New Police Panel Chief to Play Key Watchdog Role : LAPD: Joseph Rouzan is known as an iron-willed trouble-shooter. But critics question suitability for role.

On the day in 1984 that a shotgun blast blew out his kitchen window, Joseph T. Rouzan Jr. suspected he was under fire from Inglewood police officers. Inasmuch as Rouzan was Inglewood’s police chief at the time, the incident--never solved--was booming testimony to one important fact: Rouzan can be controversial.

That has not changed even as Rouzan, 61, has climbed to loftier positions of power. Last week, Rouzan assumed a $94,000-a-year job as executive director of the Los Angeles Police Commission.

In that post, established at the urging of the Christopher Commission, he is expected to play a vital watchdog role during the overhaul of the embattled Los Angeles Police Department.

But his appointment by the commission May 25 drew immediate criticism from cynics. A few said Rouzan, a longtime ally of Mayor Tom Bradley, was just another political crony who had gained a lucrative public appointment through back-room wheeling and dealing. Never mind the accolades Rouzan has collected as a highly trained, iron-willed trouble-shooter with decades of experience in law enforcement; to some, he was better known as one of the early members of Bradley’s inner circle. Now, Rouzan was being thrust into prominence only weeks before Mayor-elect Richard Riordan could assume the authority to appoint his own police commission.

“I think (it’s) . . . pretty obvious that we’re taking care of some of Mayor Bradley’s friends before the change in office,” said David Dotson, a former LAPD assistant police chief who counts himself among Rouzan’s supporters. “And I think it’s too bad, because I think Joe’s better than that.”

Bradley did not respond to a request made to his office for a comment on Rouzan. However, commission President Jesse A. Brewer, who presided over the selection process, said he never spoke with Bradley about the mayor’s choice for the appointment. Bradley, Rouzan and Brewer were once part of a close-knit group of black police officers at a time when the LAPD was commanded almost exclusively by whites.

Harsher critics note that the strong-willed Rouzan has been embroiled in other contentious situations in recent years that raise questions about his suitability for this role.

As part of his duties in the civilian job, Rouzan will be asked to be an independent voice, providing reasoned, unbiased recommendations to the commission on excessive-force complaints and many sensitive LAPD policy matters. In theory, the newly created position gives complete autonomy to the commission, enabling it to serve as a check against the powers of Police Chief Willie L. Williams. Until now, commissioners received their background reports and guidance from a sworn member of the LAPD, who carried out those tasks while also reporting to the chief.

Before outlasting 76 other applicants for the L.A. spot, Rouzan had similar responsibilities in Long Beach, serving nearly two years as executive director of that city’s police review commission. From spacious, 13th-floor quarters adjoining those of City Manager James C. Hankla, Rouzan and his small staff reviewed complaints and police documents and assisted the 11 volunteer panelists in arbitrating misconduct allegations.

But the results, so far, have not appeased the critics. In 1992, its first full year of existence, the Long Beach Citizen Police Complaint Commission examined 292 allegations of unnecessary or excessive force. Only nine were sustained. Overall, the commission upheld roughly one out of every 20 misconduct accusations investigated that year.

That score card caused some observers, especially in the African-American community, to perceive Rouzan as an extension of Hankla’s administrative will. Frank L. Berry, the Los Angeles County district director of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, likened the commission’s operation to an “insider’s club” that fails to meet its original intent: to make the Police Department accountable to the public.

“It seems to be kind of a private committee for the city manager and his designee--and, in this case, his designee (was) Joe Rouzan,” Berry said in an interview. “(The commissioners) are not doing nearly the kind of job . . . they have the authority to do.”

Rouzan bristles at such criticism, asking: “(Is) the true test of this commission how many complaints we sustain? Is the test of this review process how many heads we get?”

Rouzan became alternately angry, defensive and blandly tolerant in responding to the darts fired in his direction. “People think we’re here to prosecute officers,” he said one recent afternoon, overlooking the panoramic view of Long Beach that he has since given up for the austere halls of LAPD’s Parker Center. “The purpose here is . . . do a thorough, proper investigation. And when you see something errant or not right, you try to see if it can be fixed.”

Hankla lauded Rouzan’s performance and defended their close working relationship by saying he wanted to give the commission a high priority. “He is a consummate professional,” Hankla said. “He has extraordinary expertise in the field, so people can’t fool him. He has tremendous integrity, so people can’t buy him. He has a very people-oriented style and manner, so people trust him.”

But that trust is less than unanimous among officers at Los Angeles International Airport, where Rouzan, a onetime LAPD captain, became a consultant in 1985 to help resuscitate the troubled Airport Police Bureau.

His stormy tenure there, still a subject of unresolved grievances and ill will, began when the 208-officer bureau--one of the largest police agencies in Southern California--was in disarray and nearly bankrupt. An investigation had found evidence of officers engaged in grand theft, extortion and bribery. Ten complaints a day were being filed by citizens alleging brutality and officer misconduct. And the bureau’s police chief was about to resign after an arrest on embezzlement charges.

Into that chaos came Rouzan, a high-paid outsider boasting a master’s degree in business administration, terms as police chief in Compton and Inglewood and a no-nonsense air that bordered on arrogance. His initial contract was the first subject of outrage: Awarded without a competitive public bid and approved unanimously by the Bradley-appointed Airport Commission, it was worth up to $1.7 million over three years.

Several airlines, which foot the bill for airport expenses through landing fees, screamed in protest to airport management when they learned of the deal after the fact. “(When we heard) that $1.7 million, we went ape,” recalled Robert Saitta, who was then LAX station manager for Air France. “We really went quite bonkers about it.”

Within the bureau ranks, officers suspected that Rouzan was hired as part of a deal worked out between Bradley and then-commission President Johnnie L. Cochran, a heavy donor to the mayor’s political campaigns. But the airport’s deputy general manager at the time, Oris Dunham, said he recruited Rouzan independently of the commission.

“I did not know he was a crony of Tom Bradley,” Dunham said in an interview. “I needed help (and) I hired somebody. In the scheme of things and with the problems I had at the time, it was not a big deal.”

Even after hiring a four-member staff, Rouzan found the deal lucrative; during those first three years, he said, his personal salary hovered near $150,000--and he put in seven days a week, conducting audits, planning and running training seminars and preparing critiques of the department.

Some of Rouzan’s reports profferred his consulting company, Joseph Theodore & Associates, as a source of further analysis and training. At the end of three years, Rouzan won a new contract, and two more after that. The latest is now in effect through Oct. 31. To date, he has been paid more than $1.9 million by the airport.

Dunham and others credit Rouzan for significantly improving the bureau, whose officers began to attend training academies and to meet higher professional standards. Rouzan dissected and reformulated myriad department policies and procedures and addressed problems of racial discrimination and nepotism. One of Rouzan’s hirelings--Gilbert Sandoval, his former assistant chief in Compton--was selected as the bureau’s new police chief as a new hierarchy was put in place.

“One of his strengths was (being) able to see the big picture,” said airport Manager Stephen Yee. “He was reviewing all aspects of the airport police--record-keeping, deployment and scheduling, communications . . . . He’s been very much of an asset.”

But the changes and intense scrutiny caused friction. Controversy flared again last year after Rouzan drafted two seemingly contradictory critiques of the bureau’s operation. The first was a June report to airport management, in which Rouzan praised “significant gains” that had been made in training, supervisory development and overall attitude of personnel. That report even broached the idea of the bureau expanding to a “full-service” agency capable of conducting its own crime investigations.

“There are many (possible) benefits . . . both in terms of organizational efficiencies and employee morale and productivity,” Rouzan wrote. “I look forward to discussing this potential opportunity in the near future.”

In October, however, another report was sharply critical, complaining that “lip service” was being given to training and characterizing the bureau as once again on the precipice of bankruptcy. “Rumors of racial unrest are strongly in evidence,” Rouzan wrote, “and favoritism and nepotism have not abated and, in fact, may be becoming stronger. . . .” The report addressed the matter of personnel deployment by saying, “management pretty much flies by the seat of its pants.”

The 12-page document triggered a rebuttal report 10 times that length by Sandoval, who, along with three of his captains and other sworn officers, filed grievances. At least two of those complaints--which remain unresolved--have demanded that Rouzan be cut off from further consulting work, according to sources inside the department.

Despite his current contract, Rouzan has not been paid for work at the airport since September.

In the minds of some officers, the stinging October report seemed calculated to justify a one-year extension of Rouzan’s contract, which won commission approval and took effect on Nov. 1. One bureau veteran--who declined to be identified out of fear of reprisals--suggested that political uncertainty in Long Beach may have boosted Rouzan’s interest in maintaining the airport work.

Months before the first report, Rouzan had been appointed by Hankla to the $91,000-a-year job directing the police review panel. But the 1992 spring elections brought two new voices to the Long Beach City Council, even as critics were harping about Hankla’s dominant role in setting civic priorities. By year’s end, Hankla would be a candidate to head the newly forming Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

After reading a newspaper account of Hankla’s situation, the veteran bureau member recalled thinking, “ ‘There goes Rouzan--he’ll be looking for work.’ The next thing I know, here’s this (critical) report.”

But Rouzan vigorously denied that the October report was written to angle for a contract extension. Airport management had directed him to take a new, “hard look” at the bureau’s operation, resulting in the more-critical analysis, Rouzan said. He responded to the officer’s comments by saying, “That’s baloney. I think my career track shows I don’t have to protect a job.”

As he talks about his ever-upward track record, Rouzan seems especially proud of having jumped into difficult situations and parlayed them into greater opportunity. The stern-faced administrator--who looks as if he were born in a business suit--entered the LAPD in the mid-1950s when it was largely segregated.

At Wilshire Division, the young recruit sought out the night watch commander, Lt. Tom Bradley, for advice on winning promotions, Rouzan remembered. The ambitious future mayor was a role model not only for Rouzan but for a number of blacks, including Commission President Brewer. Those officers became close as they tried to forge careers in the department, recalled retired LAPD Cmdr. Homer F. Broome Jr.

Rouzan, who was married and raising three young children in Los Angeles, found time to coach Pop Warner football and to help establish several black law-enforcement organizations within the LAPD. Eventually, he became one of the department’s first black captains, then left in 1976 for Compton, where he took over as police chief and later assumed city manager duties, as well.

Roger Moulton, who served as Rouzan’s assistant chief before becoming police chief in Redondo Beach, described him as a strong leader with a creative flair. “He didn’t feel compelled to stay within the chain of command” in solving problems, Moulton recalled.

On one occasion, Rouzan assigned himself to be a Saturday night watch commander, just to stay in touch with his troops, Moulton said.

After moving on to Inglewood, Rouzan found himself as the black leader of a nearly all-white department, struggling to police a racially changing city experiencing its first gang problems. Officers had developed “a strong emphasis on shake, rattle and roll policing--kick ‘em in the tail,” Rouzan said. “There were at least a dozen outspoken racists in the department.”

Rouzan hired blacks from elsewhere into command positions and stressed community programs such as Neighborhood Watch. He had black-and-white patrol cars repainted blue and white to soften their appearance. He insisted on reviewing every piece of mail that flowed in and out of the department.

Sgt. Duane Chebul, president of the Inglewood Police Management Assn., remembered Rouzan as a leader who could not seem to delegate--or even trust those in his command. “I cannot stress enough the breadth and depth of management theory this person had,” Chebul said of Rouzan. “Just dynamite. My only negative comment is, he had some difficulty putting into practice what he preached.”

Rouzan acknowledged being a “hands-on” manager and pointed out that Inglewood then was a troubled department. Early one evening, as his wife Marlene talked on the kitchen phone, a shotgun blast ripped through the window, missing her by about two feet. Rouzan, who rushed home from work, never learned whether the attack came from his own officers, but he figured a few had the motive.

In time, Rouzan expanded his role in Inglewood, doubling as assistant city manager before leaving for the airport. He ran and won election to the Inglewood school board in 1987 and served until early this year. Then he abandoned a reelection bid less than two weeks before the April vote, too late to keep his name off the ballot.

That abrupt move gave rise to more speculation among his critics; now they say he left the race because the deal had been reached to vault him into the top executive’s role at the LAPD Police Commission.

“Hogwash,” Rouzan answered, saying he would have dropped out of the school board race earlier, except he wanted to be sure there was a competent successor. His duties elsewhere were consuming too much of his time. As for his connections with the retiring mayor: “I hadn’t even talked with Mr. Bradley in years,” Rouzan said. “I know him enough to say, ‘Hi, Mayor.’

“Sometimes he remembers my name, sometimes he doesn’t.”

Times staff writer Roxana Kopetman contributed to this story.