Panel to Probe Harassment in LAPD Urged

Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg is prepared to recommend sweeping changes in the way the Los Angeles Police Department deals with complaints of sexual harassment by police officers, according to a memo by Goldberg to two of her colleagues on the City Council’s Personnel Committee.

Goldberg’s proposals would make significant changes in the way the department investigates complaints, trains officers and punishes those who violate sexual harassment rules. As she has in the past, Goldberg also recommended that the LAPD set a goal of 43.4% women in its ranks--a percentage that matches the representation of women in the work force generally.

Goldberg’s most revolutionary suggestion is that a special civilian unit be created to investigate harassment and discrimination complaints. The unit would report directly to the civilian Board of Police Commissioners rather than to Police Chief Willie L. Williams.

The Personnel Committee, which Goldberg heads, is scheduled to address LAPD sexual harassment at its meeting this afternoon.

Changes such as those proposed by Goldberg would ultimately require approval of the full City Council, which controls the department’s budget, and the Police Commission, which oversees the LAPD’s operations.

Goldberg’s recommendations--which, the councilwoman emphasized in her memo, are not final proposals but instead are offered “as a way to begin the discussion of solutions to the problem of sexual harassment in the LAPD”--grow out of news reports documenting widespread allegations of harassment, as well as two hearings the Personnel Committee held on the subject last month.

“It is clear from the testimony that the LAPD culture has a much higher tolerance for sexual harassment than do most other work cultures,” Goldberg said in her April 18 memo, which is addressed to her two Personnel Committee colleagues, Councilmen Mike Hernandez and Mark Ridley-Thomas. “By insulating the investigative process within that culture, we are denying ourselves the perspective of civilians who may more accurately reflect the views of what is tolerable. Not incidentally, those views may be closer to those of a jury.”

Faced with mounting numbers of harassment complaints and lawsuits, Williams has already proposed the creation of a special unit to investigate harassment and discrimination. Under the current system, those complaints are investigated by the LAPD’s Internal Affairs Division, but some female officers have complained about the Internal Affairs Division and have expressed reluctance to make complaints as long as the unit is in charge of investigating them.

Although he has expressed support for the new unit, Williams has not spelled out how it would function or to whom it would report. Some department insiders have suggested that it would probably be made up of police officers and would report to the chief.

Goldberg’s suggestion more closely parallels a recommendation by Danny L. Staggs, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League. Staggs testified at one of the Personnel Committee hearings on harassment and recommended that the special unit report to the commission rather than the chief.

Deirdre Hill, vice president of the Police Commission, said Goldberg’s proposal “certainly merits examination,” but added that she has some concerns about how it is structured.

“One concern would be that you’d have to make sure a civilian unit would have insight into what’s going on with sworn officers,” Hill said. She added, “If the unit is going to be assigned to the commission, certainly the chief would still need to be very involved.”

In addition to her recommendations regarding the special unit, Goldberg proposed that the city hire an outside consultant to review the LAPD’s sexual harassment policies and procedures.

Goldberg also urged that the LAPD appoint someone to counsel and represent officers who complain of discrimination, and that the department bring administrative charges against officers who retaliate against those who lodge harassment or discrimination complaints.