POLICE WATCH : More for Memories

The memory of few Los Angeles police officers are preserved as well as that of Clarence Wayne Dean. Too often, it’s tough to get a decent plaque.

Dean plummeted from a freeway interchange to his death in January while trying to head to work moments after the Northridge quake. That interchange has now been named after him. Officer Christy Lynne Hamilton was shot to death a month later while responding to a domestic violence call in Northridge.

City law provides money for a plaque with the deceased officer’s badge. That’s pretty paltry. The money for anything more than that--perhaps for a plaque that might include the officer’s weapon, medals, stripes, pins, patches--has to come from family, friends and colleagues.

That fact was outrageous to LAPD Officer Angela Hougen, who works in the unit that provides counseling and other services to slain officers. Moreover, when she passed the hat for one of those better plaques for Hamilton, many were willing, but few could donate after the quake and other recent disasters had decimated their resources.

Los Angeles Councilman Joel Wachs would change all that with an ordinance that would eliminate such Scrooge-like restrictions on police memorial plaques. Under his proposal the spending limit would be lifted. Rather than having no limit at all, we suggest that it be raised to $500, the amount Wachs estimates it would cost for the more elaborate plaques. That minor sum that would have more suitably honored the 22 LAPD officers killed in the line of duty since 1984.