PERSPECTIVE ON POLICE REFORM : Lincoln Heights: Same Story, Faces : We should reread the Christopher Commission report and assess the progress of genuine police reform.

The stunning revelation that the police officer who fatally shot a Lincoln Heights teen-ager was one of the 44 “problem officers” cited by the Christopher Commission should help us focus on the true meaning of police reform.

The Christopher Commission was established in 1991 after the Rodney King beating to explore two profound problems with the LAPD. The commission documented the department’s bleak record of brutality in minority communities and a pattern of lax discipline against officers accused of brutality. The chief’s Civil Service protection helped make the department a nearly autonomous political force, able to bully elected officials at will.

That the officer involved in the Lincoln Heights incident was one of the most heavily disciplined in the department, and that one of Chief Daryl Gates’ last acts was to overturn a disciplinary board’s recommendation to fire him, is a sad reminder of the tangled history of police reform in Los Angeles.

Much progress has been made in implementing the commission’s reform agenda, and the result is a more popular department. But in recent months, the city has drifted away from the report’s bold message. In the debates over Chief Willie Williams’ management style and trips to Las Vegas and his strained relations with the mayor and the police commission, we have lost the thread of reform which led to Williams’ hiring.

Police reform has largely become a convenient umbrella for a variety of political agendas. When the City Council overturned the Police Commission’s reprimand of Williams on the Las Vegas matter, we heard that this action meant the end of police reform. This overstatement trivialized the powerful guidelines outlined by the Christopher Commission.

Two of the loudest voices denouncing the council action were the police union and former Chief Gates, the main opponents of Christopher-style reform. The latest edition of the newsletter of the Police Protective League is replete with crude visual and verbal attacks on the chief, showing what reform means to this harsh and divisive union: getting rid of Willie Williams.

Although he supported Proposition F in 1992, Mayor Richard Riordan’s idea of reform has seemed to be to hire 3,000 new officers without new taxes, which he expected Williams to carry out, and the notion that the mayor should be able to select his own department heads. He appointed members to the Police Commission, some of whom seem genuinely committed to reform. But the mayor’s own heart never seemed to be in that task.

This would be a good time to dust off the Christopher Commission report and start assessing the progress of genuine police reform. It is time to get back on the track that the commission and Proposition F so boldly set before us and mandate that the other agendas that have grown around reform take a back seat. The union’s vendetta against Williams, the mayor’s ambitious police hiring plan and his discomfort with Williams, and even Williams’s touchy, defensive stance in the face of attacks, are not answers to the deeply-rooted problems of the LAPD.

The investigation of the Lincoln Heights shooting will be a major test for the city’s leaders. There will be a great temptation to make this the chief’s problem. And indeed, the chief will need to set aside his awkward relationship with some key city officials to return his focus to the reform agenda that brought him to Los Angeles.

But civilian authorities--the mayor, the City Council, and the Police Commission--must bear their share of responsibility for the pace of police reform. Internal resistance to change cannot be overcome just by a chief. The mayor, who prefers well-orchestrated, behind-the-scenes deals to unpredictable community work, must reassure an aroused community that the investigation will be thorough and fair, and that he understands the need for internal reform. And the city council, which sensibly stayed out of the morass of Las Vegas charges, cannot look away from the challenge of seeing that real reform occurs.

Civilian accountability, a crucial aspect of police reform, means that elected officials have to make the hard decisions in the face of severe resistance that will permanently change the department’s practices. The payoff will be a department that is not only bigger, but better.