LAPD’s Move to Expand Internal Affairs Unit Stalls

A much-touted effort to expand the Los Angeles Police Department’s unit that investigates police officers, one of the central recommendations of a reform panel convened in 1991, has stalled far short of its goal, thwarted by the drive to put more police on the street.

The Internal Affairs Group also is having difficulty recruiting veteran detectives, LAPD documents reveal, further compromising the department’s determination to assure the public that allegations of police abuse and misconduct are being thoroughly investigated by senior police officials.

According to police documents obtained by The Times, the department has added staff to its internal investigation area since the Christopher Commission issued its report five years ago, but the increases have been modest and have fallen short of the department’s reform goals.

In 1991, Internal Affairs employed 91 people; five years later, according to LAPD records, it has 132. But the department’s goal to fulfill the Christopher Commission recommendations was 229 employees, and the LAPD has not made progress toward that goal in recent years. During the same period, the department has grown by leaps and bounds, the beneficiary of a major police expansion effort spearheaded by Mayor Richard Riordan.

The key area of shortfall is not in clerical or supervisorial staff but in case investigators, the backbone of Internal Affairs. The LAPD’s projected expansion called for 151 investigators; records show that the current investigative staff numbers 66, six of whom are on loan from other parts of the department.

News of those numbers angered experts on police abuses, some of whom have long urged the LAPD to increase Internal Affairs staffing to handle more complaints.

“This shows that the agency as well as the city government is not serious about its responsibility to the public,” said Carol Smith, a lawyer who works with Police Watch, a nonprofit local group that advises people who allege abuse by police officers.

Smith and other police reform advocates noted that assigning more officers to internal investigations was among the most important recommendations of the Christopher Commission, a blue-ribbon panel convened in the wake of the Rodney G. King beating and charged with examining the issues of excessive force and racism at the Police Department. During its study, the commission found that no area of the department received more criticism than its handling of civilian complaints.

The commission concluded that Internal Affairs’ investigations were far superior to those run by the department’s various police divisions, and it recommended beefing up Internal Affairs.

“All complaints relating to excessive force (including improper tactics) should be investigated by IAD rather than the division,” the commission concluded. Internal Affairs “should be given sufficient staff to handle the substantial extra burden that this shift will entail.”

In the immediate aftermath of the Christopher Commission report, the department did receive money to expand Internal Affairs. But in recent years, that money has dried up, police officials say, and the expansion has tapered off.

In its budget request prepared late last year, the department asked for 23 more Internal Affairs investigators, as well as some support staff and equipment--requests that would have cost about $1.1 million. They were not included in the budget sent to the City Council by Mayor Riordan, though that budget did include huge increases for LAPD staffing overall.

“The priority was resources for the street,” said Noelia Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Riordan. “That priority was agreed upon by the Police Department and members of the mayor’s budget staff.”

Some police commissioners, however, were distressed by the decision to shift resources away from Internal Affairs and by the department leadership’s failure to fight for those internal investigators.

“It gets cut year after year,” said Art Mattox, the commission vice president. “It’s a concern to me [because] the role that Internal Affairs plays is a vital one.”

Denied its sought-after budget increases from City Hall, Internal Affairs has expanded erratically. Internal Affairs has fully functioning offices in the South Bureau and West Bureau, but is not fully staffed in the central area of the city and in the San Fernando Valley because resources have been diverted to patrol duties.

Internal Affairs bosses have tried to make do, borrowing detectives from other areas, but that is a temporary approach and has fueled complaints by some police officers that too many Internal Affairs investigators lack experience in handling sensitive misconduct cases. Veteran officers have been reluctant to seek jobs in Internal Affairs because promotions within the unit have historically been difficult to obtain.

Although LAPD officials acknowledge that the staffing levels in Internal Affairs have fallen short of department goals, they say that civilian complaints have declined. Combined with the growth in Internal Affairs a few years ago, that has allowed the division to handle an increasingly large share of excessive-force allegations, said Cmdr. Tim McBride, a department spokesman.

In fact, McBride said the department is reconsidering whether Internal Affairs actually needs 229 employees, as originally anticipated. “Due to the decline in personnel complaints, we are reevaluating the overall goal,” he said.

The shortfall of Internal Affairs investigators has angered civil rights leaders and others who believe that the LAPD has been too lax in investigating allegations of police misconduct. Some blame LAPD leadership for failing to push aggressively for the budget increases.

“This is a classic case of putting your money where your mouth is,” said Allan Parachini, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Southern California chapter. “It’s one thing to say you support the reform process. It’s another thing to actually support it.”

Parachini credited Internal Affairs officials with doing their best to handle investigations despite limited resources, but said top department brass and city leaders, including the mayor and council, have failed to stress the importance of expanding Internal Affairs.

Vina Camper, intake coordinator for Police Watch, echoed some of Parachini’s concerns. “It’s disturbing to find that five years later, they have not fulfilled this Christopher Commission mandate,” he said. “Until Internal Affairs is at maximum level, we’re not going to get a satisfactory handling of these complaints.”

Still, not everyone is dismayed to see Internal Affairs’ expansion held in check. Police officers often express unhappiness with Internal Affairs, and the rank-and-file’s union president said Tuesday that the department already devotes more than enough resources to investigating its own.

“They’re overkilling things,” said Police Protective League President Bill Harkness. “They don’t need to add to Internal Affairs. They need to improve what they have.”