Gates Opposes Some of Panel’s Reform Ideas : LAPD: While chief backs most of commission’s findings, he says some problems can be remedied with existing policies.

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said Tuesday that the Christopher Commission’s most serious findings about brutality, racism and a “code of silence” among officers can be remedied with existing policies as he continued to defend his much-maligned department.

In a 134-page report delivered to the Police Commission, Gates indicated support--sometimes with qualifications--for most of the 115 Christopher Commission reforms that the City Council asked him to evaluate.

“It is important to emphasize that many of the recommendations are simply restatements of existing policy,” Gates wrote in his most detailed response yet to the Christopher Commission’s landmark findings.

“This department, as with any organization, can improve,” Gates acknowledged, “however, it still remains the finest police department in the United States.”

In many respects, Gates’ report struck the same tone set by the chief when he testified before the City Council in July. At that time, he told the council that while he generally embraced the Christopher panel’s recommendations, many of the suggested reforms had already been implemented.

After his testimony, some council members complained the chief was trying to thwart the reforms under the guise of appearing to go along with them. On Tuesday, with the release of Gates’ report, City Councilman Michael Woo echoed those complaints.

“This is positive proof that Daryl Gates is not the man to lead the Police Department into an era of change,” said Woo, a Gates critic. “Chief Gates has too much vested interest in defending the past. That’s why he’s not taking the (reform recommendations) seriously.”

Gates handed the thick volume, which is the product of work by an 18-member core committee of top LAPD managers, to the police commissioners just before their weekly public meeting. At the session, the chief announced that he would have little to say about the report.

The five-member citizens board, which oversees the LAPD, will review Gates’ report and then deliver a final series of recommendations to the City Council by Oct. 1.

In the report, Gates said existing LAPD policies already address intensified recruitment of Asians, the problems created in the minority community over use of the “prone-out tactic” in which suspects are forced to lie face down on the ground, and coming to terms with the “code of silence” by officers.

He opposes psychological retesting of officers during their careers, creating a position of commander to handle community relations and having deputy chiefs or commanders--rather than captains--conduct initial personnel investigations.

While Gates’ report drew little discussion from the commissioners--most of whom had not yet read it--there was heated debate over his decision to campaign against police reforms scheduled to be on next year’s ballot.

Gates has vowed to vigorously oppose the Christopher Commission’s proposals for limiting the chief of police to two five-year terms and to strip him of his civil service protections. He said Tuesday that he feared the reforms could “politicize” the department and “put the chief right in the pocket of the mayor.”

Commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum, meanwhile, accused the chief of being a hypocrite.

“How can you be saying you’re against politicization?” Sheinbaum asked, telling Gates that by campaigning against the ballot measures, the chief would dragging the LAPD into politics.

Meanwhile, after the meeting the chief hinted to reporters that he might be considering a run for mayor in 1993. “I’m not not thinking about it,” he said, using the same line he gave last week, when he said he was considering delaying his retirement date from April of next year to June.

Gates and Sheinbaum also went toe to toe over the Christopher panel’s proposal to strengthen the Police Commission’s oversight function by increasing the size of its staff and giving the panel an independent civilian executive director, rather than a sworn officer. The chief called the commission’s proposal for a 20-person staff “ridiculous and a waste of the taxpayers’ money.”

Retorted Sheinbaum: “It’s not just a matter of your conservative fiscal nature. You are not used to having a totally functioning oversight.”

Still, Gates was largely supportive of most of the Christopher Commission’s recommendations.

Out of the 115 Christopher Commission recommendations the council asked him to evaluate, Gates supported 60 of them because they are already covered by LAPD policies. He indicated another 14 were policies or procedures that needed to be adopted. He also supported 17 others, but with some modifications.

Gates stated his outright opposition to 10 Christopher recommendations and said 14 others needed more study and research before he could take a position.

Already, Gates has said he is taking action to curb specific instances of wrongdoing identified by the Christopher Commission.

The chief said he is assessing the careers of 44 problem officers identified by the Christopher Commission, that the department has initiated 172 personnel complaints against officers who sent improper messages on their patrol car computers and that he is looking into allegations that the LAPD engages in brutality through its use of canines to track suspects.

Gates also revealed that, in response to a Christopher Commission recommendation to gather “complaint histories” on officers involved in use of excessive force, the department is putting together a computerized tracking system called the Officer Behavior Indicator Tracking System. The system is dubbed OBITS.

The chief pledged that by early 1992 he will have drafted a comprehensive plan for implementing community-based policing--a key Christopher Commission recommendation--on a citywide basis. He also said that the LAPD will hold a training seminar later this month to discuss expanding its community-based policing program.

But in defense of the LAPD, he wrote: “The department has a history of . . . significant success in community-based policing.”