Panel Takes Over Monitoring LAPD Reforms

Frustrated by the pace of reforms at the Los Angeles Police Department, the Police Commission has stripped primary authority for investigating the status of those reforms from the department and taken over the job, officials said Tuesday.

“It’s our responsibility to the community to do this,” said Gary Greenebaum, a member of the Police Commission and a leading advocate of reform. “We believe this will expedite the reforms, which is our job.”

Since the blue-ribbon group known as the Christopher Commission issued its recommendations in 1991, the department has struggled to implement many of the report’s proposals. Particularly frustrating to advocates of reform has been the slowness to push ahead with recommendations involving LAPD personnel, including training, discipline and tracking of potentially problem officers.

A proposed computer system to simplify tracking is not in place after more than two years. Image-conscious officials have changed the name of that system from OBITS, an ominous acronym for a system that will hold officers’ disciplinary records, to the friendlier-sounding TEAMS, short for Training, Evaluation and Management System.

Although they have made recent strides toward bringing the new system on line, it has yet to be activated, and officials are continuing to debate how much information about officers should be available to supervisors via computer.

“The basic system is designed,” said Bill Russell, commanding officer of the LAPD’s support services bureau. “We’ve resolved all the technological issues.”

To push forward that and other reforms, the Police Commission last year began demanding updates from the LAPD, but the department’s reports are often vague--listing recommendations as “partially in place” when there is little evidence of progress, or as “subject to discussions with the police union.” As a result, some commissioners have bristled at what they perceive as foot-dragging by department leaders.

Under the new approach, the staff of the five-member commission, which oversees department policy, will take over auditing reform proposals and will present its findings to Police Chief Willie L. Williams. The chief will be responsible for responding to those findings and will be held accountable for performing to the commission’s satisfaction.

“From now on,” Greenebaum said, “the commission staff will take the lead.”

Reform advocates cautiously applauded the shift, saying they hoped that it would strengthen the civilian commission’s hand in its relationship with the department.

“Hopefully, it will be better under this system,” said Joe R. Hicks, executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles. “The pace of some of these reforms has been glacial.”

Alan Parachini, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, agreed, calling the pace of reforms in some areas, especially the training of officers, “inexcusably slow.”

“We think this is a step in the right direction,” Parachini said. “It can only be a positive step to have the commission judging the department and not the department judging itself.”

Williams had no comment Tuesday when Greenebaum announced the changes at a meeting of the Police Commission. Members of the panel said later that the chief had not expressed any opinion about the new procedure.

He has, however, designated the department’s second-highest official, Assistant Chief Ronald Banks, to work with the commission on pressing ahead with reform. Williams is a vocal backer of Christopher Commission reforms and was brought to the LAPD with a mandate to change the way the department operates.

Despite his backing for the reforms, Williams’ success with implementing some of them has been mixed. In recent months, frustration with his leadership has mounted in some quarters. Although they expressed support for him generally, some commission members have said they would like to see the chief move more aggressively on the reforms and other issues.

Tuesday, the commissioners met privately for several hours to discuss their year-end evaluation of Williams’ performance as chief. Afterward, they declined to comment on their review, which still has not been delivered to Williams.

As they survey the record on implementing Police Department reforms, commissioners concede that there have been both successes and disappointments.

Some of the commission’s recommendations were put in place by city voters with the 1992 approval of Charter Amendment F, the sweeping reform initiative that established term limits for the chief of police and created other civilian controls over the Police Department’s operations.

Since then, the LAPD has implemented some other reforms that were not part of the original ballot measure. In recent months, police disciplinary review boards have for the first time included a civilian member. The idea was raised by the Christopher Commission and resisted by some officers but ultimately approved by the Police Commission.

Still, a number of recommendations remain stalled.

One major source of concern for the commissioners has been the slow development of cultural awareness training. The commission members also have expressed dismay that there have not been quicker improvements in field training given to officers once they graduate from the Police Academy.

Overarching all the proposed reforms is the mandate for the LAPD to move toward a more community-oriented style of policing. That task is under way in some areas, but the transformation has been far slower than advocates had hoped. Progress, according to department officials, has been hampered by a lack of clarity about what community policing entails and a lack of commitment of LAPD resources to the idea.

Although many of the reform proposals are stalled because of a lack of money, others have been slowed by mix-ups, by a lack of resolve and by the need to resolve differences with the police union, officials said.

Dennis Zine, a director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said talks between the union and the city have been cumbersome at times. But he stressed that the league has not sought to block meaningful reform of the department.

“I would definitely say that the meet-and-confer process has not slowed down the progress of any important reform,” he said. “But any time you want to change working conditions, you have to meet and confer.”

Police commissioners acknowledge that the union should be consulted as changes that could affect the working life of police officers are undertaken. Moreover, several commissioners have taken pains to address officers’ low morale and are reluctant to make changes that could further depress the dispirited rank and file.

Nevertheless, the push for department reform remains one of the commission’s highest priorities, and panel members said they expect the new procedure for monitoring progress to improve the department’s current record.

“Our efforts are to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of the reports in this area,” said commission President Enrique Hernandez Jr. “That’s what this approach is intended to do.”

Christopher Commission

* Reprints of articles detailing the recommendations originally made by the Christopher Commission are available from Times on Demand. Call 808-8463, press *8630, select option 3 and order Item No. 5515. $5. Mail delivery only.

Details on Times electronic services, B4