New LAPD Complaint-Logging System Makes Mark

The Los Angeles Police Department’s new complaint process is prompting an unprecedented number of formal investigations into alleged police misconduct and policy violations, according to department statistics released this week.

Just 2 months old, the new system implemented by Chief Bernard C. Parks is being praised by department reformers for comprehensively documenting all complaints, no matter how small, but is being criticized by the rank and file and some supervisors as out of control and overly burdensome.

Since January, the LAPD has recorded about 800 complaints. Just 1,900 complaints were lodged for all of 1997.

In fact, citizen complaints are not increasing, but instead are being recorded and investigated in ways that they never were in the past, according to LAPD officials.

“It’s not like cops are being more rude or getting into more trouble than before,” said Cmdr. Dave Kalish, spokesman for the chief.

Top LAPD officials and other supporters of the new process say that for the first time in the department’s history, officials are able to track every complaint against an officer. The system is aimed at helping supervisors identify and monitor potential problem officers and improve police service, LAPD officials said.

“By capturing and counting all complaints, the department will be more accountable to the public trust,” Parks said in a recent videotaped message to his force. “This is powerful information.”

Opponents of the system say that the chief has gone overboard and that supervisors are investigating even the most frivolous complaints, such as an officer allegedly smirking at a motorist. Critics also allege that the sheer volume of complaints has had a chilling effect on the patrol officers’ willingness to be active crime fighters and has pulled supervisors out of the field, saddling them with investigations and paperwork.

“We feared this would happen,” said Dave Hepburn, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League. “It’s been extremely harmful on morale. Officers feel like they are constantly under suspicion by management. It doesn’t give you a warm fuzzy feeling about the place you work for.”

Kalish said the revised complaint process still has a few bugs that need to be worked out.

“It’s a new system, and our employees are still trying to adjust. It’s taking a while for the captains to figure out the appropriate use,” he said. “We’ve never captured all complaints in this manner. There is naturally going to be some uneasiness because of the lack of familiarity with it. It’s clearly too soon to judge the process.”

The LAPD has been criticized in recent years for failing to capture, monitor and track complaints against its officers. The 1991 Christopher Commission, which proposed a number of reforms after the beating of Rodney G. King, suggested that the department overhaul its complaint process to provide better tracking of problem officers.

Last year, Katherine Mader, who as inspector general oversees the department’s discipline system, found little improvement in the process since the Christopher Commission report was made. The agency’s system for tracking complaints, she said, was so inadequate that it was impossible to determine how many complaints were being made.

For instance, the LAPD had no way of tracking complaints that were resolved in ways other than a formal internal affairs investigation, such as those handled by captains in the division or those recorded in daily police station logs. Additionally, the department often did not track allegations of misconduct made in lawsuits or city claims filed against the LAPD, she found.

Mader is now auditing the complaints, seeking to determine whether the new process is working effectively.

Under the new system, Parks has eliminated the department’s alternative, less formal methods of resolving complaints. The new process also is set up to track lawsuits and claims against the department.

In his Special Order #1, the chief replaced the LAPD’s old “1.81 personnel complaint forms” with a new “1.28” form that documents all complaints regardless of whether they amount to misconduct or not. In addition to categories for serious misconduct, the new forms incorporate problems with officers who fail to meet firearm qualifications, fail to appear in court when summoned to testify or are involved in preventable traffic collisions.

Parks also has increased the number of ways complaints can be resolved in an effort to better explain the dispositions.

The complaints are investigated whether they are received in person, in writing, over the telephone, or through the department’s soon-to-be-unveiled computer Web page.

Some LAPD officers allege that the new system has contributed to a growing reluctance among those on patrol to actively fight crime because they fear receiving a citizen complaint and getting overly scrutinized by their bosses.

“This is causing a lot of problems,” said one LAPD sergeant, who asked to remain anonymous. “The officers are becoming less proactive and more reactive.”

The new system is similar to procedures used by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department over the past five years.

Merrick Bobb, a consultant to the Los Angeles Police Commission who also is special counsel to the Sheriff’s Department, said the LAPD is going through an adjustment period with the revamped process but should stick with it.

He said the Sheriff’s Department also had initial difficulty implementing a comprehensive complaint system but now is successfully using it to identify “at risk” officers and other liability management issues.

“I strongly favor this kind of system and feel it is fulfilling an important Christopher Commission recommendation,” he said. “I sympathize with the growing pains, but the department should hang in there.”

Bobb said similar suggestions that sheriff’s deputies would be less proactive for “fear of being beefed” by citizens “have proven illusory.” Arrests did not decline after institution of the complaint system, he added.

“My sense of LAPD officers is that they are not hesitant to make arrests when warranted,” he said. “My guess is that the LAPD also will not experience fewer arrests.”