Baker for Sheriff

On June 2, voters will go to the polls to select the next sheriff of Los Angeles County. It is the county’s most important race this year. Among the sheriff’s many responsibilities is the management of about 6,600 sworn deputies and their law enforcement patrol functions in 40 contract cities and in the unincorporated sections of the county. The sheriff is also called upon to manage the largest county jail system in the nation. The post offers more than adequate compensation, with an annual salary greater than that of the president.

It’s an extremely powerful position that requires a sharp and forceful personality, but the department has been managed by crisis response and knee-jerk reaction for far too long. The department needs change and a clean break with the sheriff-for-life dynasties that have ruled for decades.

For these and many other reasons, The Times endorses former Sheriff’s Department Chief William A. Baker.

Baker, 60, had a 35-year career in the Sheriff’s Department; he retired in 1995. In 1968, as a sergeant, Baker began a program in which deputies were paired with local schools to serve as mentors and counselors.

In 1971, as a lieutenant, Baker persuaded three would-be jewelry store robbers to release their hostages. He then entered the store alone and unarmed and persuaded the crooks to surrender. For that, Baker won the Los Angeles County Valor Award and the criminal court’s Bar Assn. law enforcement officer of the year award.

It was the incumbent sheriff, Sherman Block, who promoted Baker up the ranks to the position of Region II chief of field operations, which includes Lennox, Century City and West Hollywood.

Baker most recently has been a consultant on public safety issues and an expert witness in civil rights cases involving police departments. He considers himself a protege of UCLA professor James Q. Wilson’s philosophy on community-oriented policing. Among his priorities as sheriff would be to set up an internal auditing system, a new executive staff and a new organizational structure.

* Why Not Sheriff Sherman Block? Consistency has been the hallmark of Block’s four terms as sheriff. Unfortunately, in this term especially, it’s been consistency as in a consistent inability to get ahead of major problems, before they reach dangerous, embarrassing and always costly proportions. Block does not lead, he reacts, and only when he has been forced to by overwhelming evidence.

Block was forced by the Kolts Commission, created by county supervisors in 1991 to recommend reforms for the Sheriff’s Department, to take hold of a department that had cost taxpayers millions in excessive force cases. This past year, he was forced, by three audits, to acknowledge millions of dollars in fat in his budget and questionable contracting. Block was forced, by Times coverage, to deal with losing jail inmates, losing prisoners on work release and keeping prisoners beyond their release dates. Block was forced, by the Justice Department, to respond at last to inhumane treatment of mentally ill inmates.

* Why not Sheriff’s Chief Lee Baca? Baca’s lack of judgment, flip-flops and misstatements have done little to inspire confidence in his ability to respond to the pressure-cooker post of county sheriff. Baca reacted to a sideline issue--his open and obvious attempt to persuade Block to step aside and support his candidacy--with a series of non-denial denials. Baca so far has been his own campaign’s most lethal enemy.

Sgt. Patrick Gomez, the third candidate, seems to be a promising young member of the department, but he lacks administrative experience.

Baker is not the perfect candidate. He will need to show good judgment in reiterating his support of the Kolts Commission findings, in making a strong choice for the No. 2 department post and in acknowledging that the department needs to retain an independent watchdog in the form of the Kolts Commission’s semiannual reports. But Baker is heads above the competition here, and he deserves your vote.