44 ‘Problem Officers’ at LAPD Are Retrained or Off the Force : Law enforcement: Report to Police Commission says most received counseling. Others quit or were fired.

Thirty-seven of 44 Los Angeles police officers identified as “problem officers” by the Christopher Commission have received counseling and retraining, according to a report to be submitted next week to the Police Commission. The remainder of the officers were either fired or resigned from the force.

The Police Commission asked for the report after The Times disclosed in October that many of the officers who had accumulated repeated brutality complaints remained on the force and that many had not received psychological training and counseling as recommended by a panel of Los Angeles police officers assigned to review the Christopher Commission report.

In fact, some of the so-called problem officers with six or more brutality complaints had not been informed that they were on the list, officials said. The report that will be submitted to the Police Commission said that, before the Times article, 17 of the 44 officers had not been counseled or retrained.

Cmdr. Ronald Banks, the department’s chief of staff, wrote in the Police Commission report that action had not been taken because of confusion over who was responsible for implementing the disciplinary recommendations of the panel of police officers that reviewed the 44 cases.

“As a result of the confusion,” Banks said, “a number of the commanding officers took no action.”

Police Chief Willie L. Williams assured the Police Commission in a cover letter to the report that as of this month, “these cases have been resolved. . . . All of the 44 have been reviewed and carefully documented.”

Of the 44 officers, seven have been fired or resigned from the department and another four are no longer assigned to field duties, said Assistant City Atty. Byron Boeckman. The remaining 33 officers have been retrained or counseled in some manner.

The department has also undertaken a review of a second group of approximately 136 officers who had been identified by the Christopher Commission as having received four or more complaints for using excessive force or improper tactics during a five-year period.

Of the 136 officers, 30 have retired, resigned or been fired by the department. Another 35 have been eliminated from the list after it was determined that there was no evidence of problems, Banks said.

The Christopher Commission was established by Mayor Tom Bradley and former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates to investigate charges of brutality in the department following the March 3 beating of Rodney G. King.

Not long after the Christopher Commission released its report in 1991, indicating significant problems of racism and brutality in the department and noting the existence of the 44 problem officers, the Police Commission met with Gates and other department officials seeking information on how the department was dealing with the problem officers, said Police Commission President Jesse A. Brewer.

At the meeting, Brewer said, Gates assured the commission that appropriate action was being taken to deal with the “problem officers.”

“We wanted some assurance that these 44 who had been identified as having problems were being handled in some way,” Brewer said. “He assured us that each case was being handled individually, case by case. Apparently, that was not correct.”

Brewer said he was pleased with the report investigating the status of the 44 officers.

“Now I’m satisfied that we have done that,” he said. “The report indicates that each of of the 44 officers have been handled in some way.”