Diversity Signals ‘New Day’ in Selection of LAPD Chief

The selection of Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates’ successor is shaping up as a landmark event, not only because it comes amid an electrified climate of reform, but because there is a greater chance than ever that minorities and outsiders will be among the finalists.

Against the backdrop of the Rodney G. King beating and pressure for change in the Los Angeles Police Department, the screening process for a new chief has produced 13 semifinalists that include more blacks, Latinos and outsiders than at any time in contemporary LAPD history.

“This is a new day,” said Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack. “It really represents a breaking up of the good old boys, closed society.”

A combination of factors--including minorities finally rising to top law enforcement posts and special efforts to recruit outside applicants--has contributed to the diverse mix of candidates.

Also, reforms instituted after Gates’ 1978 appointment have increased the likelihood that some minorities and non-LAPD officers will make the final eligibility list from which the Police Commission will choose the next chief this year.

Five outsiders are among the semifinalists, and at least five of the 13 are minorities. The minorities include two top-ranking black LAPD officers and three Latinos, among them the former Phoenix police chief and the highest-ranking Latino in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Critics contend that the city’s 50-year-old method of selecting police chiefs has led to insular thinking and sluggish adaptation to policing a rapidly changing, multiethnic city.

“There was not an attempt to be all that innovative and fresh in their approach,” said Richard Lichtenstein, who is managing the campaign for a series of LAPD reforms proposed by the Christopher Commission in the wake of the King beating. “The more the process is open, the better the chance we have to find better leaders, be that within or without, be they minority or be they white.”

Since at least the 1930s, the final candidates for chief have all been white members of the Los Angeles police brass. “There was no (minority) in a position to contend,” said former LAPD Chief Ed Davis, who served 38 years in the department.

In 1978, when Gates was appointed, there was an effort for the first time to recruit candidates from outside the department. But civil service rules favoring veteran LAPD commanders eliminated the highest-scoring candidate, who was the Santa Monica police chief, and forced two black LAPD semifinalists off the final three-candidate eligibility list.

The selection process was reformed in the mid-1980s, increasing the list of finalists to at least half a dozen and reducing the advantage enjoyed by insiders.

These changes, coupled with the advancement of minorities in law enforcement and the desire to broaden the pool of candidates, have opened the door to new faces as never before.

Councilman Michael Woo called the current selection process “the beginning of glasnost in the LAPD.”

But the new openness, particularly when it comes to outsiders, has stirred dissent in the Police Department’s ranks. Many police managers fear that the emphasis on breaking with the past and recruiting outsiders will produce a chief hobbled by inexperience and unfamiliarity with a complex city.

“I hope out of this whole process they don’t stumble and, in retaliation against Chief Gates, put in someone who has minor qualifications,” said Capt. Charles Labrow, president of the LAPD Command Officers Assn. Labrow rejects the idea that the previous selection process has contributed to the department’s problems.

Labrow acknowledged that there are officers who also would not welcome a minority chief, fearing that a black or Latino chief might show favoritism toward minority officers.

Adding to the resentment in the command staff is the fact that some Police Department commanders who applied were eliminated in the first round of screening.

“They take some (outsider) who hasn’t even demonstrated minimum competency on an LAPD shooting range, and say he’s qualified” over veteran insiders, said Barry Levin, an attorney who is appealing the disqualification of three LAPD contenders.

Even some who have endorsed the sweeping police reforms urged by the Christopher Commission, which investigated the department after the King beating, argue that an LAPD insider is just as likely as an outsider to make needed changes.

“No matter what new chief comes in, you’re going to have a high level of sensitivity (to community relations), whether he’s black, Latino or Anglo,” said Tom Reddin, who was the department’s chief for two years in the late 1960s. “(It’s) going to be there because it’s the tone of the times.”

Even Woo, who is a leading critic of Gates, agreed that some of the eight semifinalists from inside the department could be champions of reform--”the Gorbachev of the LAPD.”

As the semifinalist list emerges and the opportunity to have a Latino or African-American police chief becomes more possible, a subtle competition has begun to build between Latino and black groups, who want police leadership more attuned to their respective communities.

“Latinos are around 40% of the population,” said Xavier Hermisillo, spokesman for a coalition of community and business groups who are urging that the chief be a Latino. “We want someone at the top who is sensitive to that.”

Mack of the Urban League said: “Clearly, (having a black chief) is a strong desire on the part of many people in our community. It’s making for a more spirited competition.

“My concern is we don’t have this selection of a chief become another political battleground” between blacks and Latinos. “First and foremost,” Mack said, “the next chief of police must be up to the task, in terms of turning this department around.”

Although it is less significant than before, an inside advantage still exists for candidates within the Los Angeles Police Department. In the final ranking, they gain up to one point for department service at the rank of commander or above. Previously, there was no cap on the extra points they could accumulate based on LAPD service.

Gates received three extra points for his years of service--enough to bump the top scoring candidate 14 years ago. The controversy surrounding the selection led, in part, to revisions in the civil service rules in the mid-1980s.

Under the current rules, outside candidates also must outscore all LAPD semifinalists to make the final cut.

Some city officials want all advantages for insiders removed in June by voters, who will be asked to approve a series of reforms flowing from the Christopher Commission’s report.

“We want to have the best possible Police Department. We want the most qualified and most competent chief,” said Councilman Marvin Braude, who chairs a committee implementing police reforms. “We don’t want to give any special weight to any prospective chief, whether he’s inside or outside.”

The list of 13 semifinalists has not yet been made public. But sources familiar with the selection process say it includes at least five minorities, some of whom are from outside the department. They are:

* Former Phoenix Police Chief Ruben Ortega, the first Latino in the nation to head a big-city law enforcement agency.

* Lee Baca, a division chief and the highest-ranking Latino in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

* LAPD Deputy Chief Bernard Parks, the department’s highest-ranking black officer, who oversees operations in the central part of the city.

* LAPD Cmdr. Ron Banks, a black officer who supervises detective, vice and anti-gang operations in South Los Angeles.

* LAPD Cmdr. Robert Gil, one of the senior Latinos in the department and head of Gates’ public communications section.

Other semifinalists, whose names have been confirmed by The Times, are: William Bratton, the new Boston police chief who previously headed the New York transit police force; Assistant LAPD Chief Robert L. Vernon, who oversees about 85% of the department’s field force; Assistant LAPD Chief David Dotson, who heads administrative services for the department; LAPD Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker, who oversees operations in the San Fernando Valley; LAPD Deputy Chief Glenn Levant, who oversees the Westside, and Deputy Chief Matthew Hunt, who commands police operations in South Los Angeles.

The pool of contenders will be trimmed after interviews, beginning Feb. 24, with a seven-member panel of professionals appointed by the Civil Service Commission. The Police Commission, appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley, is expected to choose the new chief as early as April.