Judge Approves Consent Decree on LAPD Hiring

A federal judge on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a consent decree between the city of Los Angeles and its adversaries in a long-running class-action suit alleging widespread harassment and discrimination at the Police Department.

The consent decree establishes aggressive hiring goals for women and minorities and requires the department to produce detailed annual reports on the race and gender of candidates for promotion. It was approved on the same day California voters cast ballots on an initiative that would ban government affirmative action programs. The City Council, which opposed the anti-affirmative action initiative, hurried to embrace the consent decree so that previously enacted hiring goals would be codified by a federal court and thus invulnerable to challenge under state law.

Judge Rosalyn M. Chapman had not signed the decree by the end of business Tuesday, but said during a hearing Tuesday morning that she would do so as soon as both parties signed on, which is likely to happen today. The initiative, Proposition 209, prohibits local governments from entering new decrees after its passage, but since the council voted Tuesday to approve the deal, the lack of a judge’s signature before the election probably would not matter.

“The City Council has reaffirmed its commitment to recruiting goals and to a diverse work force. That’s all it means, quite frankly,” said Carol Sobel, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represents plaintiffs in the suit known as Tipton-Whittingham vs. City of Los Angeles. “There are major issues at the heart of resolving the discrimination issues in this department that simply have not been addressed.”

The council had considered a far more detailed decree, which would have mandated the hiring of outside consultants to do a full-scale review of department policies and make sweeping recommendations regarding diversity and discrimination issues; laid out detailed plans for an independent unit to handle complaints against the LAPD; and provided for ongoing monitoring by plaintiffs’ attorneys of the department’s progress. Mayor Richard Riordan, the Police Commission and others raised questions about that proposal, and its backers could not muster the votes last week to pass it.

Even the watered-down decree failed to win unanimous support Tuesday, with Council President John Ferraro and member Hal Bernson opposing it. Three members were absent for the vote.

“I don’t agree with it,” Bernson said simply.

The decree approved Tuesday establishes the goal of having the police force reflect the gender and racial makeup of the county’s civilian work force by the year 2000. It also demands that the discrimination investigation unit be set up within six months, and that the department conduct an attitude survey of all department employees regarding barriers to equal opportunity in that time period.

“I’m as happy as I can be,” sighed Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who helped negotiate the original decree and lobbied for its passage. “Certainly what we’ve done is important and good. I would have been happier if we put in how we’re going to get from where we are to where we want to go, but that’s for another day.”