Valley Perspective : Shots Fired, Officer Involved : D.A.’s officer-involved shooting team should be revived

Welcome steps have been taken in the aftermath of four recent police shootings in the Valley.

With 11 of its officers involved, the Los Angeles Police Department has ordered a review of whether a spate of new hires has combined with high department attrition rates to leave too many inexperienced officers without veteran partners. Ideally, veterans should be paired with younger officers in all situations, even if it means transferring some officers to different stations in other parts of town.

We’re also pleased to note that the department is conducting refresher courses on the proper way to conduct vehicle traffic stops. Officers involved in two of the shootings fired after they were briefly dragged along while hanging onto the suspects’ fleeing vehicles.

But there are two other matters that deserve further study, and a reconsideration, depending on the city’s future fiscal strength.

Police Chief Willie Williams said that the incidents may be the first sign of the desperation of criminals facing the state’s harsh “three strikes” law. It calls for sentences of 25 years to life for a criminal’s third felony conviction.

The chief’s claim has many skeptics, including us. But the city ought to keep a wary eye out for any hint of increasingly fatalistic acts among suspects.

Let’s also recall that the district attorney’s office once had a team of prosecutors assigned to review officer-involved shootings. Budget cuts have resulted in the dissolution of the unit, leaving such reviews in the decidedly less public hands of county police agencies.

This is an untenable situation. As soon as finances permit, the district attorney’s office should resurrect its officer-involved shooting team.