Union Leader Says LAPD Drags Heels on Reforms : Police: Officers’ representative tells civil rights panel that the department has been slow to implement Christopher, Webster measures. Chief Williams cites lack of money for new programs.

The leader of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents LAPD officers, told a national civil rights panel Tuesday that the department is dawdling on implementing some aspects of a highly touted reform plan released nearly two years ago.

William C. Violante, the president of the league, told members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that despite pledges to implement reform, the department has shown a “tremendous lack of response.”

In a written statement submitted to the commission, Violante elaborated on his charge that the department has failed to implement key recommendations by two blue-ribbon panels, the Christopher Commission, which investigated the workings of the LAPD, and the Webster Commission, which investigated last year’s riots.

“Today, the recommendations of both the Christopher Commission and the Webster report are a distant political memory,” Violante said. “The police of Los Angeles call upon this commission to infuse those recommendations with new energy and to encourage our political representatives to move toward true reform of the Los Angeles Police Department.”

Although union leaders have expressed frustration with the department in recent months, Violante’s comments Tuesday were the sharpest attack to date, and they were launched on the opening day of closely watched hearing by the civil rights commission. The commission is expected to draft a report for Congress and the White House based on these and other hearings. Police Chief Willie L. Williams, also testifying before the commission, highlighted areas in which he said the department has moved forward with reforms. He told commissioners that the federal government could speed up that process by providing funds to help the department during the city’s difficult financial times.

Afterward, Williams declined to respond specifically to Violante’s charges, saying he refused to discuss negotiations with the union publicly. But Williams defended the department’s efforts to implement the reform proposals.

“We can’t add these things unless we have the money,” Williams told reporters. “The cupboard is bare.”

Violante, who opened his comments by saying he was sorry to “be the only person taking the opposing point of view here,” said the department has failed to implement such steps as improving training, adding incentives for officers to take patrol assignments and adding programs such as psychological testing and counseling for officers.

The police union is presently engaged in negotiations with the department for a new contract, and talks are coming to a head. The union board has scheduled a meeting for this morning to consider its next move, and many police officers say that a job action of some sort is possible if no agreement is reached with the department.

Violante was part of a panel presenting views on the LAPD. Williams and Police Commission President Jesse A. Brewer sat next to Violante and stared impassively as he implicitly attacked their efforts.

Violante’s comments highlighted the opening session of the civil rights panel, but most of the commission session was devoted to debating ideas about how Washington might assist local efforts to reform law enforcement agencies and reassure the public that those agencies punish officers who use excessive force.

Paul Hoffman, legal director of the Southern California American Civil Liberties Union, criticized the Justice Department for not moving more aggressively against police officers who have been charged with brutality. Although the department’s civil rights division--along with the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles--won convictions against two officers in the beating of Rodney G. King, Hoffman said federal prosecutors need to play a more active role in other cases.

In addition, Hoffman proposed that the Justice Department be given authority to bring charges against entire police departments if there is evidence that they have encouraged officers to use excessive force. Those suits are known as “pattern-and-practice” cases, and Hoffman said they would greatly strengthen the federal government’s hand in cases involving widespread charges of police brutality.

“It’s vital for the federal government, in my view, to have a range of options,” he said.

Hoffman’s proposal was endorsed by two of the nation’s best-known police reform advocates, former New York Police Department Commissioner Patrick Murphy and Jerome Skolnick, a UC Berkeley law professor who has written extensively on police misconduct.

Members of the civil rights commission appeared intrigued by the idea, asking a number of witnesses to comment on it. Some supported it but others, including Chief Williams, either opposed it or expressed misgivings about giving the federal government a greater role in local police affairs.

Other witnesses suggested the creation of a special prosecutor to handle cases involving police officers charged with criminal misconduct. The district attorney, they said, is ill-equipped to handle such charges because that office relies on the cooperation of police for its other cases.

But Sheriff Sherman Block, one of the final law enforcement witnesses of the day, opposed that move and took offense at the suggestion that law enforcement agencies cannot police themselves or each other. “I resent that,” Block said.

Two citizen witnesses expressed their skepticism with the progress of reforms in the sheriff’s department. But Block told commissioners that he and the County Board of Supervisors are moving ahead with reform measures in that department, and he said that some key elements of the reform plan will probably be put in place during the coming county budget.

The civil rights commission convenes again this morning at the Sheraton Grande in downtown Los Angeles. Its hearings continue through Thursday.