Platform : Has Fuhrman Harmed Community Policing Reforms?

The release during the O.J. Simpson murder trial of tape-recorded racist comments by former Los Angeles Police Det. Mark Fuhrman has raised questions about how officers treat and are perceived by minorities in the city. JIM BLAIR talked to members of community police advisory boards and neighborhood watch groups.

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CAROL TANTAU-SMITH

Venice business owner

We’ve seen a real change in the involvement of people in our community--a big change for us because it’s been a notorious problem that the police have had their hands tied because nobody would say anything. By way of explanation, our community relations officer is black and he’s one of the real good guys. Maybe three months ago there were some complaints from members of the advisory board that there were a couple of officers who had been exhibiting what was characterized as racist behavior. [The matter was dealt with] and there’ve been no further complaints.

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PAMELA WATKINS

Publication sales assistant, Southwest L.A.

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I think Chief Willie Williams is sincere when he says that there’s no room in LAPD for those kind of officers. As far as my relationship with officers goes, I think I have a really good relationship with them and so does my community. The only problem that I see is that we need more of them.

We also have an issue, sometimes, of whether or not we get the service that we want, whether we get the deployment of cops in this area as, say, the Valley or the Westside do. I believe that we probably get our share, but there are just not enough police officers in Los Angeles.

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ALBERT ALFARO

Aerospace engineer, Southwest L.A.

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A couple of weeks ago, I went around and talked to my neighbors about [the fact that] the tapes were going to come out soon. A lot of my neighbors felt--whether it was that they were rushing to judgment or whether they had been manipulated by the media--that they already knew that Fuhrman was a racist.

What they were concerned about however, was [that] it comes on the heels of the Lincoln Heights shooting. The concern there is [that] you had a case where you had a problem officer that, according to the police standards, had now turned around. But he was known to be one of the “problems” and he was out there and got involved in this incident.

The folks really don’t want to hear that there’s “no place in LAPD for this type of officer.” They want to know, what are you going to do?

MABELLE PITTMAN

Day-care provider, South-Central L.A.

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I would say to officers that it might be tough for you as an individual, [but] please note that many have not given up on you.

Clouds do come over all of us sometimes. That doesn’t mean that the whole department is bad. A tongue can make you, break you or destroy you forever. Mark Fuhrman has done this to himself and has hurt fellow officers. He has broken many hearts and he has destroyed the image of you officers.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ

Private security employee, Santa Ana

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f this had happened a couple of years ago, it might have had an effect [on people here] because the programs that are available now weren’t available then. Within the last two or three years, I’ve seen the police out there and they’ve gone into the different areas where [there are] problems, gangs and stuff, and they work with the community getting rid of the gangs, the drugs, the cruising. For example, [Latinos] normally don’t like to leave their names or addresses to be contacted with the police. Working with the community watch program, we [asked] the police department as to how they could help us more. And we’ve talked to these people and let them know they can be anonymous when they leave information, like if they’ve seen somebody spray painting. The police would know who to look for and keep an eye out for that person.