Law Badges Tarnished by Misuse

The mayor of West Covina has one. So do all the members of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission. Even infamous Chicago serial killer John Wayne Gacy Jr. had one.

Government badges are symbols of authority, metallic identifiers that let others know that those carrying them have powers not granted to common citizens.

But while many public employees--from building inspectors to police officers and firefighters--need them to quickly establish their authority, some law enforcement and ethics experts are questioning the wisdom of issuing police-like badges to public officials with few or no enforcement duties.

“They are often used to get away with benefits, whether to intimidate somebody or get special favors,” said Michael Josephson, president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics of Marina del Rey. The question is, “Why do they need the badges?”

Revelations last month that West Covina Mayor Ben Wong used his city-issued badge to confiscate the driver’s license of a motorist have thrown the San Gabriel Valley town into political turmoil.

Wong flashed his council member badge after a traffic fender-bender in 1996 and took the other driver’s license. Wong has denied impersonating an officer, but acknowledged that “it wasn’t the brightest thing to do.”

Wong is not the first public official to land in hot water because of his use of a government-issued badge.

In Los Angeles, former Police Commission President Enrique Hernandez Jr. was investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration in 1995 after he allegedly used his commissioner badge to bypass the metal detectors at Los Angeles International Airport.

“It is a quiet invitation for professional courtesy” when stopped for traffic violations and the like, Josephson said. “The more people with badges, the greater the likelihood that someone will use them improperly.”

The preponderance of metal shields also undermines the legitimate authority of police badges, said Hubert Williams of the Washington-based Police Foundation.

“They are a door to trouble,” he said. “It creates a perceived protection from the law.”

Shields were once distributed wholesale as political favors in Chicago. In a decades-old custom, sheriffs distributed “part-time deputy” badges to political allies and friends.

The badges were often used to avoid traffic tickets or gain admission to sporting events, said Bill Cunninghan, spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan. Sheahan confiscated more than 2,000 part-time deputy badges when he took office seven years ago.

One of the most infamous people to receive such a badge was Gacy, who was convicted in 1980 of the torture and murder of 33 young men and boys. He had gotten his deputy badge after working for a local political campaign.

In California, serial killer Kenneth Bianchi, the “Hillside Strangler,” was the focus of a 1980 scandal that caused the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to overhaul its badge-issuing policy. Bianchi had been given a county seal decal by a supervisor’s deputy chief. He later used the decal in his car to pose as a police officer when luring his victims.

The case raised questions about the county’s practice of loosely issuing badges to its employees and distributing decals, used to get free parking in county parking lots.

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The board passed a motion to ban the decals and to severely limit the number of official badges.

The city of Los Angeles is poised to review its own badge policy.

Following the case of Los Angeles Building and Safety Commission President Scott Z. Adler, who resigned and later pleaded no contest to charges of soliciting a prostitute in 1996, Councilman John Ferraro introduced a motion in the City Council saying, “We need to limit the issuance and use of these badges to only those city employees and officials who are peace officers or otherwise are entrusted with the city’s police powers.”

Adler had solicited a teenage prostitute and allegedly used his badge to intimidate her.

Last week, the council’s Rules and Elections Committee approved recommendations by the city’s chief legislative analyst that called for, among other things, the drafting of ordinances that would require a streamlined badge-issuing and review process.

The report, which took nearly two years to complete, said 1,720 city badges were in the hands of non-sworn employees and officials in 1996. Of those, about 90, mostly commission badges, were not sanctioned by the City Council.

Ronald Deaton, the chief legislative analyst, said there was not a significant problem with unauthorized badges or abuse of authorized ones but, “given the potential for abusing the privilege of carrying such a badge, we do feel that there are some additional actions that should be taken to further strengthen the policies and procedures.”

The recommendations approved by the Rules and Elections Committee require a “separate process to regulate the issuance of badges to members of boards and commissions,” but not for police and fire commissioners and City Council members.

The full council is expected to vote on the recommendations this week, Deaton said.

Even as authorities consider tightening rules on the issuance of badges to non-law enforcement personnel, the practice continues for elected officials and some commissioners: Los Angeles County supervisors, for example, excluded themselves from the 1980 ban on non-law enforcement badges and continue to carry them.

Although incidents of reported mischief are not rampant, some question the need for elected officials and commissioners to carry police-like badges.

“I would ask the cities that give out such badges, why do they do that?” said Terry Cooper, professor of public administration at USC. “What is the point? Why not just give them identification cards?”

Badges are normally associated with police, and to the public, the practice may “blur the lines between elected officials and sworn police officers who have special powers,” Cooper said.

Defenders of the practice say officials need the badges to get fast access to emergency and disaster sites in order to survey damage. Some commissioners also need them to supervise the work of public employees, they say.

“Police commissioners and fire commissioners on occasion go in the field and need to identify themselves,” said Clifford Weiss, acting executive director of the Los Angeles Police Commission. “The badge is very easily identifiable from a long distance. Police officers and fire personnel are used to seeing badges.”

South Pasadena City Manager Sean Joyce defended his city’s practice of issuing badges to its council members.

They do not have regular contact with police and fire personnel, Joyce said. “It is important that they may be able to identify themselves” during a crisis.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said her badge came in very handy twice when she needed to cross police lines to survey fire damage.

But others question whether badges are the solution.

“Badges belong to cops,” said Glendora Police Chief Paul Butler. “When you hear badge, everyone thinks cops. They don’t think council members.”

If officials need to be quickly identified in emergency circumstances, ID cards can be issued to them, he said. “They can have as big a card as they want.”

But in a society bombarded with images of wallet-flipping authorities, laminated cards may not hold the same status as shiny metal badges. Those who have badges seem reluctant to give them up.

Ferraro said efforts to ban council member badges would probably meet strong opposition.

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But some government officials have a hard time justifying the shields.

“I just assumed it was part of being a commissioner,” said Kaye Beckham, member the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, which designates historical and cultural monuments.

“There will always be someone who will misuse or abuse anything,” said Beckham, who was not aware that her badge was not authorized by city ordinance.

She said her badge was simply a form of identification.

Beckham said she had never used her badge to identify herself as a cultural heritage commissioner in the five years she has been in the post.

Bill Hedges, author of the Pocket Guide to Collecting Police Badges & Patches, says the practice of issuing badges to non-police officers dates back before World War II.

Badges were first issued to police officers in large East Coast cities around the 1850s, Hedges said. Uniforms were not common at that time, and badges were the only identifiers the officers had.

Somewhere along the line, non-police officers began getting badges too.

In Los Angeles, private citizens at one point were issued badges by the Police Department that said “Detective Lieutenant Los Angeles.” They were given out as gun permits.

The issuance of badges has been curtailed over the years. About 30 years ago, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department recalled nearly 7,000 “honorary” badges that had been given to various officials and members of the press to garner political support.

And, as some officials have learned, the badges can have a downside.

“Take it from me. They are not necessary,” said former Rancho Palos Verdes City Council member Susan Brooks. “It is more of a liability than an asset.”

Two years ago, Brooks was accused of flashing her council member badge to intimidate a gas station manager into removing the campaign sign of a political opponent. Brooks said she was simply opening her wallet, which contained the badge, to take out a business card and to ask the manager if she could place her own sign. She said instances like that can be easily misconstrued.

“After what I’ve been through, I was eager to get rid of that thing,” she said.

Now, her badge sits in a plaque on her wall.

“That’s where it belongs,” Brooks said.