LOS ANGELES : Slow Pace of Improvements in Police Training Assailed

Members of the Los Angeles Police Commission complained this week to Police Department officials about the slow pace of improvements in Police Department training programs on a variety of topics, including sexual harassment and cultural sensitivity.

“It’s a little frustrating to see that some of these things are still somewhat amorphous,” said Gary Greenebaum, president of the commission. “We need to see it sooner, rather than later.”

Sweeping improvements in training were recommended by the Christopher Commission in 1991, but the department still has not implemented a large number of those recommendations. Although department officials say the holdups have mainly been the result of funding and staff shortages, police commissioners noted that the LAPD successfully trained thousands of officers in riot techniques because the department considered that training to be desperately needed. A similar effort needs to be undertaken with respect to other types of training, police commissioners said.

“It depends how you define a crisis,” Greenebaum said. “What I think members of the commission are saying is that we’re in a crisis situation with this type of training as well.”