L.A. Report Hard to Apply to Small Units, Police Say : Law enforcement: Local departments nevertheless plan to study the Christopher Commission’s findings of the LAPD’s weaknesses.

South Bay police departments have put the historic Christopher Commission report on their mandatory reading list for top officials.

But local agencies have yet to conclude what lessons they will learn from the blue-ribbon commission that excoriated the Los Angeles Police Department for officer misconduct and administrative bungling.

Noting that Los Angeles’ 8,300-officer force is exponentially larger than any of their own, local police chiefs say it is difficult to apply to their small operations changes recommended for a giant.

But it is worth a try, they concede.

“We’ve been very active in every one of those areas (addressed by the report), but we’re always willing to learn,” said Jim Popp, acting head of the Torrance Police Department, which is seeking a new chief to lead its 235 officers. “The commission took a very good look at a department, and we don’t get a chance to see that every day.”

Said Inglewood City Councilman Garland Hardeman, who also serves as an LAPD officer: “It’s always positive to look at change. I don’t think we have any beleaguering problems in the magnitude of the LAPD, but I’m sure there are problems in the department.”

The Christopher Commission spent 100 days analyzing the LAPD in the wake of the brutal videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King on March 3.

The report, released earlier this month, revealed a disturbing pattern of racism, sexism and excessive force by Los Angeles officers. The commission recommended a number of fundamental changes, including a 10-year term limit for future police chiefs, cultural awareness instruction, improved training in the use of force, the creation of an inspector general’s office to oversee discipline and a regimen of psychological, emotional and physical testing for all officers.

A review of the South Bay’s nine independent police agencies revealed that no department places a limit on its chief’s tenure. Neither do they regularly test their officers for psychological or emotional fitness. A few provide cultural awareness instruction and refresher courses in the use of force. Not a single department has a citizen police review board, and most rejected the idea out of hand.

Clearly, the state of law enforcement in the South Bay is not without its problems. Some departments have paid out millions of dollars in lawsuits involving officer misconduct. A jury found that at least one department--Torrance--attempted to cover up its officers’ mistakes.

But the spirit of the Christopher Commission report--that police agencies need to be in touch with the communities they serve--is already standard operating procedure in every South Bay police department, officials insist.

Police officials in many cities said they have already answered the commission’s call for more “community policing,” including increased foot patrols, visits to neighborhood meetings and positive one-on-one contact with youths.

“Smaller police departments, whether they realize it or not, practice community policing,” said Cmdr. Mike Lavin of the 41-officer Hermosa Beach Police Department. “The community is smaller. You tend to know the business people. You tend to meet and know a lot of people, and people on the streets recognize you.”

Hermosa police, he said, are far more responsive to minor complaints than a larger police department can afford to be. Officers have responded to noise complaints from people who think the surf is too loud or who are disturbed by the tinkling of a neighbor’s wind chimes.

“In L.A., you couldn’t do that unless you had an in with somebody on the City Council or the Police Department,” Lavin said. “Here, Joe Average Citizen has easier access.”

Smaller departments also can more easily monitor the performance of individual officers, he said. In Hermosa, the number of service complaints is small enough to be handled by a single lieutenant, who can tell at a glance if the department has a rogue officer or repeat offender on its hands, Lavin said.

In Inglewood’s 210-officer department, a controversy is brewing over racist jokes made by officers, a particularly sensitive topic in a city where people of color make up 94% of the population, said Joseph Rouzan Jr., a former Inglewood police chief who now runs an investigative firm that conducts background checks for police agencies.

The department is in the process of adding an in-house cultural awareness program to combat the problem. But Rouzan said the public should not assume that derogatory comments by officers are motivated by sexism or racism.

“It is hard to distinguish at times what is racist and what is horsing around,” said Rouzan, who nonetheless criticized the use of such comments.

In police departments like Hawthorne, the problems have run beyond the scope of inappropriate remarks. Cultural sensitivity training was instituted in the mid-1980s after a federal audit found that police brutality complaints had reached a peak.

Excessive force complaints against the 90-officer department continue to cost the city money. Last year, city officials agreed to pay nearly $2 million to settle a brutality suit filed by members of the Vagos motorcycle club. And retired Hawthorne Police Sgt. Don Jackson, who is renowned for his controversial police stings against the Los Angeles and Long Beach police forces, is suing Hawthorne police for racial harassment.

In an interview this week, Jackson said he believes Hawthorne police have a lot to learn from the Christopher Commission.

“I felt everything in the report was directly related to Hawthorne in terms of police violations, the code of silence and specifically with regards to racism,” Jackson said. “It also speaks of the leadership in that department which, like the LAPD, has not taken serious action regarding racial issues.”

Hawthorne city officials disagree, saying the department has not only turned a corner in police-community relations, but is in some ways ahead of the times.

“I’d like to think in some respects we were way out in front of Los Angeles. We didn’t wait for Rodney King to happen,” said Hawthorne Councilman Steven Andersen, referring to the cultural sensitivity training that has been in place in the department.

Torrance police, too, have had their share of woes, some of which have ended up in court.

Two months ago, the city agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a 19-year-old motorcyclist killed in a collision with an off-duty police officer. A jury in that case concluded that the Police Department had a “custom and policy” of covering up misbehavior by its officers.

Last year, the city agreed to pay $1.9 million to a construction worker who was partially paralyzed after a police officer accidentally shot him in the face. Three police officers were fired after the Civil Service Commission and the City Council concluded they conspired to cover up the incident by claiming the victim had provoked the shooting.

Three years ago, the department became the focus of national attention after a young party-goer videotaped one Torrance officer holding a 20-year-old man in a chokehold as another officer struck him repeatedly with a baton. City officials settled the resulting lawsuit for more than $100,000.

Brian Panish, an attorney who handled the $6.5-million case, said that lawsuit pointed up a number of areas where the Torrance department could improve.

“It was our experience that citizens were discouraged from making complaints and, even when they did, they were not adequately investigated,” Panish said. “I think there ought to be some review board independent of the Police Department.”

Torrance officials, however, have denied that the lawsuits indicated any deeply rooted problems. Any new training programs that have since been implemented were not an outgrowth of the lawsuits, police officials said.

They contend also that officers are adept at the art of community policing, and maintain close contact with the citizens and businesses they are charged with protecting.

“Community service is an aim we’ve always had,” acting chief Popp said. “That attitude of serving the city, serving the citizens, that’s always been part of our philosophy.”

To keep in touch with citizens, the department maintains active youth drug education and Neighborhood Watch programs. In addition, the department recently conducted intensive management workshops and began cultural awareness training for several officers. A consultant was hired to teach officers how to talk their way out of a problem rather than resorting to force.

Popp said he does not believe further citizen review, as suggested by the Christopher Commission, is necessary in Torrance.

“We work for city management and we work for the City Council, which works for the people,” Popp said. “Philosophically, I am not for a direct civilian review process of the department’s disciplinary concerns . . . because historically, in some cases, it has caused officers to be so fearful that they cannot perform their job properly.”

Manhattan Beach Councilman Dan Stern said he urged his council colleagues at last week’s meeting to consider a civilian police review to oversee the department’s 55 officers. The council set the idea aside, however.

The city plans to conduct an extensive police services study this year. Stern said money for the study was allocated in February, before the King beating.

The commission report, however, offers the city an opportunity to take an even more extensive look at its department than originally planned, Stern said.

Council members accepted Stern’s suggestion that the consultant hired to conduct the review should add racism, sexism and excessive force to the list of areas to be scrutinized.

“I don’t think we have any major problems, but certain of these things I think we have a problem with. . . . Some officers, certainly not all, but some officers I have observed do display some sexism. We need to address that,” Stern said. “My view is that this is not a negative thing to look at, but an opportunity to get smarter and get better.”