Sheriff’s Dept. Gets a Mixed Review : Law enforcement: Report on reforms cites progress in curtailing excessive force. But lack of accountability and discipline at higher levels is criticized.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is making progress on controlling deputies’ use of excessive force, but Sheriff Sherman Block and his commanders still do not exert enough control at the station house level, according to a monitor appointed by the Board of Supervisors.

Merrick J. Bobb, in his second semiannual report on compliance with reforms recommended two years ago by an inquiry headed by retired Superior Court Judge James G. Kolts, also suggests that there is not enough accountability or discipline at higher levels of the department.

“The main deficiency” of a draft on duty standards prepared by senior officers “is that it pushes responsibility and accountability down to captains, lieutenants and sergeants,” Bobb said.

“The duties become more and more detailed the lower one goes,” he added. “The draft is too timid even to touch the duties or responsibilities of the assistant sheriffs, undersheriff or sheriff.”

At another point in the 111-page report, Bobb writes, “There is a widespread perception within the Department that managers and executives are almost never evaluated critically or disciplined, that discipline is reserved for deputies and the occasional sergeant.”

Block, reacting Wednesday to the report, criticized it for “nit-picking.” He said that, in fact, he has ordered that several lieutenants and sergeants be suspended without pay for one to 10 days for failures of supervision in a widely publicized incident last year in which on-duty deputies partied in Alondra Park.

Two of the lieutenants were suspended for 10 days, the sheriff said. By contrast, 25 deputies were suspended last December without pay for periods of up to 30 days for the Alondra Park party.

Block also revealed that a letter was recently issued formally reprimanding one of his two assistant sheriffs for involvement in a preventable vehicle accident.

In accordance with state law forbidding the identification of law enforcement officers who have been disciplined, Block did not make any names public.

Block noted that Bobb had complimented his department on a decline in the last two years in deputy-involved shootings and cases involving litigation over allegations of excessive force. He said, “We must be doing something right, because the statistics show it.”

According to the statistics listed by Bobb, the number of shooting incidents fell from 56 in 1991 to 47 in 1992 and 29 in 1993. Seven were reported in the first three months of 1994. The number of people wounded or killed dropped from 63 in 1991 to 49 in 1992 and 34 in 1993. In the first three months of this year, there were seven casualties.

The costs of verdicts and settlements and providing legal defense in excess force cases also went down in the last year, although Bobb cautioned that such costs routinely have varied over recent years and it may be too early to reach solid conclusions.

Overall, Bobb said, the department’s progress in curtailing the use of unwarranted force “remains on track, and in some areas the department has been particularly impressive.”

But having said that in his introduction, Bobb was quite critical in the next 110 pages.

Bobb was particularly scathing in decrying a commitment by the sheriff’s office to “the least intensive management style” by commanders in directing the activities of captains at the various stations.

“Although the goal of empowerment of captains is laudable,” he said, “and we agree that commanders should not micro-manage captains, we nonetheless believe that, regardless of style, the most intensive management should be at the intersection of the station and the region,” he said. “Commanders should be proactive managers, more than workhorses, stand-ins or gatekeepers.”

He added later in the report, “In our view, there is no place in the Sheriff’s Department for the bizarre notion of ‘least intensive management’ at the first hint there are deputy cliques at a station running roughshod over sergeants or lieutenants, as has occurred, or if uses of force are starting to get uncomfortably high.”

At several points, Bobb observed that many of the procedures for more intensive investigation of shootings by deputies and tracking of problem deputies are unpopular with the deputies themselves. But his report urges more such procedures.

Increased diversity in the ethnic and sexual makeup of the staff of the Sheriff’s Department is being impeded, he reported, by budgetary constraints that have prevented hiring and promotions.

Despite commitments, for example, to reduce the amount of time young deputies spend in the jail division, he said, some deputies now serve there as long as six years before being assigned to patrol duty.