessive force and that citizens find it difficult to report instances of police brutality.

The report also recommended that police do more patrolling on foot to provide more public interaction and that officers undergo psychological screening throughout their careers.

Assistant Public Defender Ramon Ortiz said the sight of bruised and battered clients, probable victims of police brutality, are common in Orange County, and he said some sort of oversight authority is needed.

Brutality victims who are also accused of crimes tend not to report the beatings to police because they fear the same police officers could block their attempts at obtaining favorable settlements in criminal proceedings, Ortiz said.

“Our clients are very aware that the police departments have an influence on what the district attorney’s position should be in their cases,” said Ortiz, who heads the Superior Court unit. “They are reluctant to complain of beatings if they are guilty. It has a chilling effect.

“We’ll see them with black eyes and bruises and then look at the police report, where it says ‘necessary force was used and the person had to be taken to the hospital.’ That’s code for: ‘We beat ‘em up.’ ”

That style of intimidation spills over into the courtroom where, Ortiz said, police feel confident that a jury will believe them rather than the defendant if brutality is made an issue in the case.

“Generally, the clients are opposed to do anything about it,” he said. “They are afraid to rock the boat. I’ve been sitting behind a desk for 19 years and when you get so many and there are constant themes, you begin to believe there is a consistent pattern. There has to be oversight.”

Anaheim Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy said the Christopher Commission’s recommendations will probably find their way into Orange County law enforcement agencies.

“It’s probably going to change some of the things that people have been doing,” he said. “It’s going to probably make some agencies and law enforcement people rethink the way they deliver services.”

One of the panel’s most controversial sets of recommendations, aimed at making the chief’s job less insulated from public access and criticism, is to remove civil service protection and have chiefs subject to a maximum of two five-year terms.

In Santa Ana, where the chief’s job also has Civil Service status, this proposal drew a sharp rebuke from Police Chief Paul M. Walters.

Walters said he has no immediate concern that the commission’s recommendations will affect him in Santa Ana, but he said: “There’s definitely a trend in public life to limit the terms. My fear, if you limit a civil service job to a number of years, you’re politicizing it. . . . You become a lame duck.

“The job is difficult enough without it becoming political. . . . I think that would hurt police chiefs around the country,” Walters said, adding that chiefs could not do their jobs effectively if they had to worry about gaining political favor for reappointment.

Police chiefs in Orange County said that many of the recommendations proposed by the commission to foster better community relations--such as cultural awareness training and psychological profile screening for officers--are already in place locally.

But they acknowledged that there is room for improvement in local relations and said the commission’s findings about the frequency of misconduct and abuse by Los Angeles Police Department officers could cast a shadow over Orange County departments as well.

“Any time law enforcement is criticized,” said Anaheim’s Molloy, “the whole thing is unpleasant. Certainly, there are people who are going to look at this in that (negative) manner for everyone. . . . But I would hope people would be able to analyze this and see that not everybody is the same.”

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, said Los Angeles’ problems cannot necessarily be transferred to Orange County.

Kennedy said he believes residents in Orange County have a “pretty high level of faith” in law enforcement agencies and their abilities to weed out bad officers.

Part of the feeling, Kennedy said, is based on the relatively unchanging number of police complaints brought to his office each year. He said the office routinely receives one to three complaints a month.

“With more than 20 city police departments, we have much smaller police forces,” Kennedy said. “I think people feel departments are more accountable to them. I think most anybody in any city can go down and talk to their police chief.”