Vice Unit Pinups Spur Inspections

Los Angeles Police Chief Bayan Lewis said Tuesday that he was launching a thorough audit of the entire LAPD to ferret out “hostile work environments” after pictures of scantily clad women and a sexually suggestive object were found decorating a vice office.

Acting on an anonymous tip that the Northeast vice office in the LAPD’s Central Bureau looked “more like an adult book store” than a police station, police commissioners asked Lewis and Inspector General Katherine Mader to look into the situation Tuesday morning.

Mader and department officials found a number of photographs depicting alleged prostitutes wearing revealing clothing, vice officers with their arms around women who appeared to be prostitute suspects and a crudely fashioned “trophy” in the shape of male genitalia.

“It was extremely offensive material,” said Commissioner Edith Perez, who received an anonymous letter about the office conditions and requested that the search be done. “It was not a place that you would like your grandmother, mother, wife, sister or daughter working.”

Lewis agreed, saying he would conduct similar searches of all work areas at the department’s headquarters and 18 division areas. He also asked that Deputy Chief Robert Gil, head of Central Bureau operations, determine whether disciplinary action is warranted as a result of the material found in the Northeast vice office.

“Whether it’s locker rooms, workout rooms, vice offices or wherever, there is no place for material that creates dissension among the genders,” Lewis said. “This is no longer an old boys’ club. . . . Clearly there are still some people who don’t get it, and I won’t put up with that.”

Some of the photographs did not appear to have any investigative worth, authorities said, showing women in various poses and stages of dress. Additionally, the officers had written comments underneath the photos that authorities characterized as inappropriate attempts at humor.

“It struck everyone as inappropriate. Even for a vice office,” said Commissioner T. Warren Jackson. “It’s unfortunate when you try to move a culture in a different direction and an episode like this happens and sets you back.”

Jackson said such incidents can undermine progress the department has made in recent years in training officers on gender and sexual harassment issues.

Hostile work environments have longed plagued the LAPD.

One of the most notably problems was in the West Los Angeles station, where authorities discovered that a group of male officers had formed a club known as Men Against Women. Members of the group--including former Det. Mark Fuhrman--believed that there was no place for women in the LAPD, according to a department investigation. Members would act aloof to female officers, ignore them and try to get them into trouble during their probationary periods after joining the force, the probe found.

Department officials concede that hostile work environments are not unique to the West Los Angeles station or Northeast vice office.

Katherine Spillar, national coordinator for the Feminist Majority, said she was not surprised by the discovery of photographs at the vice office and added that she believes the problem is rampant.

“It’s about time,” she said. “Right now, as we speak, I’m sure there is a scramble to take down similar pictures elsewhere in the department.”

Spillar said pictures represented “classic sexual harassment” that will only successfully be stopped if command officers are held responsible for the actions of their subordinates.

“There needs to be punishment for the command officers who look the other way and as a result give [sexual harassment] their tacit approval,” she said.