Police Scrutinizing Internal Policies on Sexual Harassment

Police departments in Orange County have come under intense scrutiny in recent months following sexual-misconduct accusations and a series of sexual-harassment allegations leveled at officers as well as top officials.

The result has been reviews of standing policies banning harassment, internal investigations and sometimes severe discipline of those accused of misconduct, which allegedly has ranged from verbal harassment to having sex while on duty.

In the past year, the Sheriff’s Department and officials in Anaheim, Irvine and Newport Beach have conducted departmental investigations after suspected misconduct. Then last week, the Orange Police Department fired three officers after an internal investigation into allegations they had sex with two women while they were supposed to be on patrol.

Law enforcement officials and others who follow the issue said Friday that the string of sex-harassment cases in Orange County mirror cases at police departments elsewhere and do not necessarily point to increased numbers of problem officers here.

In addition, as society takes allegations of sexual harassment more seriously, police departments have tried to follow, officials said.

“I don’t think the incidents of sex harassment (overall) are rising. I think it’s the comfort level of women who are reporting it,” said Ann Reiss Lane, a former member of the Los Angeles Police Commission, made up of mayoral appointees to help set department policy. “I think people believe it’s acceptable and you won’t be punished by colleagues,” she said.

But she and others point out that it is often an excruciating decision for women to make accusations against police, especially if the women work for the department.

“I think police departments are particularly difficult because, number one, police are taught to protect each other. They have to, that is their job,” said Judy Rosener, a professor at UC Irvine’s Graduate School of Management who studies issues related to men and women in the workplace.

“There is this kind of . . . code, and I think it’s stronger than in any other government agency. . . . It is so strong it is very hard for anyone to speak up.”

Police chiefs said that although internal investigations into sexual harassment are painful to conduct, they insist they do not shy away from them.

“We do bring this thing out in Orange County,” said Laguna Beach Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr. “We don’t try to whitewash it. We let the chips fall where they may. People in this county see that chiefs take action, with discipline up to and including terminating some of these people.”

Investigating sexual harassment has become a priority for many police departments nationwide, said Clyde Cronkhite, a former deputy chief for the Los Angeles Police Department and current chair of the Department of Law Enforcement Administration at Western Illinois University.

Police departments “have to enforce selectively, and that should be in tune with what the community wants. . . . You don’t have the crews you want to look into everything, so you end up focusing on things that are most topical and getting the most attention, and right now discrimination by race and sex are very sensitive,” said Cronkhite, who also is a former Santa Ana police chief.

The recent allegations in the county and some other watershed events, such as the controversial 1991 Supreme Court nomination hearings for Clarence Thomas where law professor Anita Hill accused him of past sexual harassment, have been the equivalent of a wake-up call for police chiefs here, they said.

“I think that as police administrators, we can’t put our heads in the sand and say it is not happening or will not occur or will never occur,” Purcell said.

Officials said that attitudes in law enforcement agencies have changed, albeit slowly, as more women have become police officers and more harassment lawsuits have been filed.

An accusation of harassment or sexual misconduct against an officer “would not have been treated to the degree that it is today, because the departments are more sensitized,” said Irvine Police Chief Charles S. Brobeck, who was named in a sexual-harassment suit this year along with three other supervisors. “You didn’t see many sex-harassment suits a few years ago, if any,” he said.

As a result, officials said, gone are some of the reminders that police departments are largely the domain of men--pictures of nude women in lockers and banter that pokes fun at females.

“The overall workplace has changed,” Brobeck said. “You are seeing guarded commentary between (men and women) because they are afraid of what might happen” as a result of something spoken.

In the wake of sexual harassment or misconduct allegations, what some police departments have found is a fight to regain credibility with members of their city or community, said Diane Marchant, a Los Angeles attorney who often represents police officers.

“I think there have been a lot of instances that have eroded that automatic presumption of credibility of police officers,” Marchant said. “Departments are eager to re-establish the integrity of their departments and to be able to say to their community that they look at every complaint.”

Police officials and others agree that departments still have work ahead of them when tackling issues of sexual harassment or misconduct.

Cathy L. Jensen, an Anaheim attorney and co-chairwoman of the Women’s Rights Committee of the local ACLU, said: “It’s important that police can come forward and maybe educate their own people so they understand that that type of behavior is not to be accepted.”