Panel Backs Review of LAPD Screening
A City Council committee on Monday recommended setting up a panel of six outside psychologists to review how the Los Angeles Police Department weeds out applicants and current officers with racist or sexist attitudes.
The full council will vote on the proposal in a couple of weeks, said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, head of the Personnel Committee, which supported the idea of the outside panel.
The panel would spend three days reviewing the screening processes of the Police Department and the city Personnel Department, which include psychological tests and background checks designed to root out “racist, sexist, homophobic or violent attitudes and behavior.”
But too-stringent screening could eliminate qualified candidates as well.
“Are we screening out people we do want?” Goldberg said. “Maybe. It’s just not easy to set the criteria.”
The Personnel Committee’s actions followed complaints by various police candidates that they had been rejected for minor or unfair reasons. One police recruit, Randy Mehringer, contends he was disqualified because he admitted telling a single racial joke.
Donna Denning of the Personnel Department said the department takes the “whole person in perspective” in accepting candidates for the Police Academy.
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