City Delays Decision on LAPD Discrimination Consent Decree

Responding to pressure from Mayor Richard Riordan, the Police Commission and police officers, the Los Angeles City Council decided Friday to delay until Wednesday a decision on a proposed consent decree concerning sexual harassment and gender and race discrimination.

The consent decree would establish aggressive hiring goals for women and minorities, strip the Los Angeles Police Department of the power to investigate its own discrimination complaints, and allow community groups to have great influence over some police management issues. It is intended to resolve a long-running harassment and discrimination lawsuit against the LAPD.

But several council members have raised concerns that the decree fails to settle the lawsuits completely, leaving the city open to financial damages, and unnecessarily commits the city to 18 years of outside control of the Police Department.