Police Reassign 3 Officers in Racism Probe : Investigations: They allegedly made offensive remarks at the Devonshire Station and were reported. ‘The code of silence was not working on this one,’ Police Commission President Stanley Sheinbaum says.

Three Los Angeles Police Department officers stationed at the Devonshire Division in the San Fernando Valley have been temporarily reassigned while department officials investigate allegations that they made racist remarks at the station, the president of the Police Commission said Saturday.

Stanley Sheinbaum, who heads the civilian board, said the unidentified officers each reportedly made unrelated racist remarks over a period of several weeks. Others at the station, including a sergeant, objected to the remarks and reported them to department officials, Sheinbaum said.

“The code of silence was not working on this one,” Sheinbaum said. “There were those who found the remarks quite offensive and they took action.”

The reassignments come as the department is investigating hundreds of allegedly racial or sexually offensive messages sent over patrol car computers that were discovered by the Christopher Commission during its investigation of the March 3 beating of motorist Rodney G. King by Los Angeles police officers.

Department officials, including Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker, who is in charge of police operations in the San Fernando Valley, could not be reached for comment.

Sheinbaum said he did not know what the remarks were or where the officers were reassigned. He said the charges would be investigated by the Internal Affairs Division.

“I’m appalled by it, but there are signs that there is some resistance within the force to this kind of thing,” Sheinbaum said. “That pleases me.”

However, he said he did not know what effect the new allegations would have on the department’s current investigation.

The Christopher Commission discovered about 700 computer messages that it believed were inappropriately sent between Nov. 1, 1989, and March 4 of this year. In its own review of computer printouts from the last four months, the Police Department discovered 345 allegedly offensive messages. Police administrators have promised to punish all offenders.