The Spirit of Police Reform : Mayor-elect faces key decisions in filling all-important Police Commission

Mayor-elect Richard Riordan has said that the Police Commission is the city commission that will receive his priority attention when he takes office this week. It’s appropriate that Riordan quickly turn his attention to the civilian panel that oversees the Los Angeles Police Department.

The Christopher Commission, created to examine the LAPD after the Rodney G. King beating, concluded in its landmark 1991 report that “during most of its existence, the Police Commission has taken a . . . passive role, essentially acting as a ‘booster or rubber stamp’ for the department.”

With the arrival of Police Chief Willie L. Williams, the chief and the commission began to demonstrate a reasonableness and fairness that have boosted the department’s credibility, particularly in African-American and Latino communities, where the LAPD’s reputation had long been tarnished by allegations of brutality. After a 15-year LAPD officer shot an unarmed tow truck driver in South-Central Los Angeles about a year ago, Williams urged the commission to rule, as it did, that the shooting was a use of excessive force and violated department policy. Officer Douglas Iversen was suspended without pay; he now faces second-degree murder charges filed by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. It’s the first time in more than 10 years that any officer in Los Angeles County will be tried for murder for a shooting while on duty. Whatever the outcome of the criminal trial, Williams and the commission sent a clear and indisputable signal about LAPD shooting policy--one standard must apply citywide.

That’s the sort of message that the Christopher report said must be sent consistently from the Police Commission. An unvarying message of fairness--as well as progress on community policing and other Christopher reforms--is crucial to civic harmony. That’s why it’s important that Mayor-elect Riordan appoint police commissioners committed to completing the Christopher Commission reforms.

One way for Riordan to signal his intention to keep the Police Commission moving forward is to provide for some continuity on the five-member panel. The commission already has an experienced police administrator, Joseph T. Rouzan, as its new executive director.

It is natural that the new mayor will want his own appointees; presumably he will take care to provide representation for various constituencies, including the San Fernando Valley, minorities and women. But retired LAPD Assistant Chief Jesse A. Brewer, with his 38 years of experience as both a street cop and a department administrator, is one current commissioner who would be a particularly valuable asset on Riordan’s new commission. Reappointing Brewer would be one way to help take the commission’s admirable recent course into the future.