Let Police Watchdog Do Her Job

Katherine Mader, the embattled Los Angeles Police Commission’s inspector general, has a very important duty. It was outlined in no uncertain terms in the 1991 Christopher Commission report on badly needed reforms for the Police Department.

To quote: “In particular, we recommend that the Police Commission staff include an inspector general who would be responsible for overseeing the receipt of citizen complaints [against police officers], monitoring the progress of complaints through the [police internal affairs process], and auditing the results” of those investigations. The report said the LAPD’s internal affairs director “should work closely with the Police Commission and the inspector general.”

Also, the report said that internal affairs reports should be routed to the inspector general so that the office “will therefore be able to satisfy itself, at this critical stage, that the investigation was thorough and complete.”

That’s why there was such prompt and appropriate concern from police reform experts about a word change on the scope of Mader’s authority in a memo sent by Commission President Edith Perez to LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks, who has already made it clear that he thinks there will be little for the inspector general to do if he is doing his job.

The Perez memo said Mader would have complete and unrestricted access to “adjudicated” complaints, which implies a sharp retreat from having access before a complaint case has been decided by the LAPD.

Most members of the Police Commission, scheduled to meet today, say they have no intention of muzzling Mader and that the wording of the Perez memo should be changed to clarify the meaning. They’re right: Clarify the language and do it in a public meeting, not in another memo.

Parks has done a good job as chief, but that does not mean the LAPD is suddenly rid of its problems. Mader’s role is no less important today than it was when it was recommended by the Christopher Commission seven years ago. Let Mader do her job, without constraints.