City Police Reforms Echo Christopher Panel Report

The videotape of the Rodney G. King beating in Los Angeles and its politically messy aftermath all seem rather familiar in Long Beach, where another nationally broadcast tape of an arrest shook the Police Department two years ago.

“It took Rodney King to do in L.A. what Don Jackson did for us,” observed Barbara Shoag, who chairs a citizens oversight commission established in the wake of Jackson’s videotaped confrontation with two Long Beach police officers.

The creation of the Citizen Police Complaint Commission is just one of a number of changes that have swept through the department in recent years, some a consequence of the Jackson incident, others pushed through by Chief Lawrence L. Binkley after his arrival in 1987.

Many of the reforms mirror those recommended in the Christopher Commission report, which recently called for an overhaul in Los Angeles Police Department practices to combat what it depicted as that department’s persistent problems of racism, sexism and brutal treatment of suspects.

“We’re stacking up very well,” said City Manager James C. Hankla, whose staff is poring over the Christopher recommendations and comparing them with local police policy for a report to the City Council.

Among the programs already in place in Long Beach in some form are citizen oversight, community policing, cultural awareness training of officers, monitoring of in-house computer messages and an “early warning system” that flags officers repeatedly linked to use of force.

Other Christopher recommendations, such as regular psychological testing of officers and a 10-year cap on the police chief’s tenure, got mixed reviews.

Most Long Beach officials said limits on the chief’s term are unnecessary, since under the City Charter the chief can be fired by the City Council and the city manager. “If we want to get rid of Chief Binkley, we can get rid of him tomorrow,” noted Larry Davis, a former member of the local Public Safety Advisory Commission, which advises the City Council on public safety issues.

Psychological testing struck many as a good idea, however. “That’s probably a prudent suggestion,” conceded Shoag of the Police Complaint Commission. “It’s a tough job, and some handle it better than others. There may be times when it’s best to take an officer out of a particular situation.”

Over the years, Long Beach’s 644-member police force has been subject to the same kinds of allegations of mistreating minorities that are being leveled at the Los Angeles department. Indeed, when Jackson, a former Hawthorne police sergeant, set out for a drive through Long Beach with an NBC-TV crew secretly filming his encounters, his intent was to prove those charges of minority abuse.

In the course of his January, 1989, “sting,” Jackson was pulled over for a traffic stop by two white Long Beach officers, one of whom appeared to shove him into a plate-glass window. The videotape of the confrontation was broadcast nationally, prompting condemnations of the department and launching a successful campaign to create the citizens board to review complaints of police abuse.

The tape also led to the filing of a charge of misdemeanor assault against Officer Mark Dickey and charges of falsifying a police report against him and his partner, Officer Mark Ramsey. The two--who retired from the force last year on stress-related disabilities stemming from the Jackson episode--were cleared in May after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in their case.

In the meantime, activists and officials say the 7-month-old Citizen Police Complaint Commission, Binkley’s adoption of community-oriented policies and the Police Department’s worries about competition from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department--which is patrolling a fifth of the city--have led to dramatic improvements in the Long Beach force.

“The department was on notice that they were being watched, and they changed. There’s no doubt they changed,” said Alan Lowenthal, president of Long Beach Area Citizens Involved, a citywide group that lobbied for the citizens commission.

In its first five months, the 11-member panel received 40 complaints from citizens about police misconduct, fewer than it expected. The number of lawsuits filed against the Police Department last year was less than half the peak of 56 lawsuits in 1986. And the overall number of citizen complaints of any kind lodged against the department fell to 339 last year, compared with 746 the year before.

“I get very few calls (about police misconduct) now,” said Clarence Smith, the only black city councilman. “It has improved tremendously. We’re on the right track, if we can just hold the course.”

So much friendlier are police relations with Long Beach’s sizable gay and lesbian community that the police union is playing a softball game with members of various gay and lesbian groups next month.

“Symbolically, it’s enormously important,” remarked Rick Rosen, a member of the police relations committee of the Lambda Democratic Club, a predominantly gay political group.

Rosen says he still hears complaints about police entrapment and false arrest on charges of lewd conduct and public sexual activity. But generally, Rosen said, top police management is much more responsive to the concerns of the gay community than it used to be.

“Until Binkley came along, they wouldn’t even let gays and lesbians talk to their officers,” Rosen said.

Shortly after Binkley arrived, he set up minority advisory groups that regularly meet with department representatives. The entire force also recently went through a weeklong training program called “Conduct in the Community,” in which members of different minority groups were brought in to talk to officers.

A dour veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department who clashed frequently with the rank and file in his first years in Long Beach, Binkley has cracked down on discipline so much that he has been accused of being an authoritarian bully.

After the Jackson incident, he started an “early warning system” to track the use of force and keep tabs on officers who are the subjects of complaints. They are called in for sessions with their supervisors and can be disciplined for repeat offenses, although a department spokesman said he was not aware of any instances in which an officer had been disciplined.

“It really has proven to be an excellent tool,” said spokesman Lt. Steve McAndrew.

Binkley, who rarely speaks to the press, declined to be interviewed.

Although longtime critics of the Police Department agree that officers are on better behavior, some doubt that the metamorphosis is very profound.

“I have grown to like Chief Binkley as a person,” said Frank Berry, a state official of the NAACP. “He has some good ideas. . . . But at the same time I see Chief Binkley as the product of the LAPD. His training is based on what is going on in Los Angeles. I’ve yet to be convinced he is capable of putting the kind of training in place that will cause police officers in the Long Beach Police Department to make the kinds of fundamental changes in their day-to-day practices that we need.

“There’s still too much law enforcement and not enough ‘protect and serve.’ ”

However, Berry said he was not suggesting that Long Beach get a new police chief. Police management all over the country shares the same attitudes, he said, so a new chief would not necessarily make a difference.

Said Jack Castiglione, a member of the city’s Human Relations Commission: “It has improved, but there’s a long way to go. It’s hard to shake attitudes that embody stereotypes we grew up with.”

Larry Webb, a gay black man, is one of those who believe that bigoted behavior persists in the department.

Webb has filed a complaint with the citizens review commission concerning an incident last month. He said he and two other black men were sitting on steps next to the bike path east of downtown when a white officer told them to move, accused Webb of being drunk and blurted out, “Listen, I want you type of people off my beach, and if you don’t, I’ll put you in jail.”

Contended Webb: “This is pure racial harassment.”

Long Beach Police Complaints

of Citizen Year Complaints 1989 746 1990 339

of Lawsuits Filed Against Year Police Dept. 1983 46 1984 39 1985 48 1986 56 1987 43 1988 42 1989 30 1990 23

Source: Long Beach Police Department

Status of Citizen Complaints

Received Jan. 22 to May 31, 1991

Type of Number of Status Findings Allegations Allegations Filed Active Closed Made Excessive Force 2418 6 27 False Arrest 32 1 2 Racial Overtone 55 0 0 Service 100 10 0 TOTAL 42* 25 17 29

* The total number of complaints filed during the period was 40. However, two contained multiple types of allegations.

NOTE: The total number of allegations on which the commission made findings was 29 for the seven non-service complaints closed. The findings ranged from sustained to exonerated. The 10 service complaints did not require commission investigative activity because they did not allege police misconduct.

Source: Long Beach Police Department