Budget Priorities for L.A. Police Dept.

In “LAPD’s Move to Expand Internal Affairs Unit Stalls” (Sept. 11) the writer implied erroneously that the Los Angeles Police Department and city government had decided to forgo the necessary expansion of the Internal Affairs Division. Nothing is further from the truth. Jim Newton was given all of the facts, but chose to omit 80% of them and draw his own conclusions on the factual issues.

In 1993, I proposed as part of one of the Christopher Commission’s key recommendations that we decentralize IAD into four divisions, each located in a non-police facility within the various communities. I also recommended that an immediate increase in personnel resources was needed in IAD.

In late 1992 and early 1993, there was a hiring freeze as well as a partial ban on all internal promotions. I made the decision, with the support of the Police Commission, to begin the reallocation of existing resources to meet current needs. Among the early changes was the beginning of a process that increased the staffing in IAD by 61% by 1995. At the same time, we began a change in policy that has shifted nearly all citizen complaints alleging misuse of force from patrol areas to IAD.

In the spring of 1996, I made a prudent management decision to prioritize my needs and budget requests based on funding approved at the mayoral level. I indeed did make the decision to delay by one year the fourth year of expansion within IAD. All issues could not be funded. I made the correct decision to allocate 63 additional positions for badly needed field training officers, background investigators and instructional staff in the training division. With the rapid and necessary growth in uniform forces, these positions presented a higher priority.

This decision did not reflect a decision to drop the needed expansion in IAD. It was a prudent response to competing demands and limited fiscal resources. Since 1993, personnel complaints from the public have dropped continuously. Also, complaints alleging misuse of force have dropped significantly. Between 1992 and 1995, IAD went from investigating only 7% or 8% of all complaints to 41% of all complaints. The quality of the reports also improved as well.

Over the last four years, the LAPD has achieved some significant accomplishments. Crime is down over the last four years; we are working to reduce the fear of crime, which is still too high; the LAPD has opened its doors to the community as it has never before done in its history; complaints have continued to decline from our community, especially complaints regarding misuse of force. We have added several new, less-lethal tools that our officers can utilize to protect the residents of this city and themselves without having to resort to the use of deadly force.

WILLIE L. WILLIAMS

Chief of Police, LAPD