Reform Must Be Legacy of the Mark Fuhrman Case

When he testified during the O.J. Simpson criminal trial in 1994, Det. Mark Fuhrman perjured himself in denying he had uttered racial slurs. But it turns out he told the truth about widespread hostility to women in the Los Angeles Police Department.

Fuhrman, who retired during the trial in 1995, was tripped up by his tape-recorded interviews with an aspiring screenwriter, to whom he had exaggerated his police exploits and told tales of racial insults, sexual harassment, police brutality and manufactured evidence. The disclosures of those tapes and transcripts led to the LAPD’s thorough probe of the events he described.

The investigation found little evidence to support many of the allegations but plenty on harassment of women, which, aside from being against the law, diminished their job effectiveness. Investigators described command failures that allowed, for example, Men Against Women, Fuhrman’s cabal of sexist pals, to harass and undermine women for a decade at the West Los Angeles police division, where the LAPD’s “good old boy” network and code of silence discouraged reform.

The Police Commission, Chief Willie L. Williams and Inspector General Katherine Mader already have taken some corrective steps, such as audits of Fuhrman’s old division, which has improved. Departmentwide policy changes make it easier for women to report gender bias, though the problem is not eliminated.

The task force’s thoughtful prescriptions include calls for increased accountability. Commanders, supervisors and staff should seek out and eradicate misconduct or face serious consequences, the report said. The task force urged that officers be disciplined even for relatively minor acts of harassment if that behavior was part of a pattern. Other proposed correctives target racial discrimination, excessive force, the code of silence and officer discourtesy.

Like the Christopher Commission reforms, the Fuhrman task force recommendations must become a blueprint for change. Police Commission Chairman Raymond C. Fisher has indicated that a majority of commissioners support the findings and will ask the department for a detailed plan on how to implement the recommendations. Much can begin now, without waiting for a new permanent chief.

Mark Fuhrman has cost the LAPD a great deal in reputation and resources. The investigation took 17 months and cost $800,000. The department needs to understand how Fuhrman remained a police officer. And the public has the right to ask the LAPD how many more sexist, racist, lying bullies remain in the LAPD and how it intends to root out bad cops and lax commanders. Lasting reform should become the legacy of this embarrassment.