Women’s Panel Finds Ingrained Sexism in LAPD : Law enforcement: Report says emphasis on physical strength perpetuates a ‘culture of gender bias.’ It adds that the attitude affects the handling of some crimes.

Saying that hiring and promotion practices perpetuate a “culture of gender bias” in the Los Angeles Police Department, a new report calls for more women in the ranks and a policy of “brains over brawn.”

Prepared by the Women’s Advisory Council to the Police Commission, the report says the LAPD continues to value brute strength over negotiating skills and is woefully lax about pursuing complaints of sexual harassment and domestic violence by its officers.

In addition, the 23-member council--which was appointed by the police commissioner 18 months ago to expand on the Christopher Commission’s findings on gender bias--says the department’s tolerance of sexism affects officers’ response to violent crimes against women. It notes that felony arrests for spousal abuse have dropped in the last three years, despite a rise in the number of reported incidents.

“Violent crimes against women are minimized,” the report alleges.

The report, which makes more than 160 detailed recommendations, urges the LAPD to become at least 44% female to match the percentage of women in the city’s work force.

A spokesman for the department said Chief Willie L. Williams would have no comment until the report becomes public.

The 100-page document, scheduled for official release this week, warns that sexism will hamper the department’s transition to community-based policing, a key recommendation in the Christopher Commission report, which followed the Rodney G. King beating.

Female officers are especially well-suited to community policing, the report says, because they are better communicators and less likely to use firearms than their male counterparts.

“They can’t achieve community-oriented policing without doing this,” said Katherine Spillar, co-chairwoman of the advisory council and national coordinator of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Under a 1981 court order, the LAPD is obligated to increase the number of women officers to achieve a minimal goal of 20%. Now, 14% of the LAPD’s 7,600 officers are women, up from 2% in 1981, the report says.

The report also recommends that the department create a new unit to investigate complaints of sexual discrimination inside the department. It should have equal stature to the Internal Affairs Division and operate outside LAPD headquarters at Parker Center to provide maximum privacy, the report says.

Spillar said the advisory council’s recommendations should mesh well with the sweeping plan for the LAPD unveiled last week by Williams and Mayor Richard Riordan, who hope to add about 3,000 officers to the force over the next five years.

“Women are going to play a critical role in the new LAPD,” Spillar said. “This gives them an opportunity to more quickly gender-balance the department.”

Although the cost of expanding the police force has been an issue, the hiring of women officers will save the city money in legal costs stemming from brutality complaints, the report states.

The Christopher Commission found that of the 120 police officers involved in the greatest numbers of use-of-force incidents, none was female.

The Women’s Advisory Council was composed of representatives of legal and women’s groups--such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Women’s Law Center--along with a retired LAPD officer, Diane Harber, and Penny Harrington, former police chief of Portland, Ore.

Its report is based in part on interviews with 75 to 100 officers, including more than 50 women who described a work environment in which they were clearly unwelcome, Spillar said. In many respects, their comments echo those heard by the Christopher Commission, which found that police computer messages often included sexist quips.

“Women told of being constantly tested and baited, or deprived of the usual network of officer support,” the new report states, citing a 1987 LAPD study that also described such problems.

In some police stations, the report states, women officers have been segregated during roll call and forced to sit at the front of the room, a gesture that is isolating and humiliating.

The report’s sources also complained that male officers accused of harassment on the job or of violence at home are rarely, if ever, prosecuted on criminal charges. Internally, the department only halfheartedly investigates such complaints for possible misconduct charges, according to the report. No data about such cases was included because the department would not make it available, Spillar said.

Whereas the Christopher Commission found little evidence to show that bias was translated into excessive force or harassment of female crime suspects or victims, the Women’s Advisory Council report alleges that internal attitudes affect performance in the field--noting that although reported incidents of domestic violence have gone up in recent years, felony arrests have decreased.

In 1991, there were 39,154 domestic violence incidents reported and 8,276 arrests for felony spousal abuse. In 1992, incident reports rose to 43,691, but arrests decreased to 8,004.

“It is no coincidence that violent crimes against women are minimized in a Police Department culture which often minimizes, discriminates against and harasses the few women police officers in its ranks,” the report says.

Other examples of alleged sexism cited in the report:

* The police chief’s liaison for women’s concerns, known as the “women’s coordinator,” spends nearly a third of her time providing “family support” services for the widows and children of slain and deceased officers--responsibilities that “smack of gender bias and stereotyping.”

* Recruits are still culled mainly from military bases, security guard companies and other male bastions rather than from among teachers, social workers and other service-oriented occupations.

In addition, recruitment brochures “reflect a prevailing notion of policing as a rough-and-tumble career for which only ‘John Waynes’ need apply.” Women, meanwhile, are sought out through “cosmetic giveaways and celebrity appearances at city-sponsored women’s career conferences.”

* The physical abilities entrance test still includes scaling a six-foot wall and doing chin-ups, skills that depend on upper body strength and eliminate many female applicants.

Yet, the report states, sworn officers are never retested on those skills in their regular requalifying exams, suggesting that the feats are not crucial to job performance.

* Oral interview panelists, who screen candidates for admission to the Police Academy, deliberately inflate men’s scores “because they erroneously assume that a white male has to score drastically higher than women or minority males to get hired.”

The practice, the report states, “has hampered efforts to hire significantly larger numbers of women and has falsely created the impression that ‘inferior’ women and minority men have been hired over more qualified white males.”

The report’s recommendations include adding women to the Police Commission, whose five members now include only one woman, attorney Deirdre H. Hill.

LAPD Changes Major recommendations of the Women’s Advisory Council to the Los Angeles Police Commission:

* The Los Angeles Police Department should add women until they make up 44% of the force, matching the proportion of women in the work force.

* The LAPD should stop recruiting at military bases because the practice “guarantees a male-dominated recruitment base” and begin an aggressive advertising campaign aimed at women.

* Payments for sex and race bias claims should come out of the LAPD budget rather than city general funds.

* A new unit, on a footing equal to the Internal Affairs Division, should be created to investigate complaints of sexual harassment and discrimination within the LAPD.

* Psychological evaluations should be revised to better screen out applicants who are not only violent but who have negative attitudes toward women and who may be prone to “spousal or child abuse, sexual harassment and non-payment of spousal or child support.”