Police to Review Use of Rookies in Wake of Shootings

Responding to a series of four shootings by officers in the San Fernando Valley, the Los Angeles Police Department has ordered a review of whether its many newly hired rookies are facing the dangers of the streets without the guidance of more experienced officers at their sides.

“It’s almost like the blind leading the blind,” said an LAPD captain who asked not to be identified, estimating that 40% of the force now has less than four years’ experience.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, head of the Public Safety Committee, said she has been “yelling about” the problem.

Meanwhile, police across the Valley received the first of several days of refresher training Thursday on the department’s policies governing the use of force and vehicle stops. Two of the shootings were by officers who were stuck in car windows, being dragged by fleeing suspects.

A “review of the deployment of field officers” will analyze the staffing patterns of patrol cars throughout the Valley, paying special attention to the number of veteran officers on the street, said Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy of the Valley Bureau.

Pomeroy ordered the review after several days in which the department has been under close scrutiny because officers shot four suspects--killing three and wounding one--in unrelated incidents within 48 hours.

In one of the shootings, the two officers involved had less than three years’ experience between them.

Pomeroy said such staffing reviews are routinely done from time to time, but conceded that the controversy over the shootings influenced his decision to ask for the audit now.

Ideally, law enforcement managers say, new officers should be teamed with training officers who have at least five years’ experience.

But due to the high volume of resignations and retirements over the past several years, along with an influx of new hires to fulfill Mayor Riordan’s pledge to beef up the force, patrol divisions have swelled with recent hires.

City Councilwoman Laura Chick, chairwoman of the council’s Public Safety Committee that oversees the LAPD, expressed concern that the department may be unable to pair rookies with more experienced training officers.

“I’ve been yelling about it and I will continue to,” Chick said. “They’re sending out new [police academy] graduates and they’re putting them with inexperienced officers or they’re putting them with an officer who has some experience but hasn’t had field training experience.”

Some police officials expressed doubts that inexperience played a part in the Valley shootings, pointing out that experienced officers were involved in two of the four incidents.

Rather than revealing some pattern of police misconduct, the cluster of shootings is probably a coincidence of timing, said the unidentified captain. “It’s like, how come everybody hits the slots in Las Vegas at once?”

Chief Willie L. Williams, on the other hand, has said the incidents may be the result of increased desperation on the part of repeat lawbreakers to avoid arrest under the “three strikes” law, which requires a 25-years-to-life sentence for third-time offenders.

Two of those shot by police were parolees who would have faced third-strike prosecution.

Meanwhile, officers across the Valley received the first day of refresher training Thursday on the use of force and vehicle stops. Three of the four shootings involved suspects in vehicles.

West Valley Division Sgt. Tom Danzek, the training coordinator, said the officers will receive handouts, view videos and review the regulations governing lethal force.

“We want to make sure our officers understand the policies and procedures,” Danzek said. “They have to know policy--that’s very, very important. They have to be able to make decisions quickly. All this training comes back to tactics and department policy.”

At West Valley, and at the Valley’s other divisions as well, officers are discussing ways to persuade suspects to cooperate and reviewing methods of handling risky vehicle stops with one and two officers in patrol cars. The three types of vehicle stops--high-risk, felony and investigative--also will be discussed.

Lt. Dan Hoffman of the Valley Bureau said the divisions received a training manual on vehicle stops to ensure that officers are up to date on procedures.

Pulling a car over is one of the most dangerous police tasks, he said.

“When you’re stopping vehicles, you don’t know what you have waiting for you in that car,” Hoffman said. “There’s nothing more unsafe than stopping a vehicle and not knowing who or what is in it.”

The shootings began Saturday night, when William Thomas Betzner, 43, was killed by an officer in Tarzana. Betzner, on parole for a double murder in 1978, would have faced life in prison without parole if convicted under the “three strikes” law. He was rummaging through a construction site when two officers with three years of full-time experience between them stopped and questioned him, police said.

Betzner jumped into a car and sped away with one officer, Geno Colello, 32, stuck partially inside. Colello shot Betzner as he raced down Ventura Boulevard at up to 70 mph, police said.

A second officer was dragged by a car two days later, when he stopped Eduardo Hurtado in a West Hills alley. Officer Johnny Jackson, a 15-year veteran who had followed the car from an area known for drug dealing, had his upper body inside the car when Hurtado tried to drive off, police said. Jackson was carried 40 yards down the alley before shooting Hurtado dead, police said.

“We are not trained to reach into cars,” Pomeroy said. “But I can envision circumstances where I might reach into a car. In our training, we do suggest that this is not the preferred tactic, but each situation is different. We’re not ready to judge these incidents.”

Several LAPD sources said rookie officers are counseled at the academy against putting their hands inside cars. While there can be no hard-and-fast rule to cover every possibility, “we’ve always been aware, you don’t reach into vehicles,” said Cliff Ruff of the Police Protective League.

“I’m concerned about our officers doing things to put themselves in jeopardy,” Ruff said.

He said that’s one reason young officers need experienced training officers beside them to help them make judgment calls.

“In the final analysis, these things rest on the officers’ shoulders to make the split-second decision,” Chick said. “They are taking on incredible risks.”

In the other two shootings, Jaime Jaurequi of Reseda was fatally shot after a pursuit when he allegedly attempted to run down police officers, and Myron Bowers of North Hollywood, a parolee facing a third-strike arrest, was shot in the shoulder by police, who said he opened fire on them when they responded to a domestic-violence call.