L.A. Promises Promotions, Raises for Minority Officers : Police: Council accepts consent decree, avoiding litigation in discrimination suit filed by the state.

The city of Los Angeles on Tuesday agreed to settle a state discrimination complaint by promoting and giving pay raises to greater numbers of Latino, black and Asian-American police officers.

The agreement--approved by the City Council in executive session--avoids litigation over a complaint filed against the Police Department and the city of Los Angeles by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing two years ago on behalf of the department’s 3,000 minority officers.

The complaint alleged that Latino officers in particular and minority officers in general have been held back because of biased and inconsistent promotion procedures and inadequate affirmative action plans.

In the 8,300-member department, there are seven Latinos, seven blacks and no Asian-Americans above the rank of lieutenant. There is one minority, a black, among the department’s seven deputy and assistant chiefs, according to department figures.

On Tuesday, the City Council voted 10 to 1 to enter into a consent decree that is designed to improve minority officers’ job opportunities and increase their representation in all ranks from patrol officers to supervisory and middle-management positions.

Among other things, the city will be required to pay $1.5 million for training and counseling programs and an unspecified amount to a black officer who joined in the complaint.

“The city looked itself in the mirror, did not like what it saw and decided to set a new course,” City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said. “It is unconscionable a city like ours should be so lily-white at the top.”

The settlement comes 10 years after the city agreed to consent decrees requiring the Police Department to boost recruitment of minority and female officers.

Although recruitment increased, minority officers found themselves concentrated in the lower ranks of the department, according to minority officers and some council members.

When the state filed its complaint, Latinos were being promoted at rates well below those of their Anglo counterparts. In 1989, 524 Anglos applied for promotion to sergeant, as did 180 Latinos. But while 27% of the Anglos were promoted, only 16% of the Latino officers moved up.

The settlement followed eight months of sometimes-bitter negotiations that participants say had accelerated after the Christopher Commission report on the police department.

Assistant City Atty. Robert Cramer, who represented the city in the case, said the agreement with the state will be finalized in federal court sometime before the end of the year.

State officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

Specifically, the settlement establishes annual goals for pay increases and for promoting Latino, black and Asian-American officers to the ranks of sergeant, detective and lieutenant.

The agreement requires that the Police Department promote 80% of the officers in each ethnic group who either qualify or apply for promotion each year, Kramer said.

At the end of three years, he said, the number of minorities in top positions at the department must be roughly equivalent to the percentage of each group in the general population.

The city must make progress reports each year to a state administrative law judge, Cramer said. If the department fails to meet the goals, city officials must explain the problem in a federal court hearing.

The agreement also calls on the city to set aside funds for affirmative action management training, career counseling programs and a “tutoring fund” to help prepare minority officers for promotional tests and interviews. The city is to deposit $500,000 into an account for scholarships, promotion incentives and retirement benefits for minority officers who have been adversely affected by discrimination. One officer who joined in the state complaint, narcotics detective John W. Hunter, also is to receive an unspecified amount of compensation to settle with the city, officials said. He could not be reached for comment.

Theresa Fay-Bustillos, who represented Latino officers in the matter, said the complex agreement was “hard-fought every step of the way.”

“This agreement will ensure that the Police Department’s promotion and selection practices are objective,” said Fay-Bustillos, attorney for the 1,000-member Latin American Law Enforcement Assn., known as La Ley, which initiated the state’s complaint. “It will also make the Police Department more sensitive to the population it serves by getting more ethnic minorities into peak positions.”

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said of the settlement, “It’s one we can live with.”

But Gates and Police Commission staff members declined to discuss details of the agreement, noting that they had not yet been formally notified by City Hall about the matter.

Lawyers on both sides of the issue, however, said the highly publicized beating of Rodney G. King and subsequent Christopher Commission recommendations for ridding the department of racism revived negotiations that had been stalled for months.

“We pointed out the Christopher Commission findings to the city attorneys,” Fay-Bustillos said. “The timing was perfect--the findings broke open the stalemate.”

In a report on the consent decree to City Council members, Cramer said the settlement “represents the price the city must pay” for earlier consent decrees requiring that the Police Department boost recruitment of minorities and women.

“To the extent that goal has been achieved, expectations of advancement have arisen,” he wrote in the letter. “Frustrations arose as well when those expectations were not fully met.”

Detective Rick Barrera, president of La Ley, said the pact will “revitalize Latino officers on the force by showing them there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

“We just want Latinos to feel they are part of the system,” Barrera said. “Now, we can compete as a viable group of people.”

Constance Rice, an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, hailed the settlement, calling it an “important way” to address the problems of racism in the LAPD and police brutality against minorities, as outlined by the Christopher Commission.

“Right now,” she added, “minority communities understandably view the LAPD as a department run mainly by and for non-minorities.”

In unrelated action at a Police Commission meeting Tuesday, representatives from two black police officer associations presented a major position paper outlining their concerns that some top LAPD managers are biased against black officers and that the black community does not receive the same quality of police service as white neighborhoods.

Lt. Lyman Doster, president of the Assn. of Black Law Enforcement officers (ABLE), and Sgt. James Craig, president of the Oscar Joel Bryant Assn., said their groups have received support from other minority groups since the position paper was drafted, including votes of confidence from Latino, Asian-American and gay officers.

“I don’t know how deep the bias goes,” Doster said. “But I do know that many of the officers we’re talking to have experienced some very similar biases.”

The black officers are asking the Police Department to improve sensitivity training for white officers, to increase promotional opportunities for minority officers, and to assure the black community that it will receive a high level of police service.

Gates said after the commission meeting that he was deeply concerned about their statements and that he has asked for an internal LAPD management committee to begin analyzing and evaluating their recommendations.

He also said he believes he has the backing of many minority officers, despite their criticisms of the department.

“I believe I have the support of a vast majority of law enforcement officers,” Gates said, “here and throughout the country.”

Times staff writers George Ramos and Richard A. Serrano contributed to this story.

The LAPD Work Force

This is the ethnic breakdown for 17 job categories in the Los Angeles Police Department, based on a sworn-officer force of 8,209. The figures, supplied by the LAPD, are as of Oct. 6, 1991.

Rank Black Latino Asian Filipino Am. Indian Anglo Police Chief 0 0 0 0 0 1 Assistant Chief 0 0 0 0 0 2 Deputy Chief 1 0 0 0 0 5 Commander 2 2 0 0 0 15 Captain, 3rd Grade 2 2 0 0 0 23 Captain, 2nd Grade 0 0 0 0 0 18 Captain, 1st Grade 2 3 0 0 0 16 Lieutenant, 2nd Grade 7 16 1 0 0 109 Lieutenant, 1st Grade 6 8 1 0 0 82 Detective, 3rd Grade 22 36 3 1 0 248 Detective, 2nd Grade 34 87 8 0 2 463 Detective, 1st Grade 50 103 18 2 1 348 Sergeant, 2nd Grade 38 37 4 0 0 222 Sergeant, 1st Grade 56 67 14 2 2 453 Officer, 3rd Grade 311 428 44 9 9 1,264 Officer, 2nd Grade 504 814 96 17 7 1,458 Officer, 1st Grade 102 195 32 7 3 264 TOTAL 1,137 1,798 221 38 24 4,991