Selection of Police Chief
As we rush to reform the LAPD, we must be ever vigilant that fairness prevails for everyone. Currently we are embroiled in selecting our next chief of police. One of the things that is troubling our membership is why are we using the old Civil Service process? Especially when the Christopher Commission recommended that this process be changed and which will be on the June ballot.
The old system favors the inside candidates by giving them one seniority point, which the outside candidates are not entitled to receive.
In the latest go-round only one candidate outscored the highest-scoring inside candidate, Bernard Parks, who scored 97 points, which included the one seniority point. The travesty that has occurred was that the third-highest scoring candidate, Lee Baca, an outside candidate, will be excluded from the final selection process.
We feel that the certification of finalists should be delayed until after the June election. If the ballot measure that calls for police reform is passed by the voters, it would allow a more equitable process to take place. We are not asking that an unqualified Latino be selected, but that the process be fair to everyone.
AL RUVALCABA
RICK BARRERA, Directors for the Latin American Law Enforcement Assn., LaLey
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