Block Denies Policy Change on Discipline

Sheriff Sherman Block denied Thursday that there has been any change in the Sheriff Department’s policies on disciplining officers involved in shootings, rejecting testimony by one of his captains that deputies were now occasionally being fired for new “moralistic” and “civil liability” reasons.

Block agreed that officer-involved shootings are now more comprehensively investigated, but he denied that deputies are discharged because they have exposed the department to big civil lawsuits. He added that the department has long trained its officers to use “reverence for human life” as a guide for their conduct.

Capt. John E. Anderson, the Lakewood station commander, testified Wednesday at a reinstatement hearing for a fired deputy that he gradually came to realize, after discussions with senior department officials, that there had been unannounced changes in firing policies.

Anderson’s comments came during a Civil Service Commission hearing to determine whether former Deputy Jose Belmares, who was fired after he fatally wounded David Angel Ortiz, 15, in 1991, should be reinstated.

Block, interviewed Thursday, said there has not even been “a change in emphasis” in policies. Instead, he said, “It’s been a re-emphasis of values we have always had, that one of our primary missions is protection of life and property.

“What has changed is the environment in which we are working and what we have to do to do our job.”

He explained that particular sensitivity to the multicultural Los Angeles community must now underlie conduct of all deputies.