Deputies’ Use of Excessive Force Declines : Law enforcement: Sheriff’s Dept. monitor also reports that Block’s recruiting policies point to more diversified force. But reforms begun in ’91 remain fragile, he notes.

In what he calls a “generally upbeat report,” a monitor appointed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to keep track of reforms at the Sheriff’s Department declares in a document due out today that the department has made substantial progress in controlling the use of excessive force by deputies.

Attorney Merrick J. Bobb, in his third semiannual report, also found that within the limits of fiscal constraints, Sheriff Sherman Block has set in place recruiting policies that promise ultimately to fashion a more diverse uniformed force--with both more women and more minorities.

Bobb said in an interview that his own on-site inspections, plus recent newspaper articles he has read, have persuaded him that the Sheriff’s Department “is several steps ahead” of the Los Angeles Police Department and the city’s Fire Department in the reform process.

“Sherman Block has permitted and is presiding over substantial and positive institutional change, putting his department at the forefront in many areas of police administration,” Bobb declares on the opening page of the 134-page report to be submitted today to the supervisors.

At the same time, Bobb has adopted the style of previous reports, mixing praise and criticism--with the praise often in the summaries and the criticism in the details.

His report points to a considerable number of criticisms of the pace of progress, particularly in such areas as the handling of citizen complaints, excessive force investigations, canine policies and the integration of women in the department’s patrol functions.

Bobb was the top staff member under retired Superior Court Judge James G. Kolts in preparing a report 2 1/2 years ago that was highly critical of the Sheriff’s Department in controlling the use by deputies of excess force against suspects.

But, he says in today’s report, shooting and serious force have dropped substantially since 1991.

“The numbers of suspects and citizens wounded by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has dropped by more than a third from the yearly rate in 1991,” he declares. “The number killed has dropped by more than a fourth. The number of deputies killed in 1994 through November is zero. The number wounded has dropped from 10 in 1991 to two for 1994 as of late November.”

Also possibly reflecting less use of force, the number of lawsuits filed against the department in this regard has recently shown a decline, from 86 in fiscal year 1991-92 to 52 in fiscal year 1993-94, although, due to lag time, the cost of settlements has increased from $3.6 million to $6.2 million in the same years.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Block would decline comment on the report because the sheriff had not received a copy as of Monday afternoon.

Although complimentary of Block in the new report, Bobb remarks: “We also must stress the fragility of the Kolts reforms. In substantial part, the progress to date rests on the shoulders of a small handful of key individuals. . . .

“The changes in culture, rigor, accountability and risk management have, in all candor, not yet penetrated deeply and could prove evanescent.”

These are some of the findings in the new report:

* Although little gain has yet been made in advancing the percentage of women and minorities on the sheriff’s force--with women up only from 12.5% to 12.7% in the last 2 1/2 years, African-Americans from 8.9% to 10% and Latinos from 16.2% to 17.5%--the statistics for new recruits undergoing training show more advancement.

For instance, of the 95 recruits training at the Sheriff’s Academy, 19% are female and 24% are Latino. Only 8% are black, however. In the applicant pool of 1,639, 20.5% are women, 14.5% are black and 36.2% are Latino.

Asian Americans, 2.2% of the sworn force now, are 5% of the academy class and 3.4% of the applicant pool.

At the same time, Bobb notes that only 8.4% of the deputies in the department’s prestigious field operations are women, compared with 12.7% in the entire force. Yet, he is complimentary about the promotion of women to high positions, including an African American, Helena Ashby, to one of only eight “chief” positions within the department.

Bobb acknowledges in the report that the LAPD has a higher percentage of women on the force, a total of 15.3%.

* There appears to be some inconsistency in the reports of citizen complaints at various sheriff’s stations, and some tendency to not specify that complaints are about undue use of force when they are.

* The percentage of suspects bitten by canines in search and apprehension operations has declined slightly in the latter part of this year, from the previous 27% to 23%. But revised policies of announcing that canines may be about to close on a suspect still fall short of the changes recommended in the original Kolts report.