Chief Walks a Narrow Path on LAPD Diversity

Joe Friday would hardly recognize the men and women who inhabit Los Angeles Police Department squad rooms today.

In Friday’s era, when the nation’s image of the LAPD came largely from “Dragnet,” the picture of a police roll call was one of white men, their hair closely cropped, their faces newly shaved. Today, more women, more Asians, more Latinos and more blacks wear LAPD blue than at any point in the department’s long history; less than 45% of Los Angeles police officers are white men, though they are disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of the department.

Under the leadership of Police Chief Willie L. Williams, women, once relegated to the sidelines of police work, increasingly have assumed positions of influence. Scores now work as sergeants and lieutenants, and three hold the rank of captain: One oversees the Hollywood Division, one holds a top job in Internal Affairs, the third is in charge of the Pacific Division.

And yet few issues have so consistently dogged Williams as the complex debate over diversity in his department.

Buffeted by criticism that he has moved too quickly and equally vehement contentions that he is plodding along, the chief has walked a narrow path, satisfying many to some degree but no one entirely.

“Depending on what group I’m talking to, whether it’s women or minorities, they say: ‘Chief, that’s not enough,’ ” Williams said. “It’s like, ‘What did you do for me today?’ ”

Now, with his five-year term fast running out, Williams’ performance on the issue of diversity will stand as an important measure of his leadership. And his record will determine to a large extent who leads the LAPD into the next generation.

Williams and his supporters emphasize that only a diverse Police Department can give Los Angeles the protection it deserves. Building that department is another matter. The chief stressed recent progress, but acknowledged that the department has fallen short in some regards and that some people feel bitter, left out or undervalued.

In fact, after more than a decade of promises and progress, troubling questions persist.

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Why is there no woman above the rank of captain? Why has the percentage of blacks in the department dropped in recent years? And could the LAPD’s efforts to boost black hiring be exposing the city to lawsuits by aggrieved officer candidates, not just white males but also Asian or Latino candidates who feel they have been passed over unfairly by a hiring process that gives blacks an edge?

“We’re being asked to change probably the most difficult social issues in America,” the chief said in an interview. “And we’re being asked to change them in a microsecond in time compared to the time that this country, this city, this state has had to deal with these issues. . . . To some degree, the Los Angeles Police Department is ahead. Is it enough? No.”

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The numbers are striking.

Before consent decrees forced the department to diversify its ranks, more than 80% of the city’s police officers were white men. The remaining slice was split among women, blacks, Latinos, Asians and a few others.

Today’s LAPD is 4.3% Asian American, about 29% Latino and 13.8% African American. The civilian work force in Los Angeles County is about 7.5% Asian American, 35% Latino and 10% African American. The LAPD leads all other California law enforcement agencies in hiring women.

But up close, some observers spot troubling signs of waffling in the LAPD’s commitment to diversity--and still others warn that the commitment may be too strong, exposing the LAPD and the city to potential lawsuits.

Both of those arguments center around the most controversial development in the LAPD’s recent hiring figures, a drop in the percentage of blacks applying for jobs and hiring on with the agency.

When Williams, the department’s first black chief, took office in 1992, more than 14% of the officers he commanded were black; today, that percentage is 13.8%. More notably, 8% of those hired this year are black--a level that, if it were to continue over the years, would push black representation in the department under the level mandated by a court-supervised consent decree. That decree calls for black representation in that LAPD to stand at about 9%.

“Last year, the numbers dropped considerably,” said Deputy Chief David J. Gascon, who is in charge of the LAPD’s expansion efforts. “I don’t think there’s a simple answer for why it’s dropped.”

The percentage of the Los Angeles population that is black has declined modestly in recent years, but department officials say that is not a significant factor in recruiting.

Instead, Gascon cites a host of possible contributing reasons: Widespread criticism of the LAPD after the beating of Rodney G. King in 1991, the severe critique of the department by the Christopher Commission later that year, the racist rhetoric of former Det. Mark Fuhrman aired during the murder trial of O.J. Simpson. Each of those events, Gascon says, may have helped sour the department’s image among blacks and made it harder for the LAPD to attract African American officers.

Whatever the cause, the hiring drop is a hot-button issue for Williams.

“Parts of our community see that as a plot, a scheme, a design,” Williams said. “I can’t say that someone deliberately did that to adversely affect African Americans in the Police Department. But neither can I as chief go out and convince other people that it’s not so. As chief, I end up getting the hits for it.”

According to Williams, people tell him: “You’re the chief, and you’re an African American chief. How could you let this happen?”

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Such concerns play out against a historical backdrop of difficult relations between the LAPD and black residents. Practices such as forcing minority suspects to the pavement in traffic stops inflamed tensions, accusations of excessive force against blacks stained the department’s image, and the videotaped images of King being beaten confirmed for many their worst fears about the police force.

One critic of the LAPD’s hiring record for blacks, City Councilman Nate Holden, says the drop in black hiring shows that Gascon and others inside the department are emphasizing Latino hiring over African American hiring. Although Gascon disputes that, some argue that the LAPD should be doing just that, because blacks are represented in higher numbers than they are in the population generally, while Latinos are underrepresented in the LAPD.

Holden disagrees.

“It’s absolutely atrocious,” the councilman said of the LAPD’s recent hiring practices. “I’m very disappointed in Gascon. I can’t understand why he’s not fair.”

Holden accused the LAPD of passing up qualified black candidates and hiring Latinos instead--a notion contradicted by LAPD records indicating that the department recently has hired all available African American candidates who meet requirements. And he alleged that the department was making special efforts to expand its Latino ranks in order to meet artificial target goals in the consent decrees.

Williams defended Gascon’s work at the same time that he pledged to redouble the LAPD’s hiring of blacks. It is vital to keep African American hiring up, even when it exceeds the consent decree goals, Williams said, in order to send a clear message about the LAPD’s commitment to diversity and to maintain a healthy flow of new hires so as not to erode hard-fought gains.

As for Gascon, he brusquely rejected Holden’s allegations.

“We hire every available African American candidate for every class,” Gascon said. “We adhere to the law, and there is no conspiracy not to hire African Americans. I am absolutely convinced that the people I am working with are good, honest, hard-working people who are trying to do the right thing.”

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Not long ago, minorities and women were justifiably skittish about the Los Angeles Police Department.

“Policewomen,” as they were then known, wore long skirts and were barred from patrol cars. They were not allowed to be promoted above the rank of sergeant. Latino officers were few and far between. Openly gay people were not hired.

Blacks were hired, but until the early 1960s, black and white officers did not work together. Blacks were partnered with each other; if one partner did not show up for work, the other was sent home.

Bernard Parks, now a deputy chief of the LAPD, joined the department 32 years ago. In those days, he and other blacks were isolated from the white, male mainstream of the LAPD. They were given opportunities for advancement but not encouraged to take them.

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“People kind of told you: Lower your expectations. You’ll be lucky to leave this department as a sergeant,” Parks remembered in an interview. “It was almost like benign neglect.”

Ronald Banks, now the department’s second highest-ranking officer, also served during those years. He too recalls the insults: Training officers who used racial epithets, supervisors who refused to believe that quality staff work could be done by blacks.

“You had to do your job and not lose your dignity and self-worth,” recalled Banks.

Despite the obstacles, Parks, Banks and a few others moved quickly through the ranks. Today, they can rattle off the “firsts,” the names of the first black officers to break into various ranks and divisions.

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Within the LAPD, a particular source of bitterness is the inability of women to break into the department’s top jobs.

“It is a matter of serious concern that women are not represented in the highest ranks of the department,” a Police Commission-sponsored reform study by Los Angeles lawyer Merrick A. Bobb concluded in May.

Even after they were theoretically accepted as equals to their male counterparts in the 1970s, women at the LAPD remained subject to profound discrimination and harassment. Dozens of harassment complaints still are made annually, some involving high-level officers and a few involving charges as serious as rape. And pockets of disgruntled male officers periodically have joined to demean their female colleagues.

Williams acknowledges that problems persist, and he struggles with the issue of why women’s progress has not been faster. Some women have chosen career paths that took them off the promotion track, he said. Others have left rather than continue their march through the LAPD ranks. And some feel they still face outright discrimination.

“While they may have a little easier time coming in, they don’t feel that they’re treated fairly,” Williams said. “They figure they have greater propensity to have discipline rendered upon them, that the informal system which sort of gives you the breaks early on doesn’t work for them or minorities. I’ve heard that.”

How long will it be before one of the LAPD’s three women captains breaks the next barrier and becomes its first female commander?

Williams hedges. Commanders’ exams are coming up before the end of the year, he notes, adding that he hopes and expects at least one of the female captains to pass.

“It just takes time,” the chief said. “You’re not going to move up quickly.”

There is another, more controversial, possibility. For months, city officials have been reviewing a possible merger between the LAPD and Metropolitan Transportation Authority police. Little noticed outside those agencies is one potentially symbolic issue: If the merger goes forward, the MTA police chief, Sharon Papa, could enter the LAPD at the commander or deputy chief level.

That would break the gender barrier in the upper ranks, but would do so in a way likely to antagonize top women at the Police Department, who have spent decades inside the organization working their way toward the top. Privately, some LAPD women have lobbied against Papa’s appointment. Williams will not comment on his plans.

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Over the next few months, as the city’s political leaders consider whether Williams deserves a second term, his record on LAPD diversity will offer one benchmark for evaluating his performance so far. In fact, one of the chief’s 1996 goals, as set by the Police Commission in a confidential document obtained by The Times, is to “continue efforts to recruit a diverse pool of qualified police officer candidates.”

Williams says he has met that goal, and others credit him with various contributions to the diversity effort.

Day in, day out, he meets with representatives of the city’s minority communities. His support for community policing has helped patch relations in some minority areas. His championing of diversity has helped set a tolerant tone for the department. And the mere fact that he is the department’s first black chief--one who has promoted blacks, Latinos, Asians and women to the ranks of captain and higher--demonstrates that there is a future for minorities and women at the Police Department.

Still, Williams admits that the job is far from done.

During his tenure, the percentage of women in the Police Department has increased from 13.9% to 17%, but it still is far short of the city’s objective, a police force that is 43% female. The percentage of blacks has dropped, but the percentage of Asians has nearly doubled. Latino hires have significantly increased, but that number too rests below department goals and consent decree requirements.

Quietly, a new fear also is building: that the LAPD, by making special allowances to hire black officers, may be setting itself up for a lawsuit, since the department already has more blacks than the consent decree requires.

The worry: that a white, Asian or Latino candidate who scores higher than a black candidate will be denied a spot so that the department can boost its percentage of African Americans. That person might then sue.

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Already, white male resentment in the rank and file occasionally flares. New hires to the Police Department are selected in part based on their scores during an oral interview, and the discrepancies between the qualifying scores of white males and other candidates have fueled much of the discontent.

Department officials will not comment on the average scores for each group, but sources say it has been common in recent years for white males to be required to post scores of 20 to 25 points higher than blacks on the 100-point test. In recent classes, the LAPD has hired every available black candidate who scores above 70 on the test; white males have sometimes needed a near-perfect score.

Female, Latino and Asian candidates also typically are hired with lower oral interview scores than those required of white males.

Despite the looming potential of lawsuits, Williams says he will not change course.

City politicians flatly refuse to discuss the threat of litigation over hiring practices. Instead, they focus on a record of progress mixed with the need for more.

“The department has made enormous gains, but I strongly believe we have a lot more work to do in the upper echelons,” said Councilman Mike Feuer.

Councilwoman Laura Chick says the department brass has made good strides in recruiting women and minorities, but its record of promotions is tarnished. For Williams, those complaints are not new.

“That’s part of what you bear,” he said, “for wearing that fourth star.”

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The LAPD’s Changing Makeup

Over the past decade, the LAPD has steadily expanded the number of women and minorities on the force, but the department remains whiter and more male than the Los Angeles work force generally. In addition, a recent downturn in the number of black police officers being hired has stirred concern within the Police Department and City Hall.

* Racial makeup

* Gender breakdown

1986

Men: 92%

Women: 8%

1990

Men: 87%

Women: 13%

1996

Men: 83%

Women: 17%

Note: 1996 figures are as of July 7. Numbers may not add up to 100% because of rounding or small numbers of Native American, Filipino and other officers.

Source: Los Angeles Police Department