Conflicts Stymie Prosecution of Police : Trials: A special prosecutor, untarnished by day-to-day dependence on officers, is needed.

A plaguing question in the criminal prosecution of police for acts of brutality is whether the same prosecutor’s office that must rely on the work of the police day in and day out to try crimes can then turn around and prosecute its own arms and legs. When it is recognized that the U.S. attorney’s office has conflicts of interest too deep to allow it to prosecute cases such as Watergate or Iran-Contra and a special prosecutor is appointed, should we expect that municipal government can successfully prosecute its own police?

While the Rodney King case is unique because the brutal police beating was videotaped for all the world to see, it is not unique in most other respects. Criminal charges against police have traditionally been hard to prove.

Jurors don’t want to brand the police criminals. Neither do prosecutors, who must call on police officers every day to testify in everything from a purse-snatching to a murder. In every kind of case except police misconduct, they work hand in glove. Perhaps that is one reason why police brutality cases brought in the civil courts, by attorneys independent of state and county government, fare far better than those brought in the criminal courts.

In Philadelphia, a city with a long history of police abuse and vigorous community response, this was a issue in the race for district attorney several years ago. Both the Democratic and Republican candidates were forced to promise the establishment of a separate unit to prosecute police. When now-Mayor Ed Rendell won that race for district attorney, he brought in an outsider, an experienced attorney with no association with the Philadelphia district attorney’s office, to head a unit devoted to prosecuting police brutality cases. That attorney did not have to appear in court on other cases with the police as his witnesses.

Perhaps it’s time for Los Angeles to have a special prosecutor, untarnished by a dependent relationship with the local police, and dedicated solely to the task of prosecuting police crime.