Police Commission Gets LAPD Settlement Talks

The American Civil Liberties Union this week quietly shifted settlement talks in a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and discrimination by the Los Angeles Police Department out of a conservative federal judge’s court and into the meeting rooms of the city’s civilian Police Commission.

For the moment at least, the move obviates the need for further hearings before U.S. District Judge William D. Keller, who has raised significant questions about a proposed consent degree in the case.

That provisional agreement seeks to resolve part of an ongoing sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit brought on behalf of LAPD officers. As proposed, the settlement would establish departmental hiring and recruitment goals for women and minorities.

ACLU attorney Carol Sobel said issues outstanding in the proposed agreement, which was negotiated over two years on behalf of nearly 100 plaintiffs, will be better resolved through frank discussions with the Police Commission.

“We don’t want to waste our time with hearings. That’s not going to solve this case,” Sobel said. “The priority now is to resolve the damages . . . and ultimately change the policies” governing hiring by the LAPD.

Any agreements reached with the Police Commission must still be reviewed by the federal District Court.

Earlier this week, Keller issued an order requiring the ACLU to meet with the attorneys for an intervenor in the suit, Lt. Richard J. Dyer, and hear their concerns. Sobel said the ACLU will comply with that order.

Dyer’s attorneys said the ACLU’s decision is a clear victory for their client. The proposed settlement, they say, would violate the rights of other, mostly male, officers.

“Our position now is to keep the city and the ACLU from fashioning any settlement that impinges on other officers,” said one ofDyer’s lawyers, Patrick Manshardt, general counsel for the Individual Rights Foundation.

“The ACLU says sexual harassment is rampant in the LAPD. . . . I question that very seriously. I think this is a department that is already extremely sensitive, actually oversensitive to these issues.”

The proposed consent decree has come under fire from Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council, which sharply disagreed with important aspects of the proposal, and fashioned its own LAPD hiring goals for women and Asian Americans.

Such targets exist for Latinos and African Americans. The proposal also covers promotions for women and minority officers, who the ACLU alleges are discriminated against by the department.

But shortly after the City Council action, Keller took control of the proposed agreement, refusing to execute it and raising several concerns.

Now, the ACLU says, it will examine other recent cases involving sexual discrimination and report back to the Police Commission. One similar, out-of-state lawsuit recently was settled for nearly $11 million for about 800 women, Sobel said.

Damages also will be examined for the plaintiffs in this case, but Sobel said she was unsure how much the city will have to pay. “It’s going to be big, we know that.”

One estimate, contained in a confidential memo given to the City Council last year, said the proposed settlement could cost the city $28.6 million to $35.4 million.

But Sobel said the price tag may grow. Women, particularly, are growing increasingly vocal about being passed over for promotions, according to the ACLU attorney, and are adding their names to the list of plaintiffs.

For that reason, Sobel argues, the LAPD should immediately adopt nondiscriminatory promotion and hiring policies. She said those efforts could protect the department from further liability.