Zero Tolerance for Backsliding Deputies

In January, four off-duty Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputies from Century Station showed up at a Lynwood hamburger joint after midnight and got into a fight with an African American. Witnesses claim the deputies had been drinking, used an inflammatory racial epithet, ignored their pleas to stop pummeling the man, grabbed one of them by the throat and told on-duty deputies responding to the fracas to leave. The man was not arrested and has not been located. The incident came on the heels of growing unease about a Century deputy group called “The Regulators,” a clique with a crossed pistols logo.

A month ago, Sheriff Lee Baca, who quickly reshuffled staff at Century in the incident’s aftermath, restated his opposition to cliques, refusing to dismiss them as innocuous social clubs and saying he wanted them ended. In a recent Times article, a former deputy, who left in 1994, described a tightknit Century subculture with young deputies vying for acceptance from old guard white males, many of whom used racist and sexist slurs and kept a code of silence regarding misconduct. Being allowed to get the clique’s tattoo signaled acceptance.

In another troublesome development, the deputies’ union has stymied a well-intended but inept attempt to move women more rapidly into patrol, where only 8% of the deputies are female. More worrisome still, the union linked its web site to one broadcasting opinions on the sheriff’s proposed movement of women that contained virulent sexist comments such as “female cops are a sick joke on society” and “broads on the job suck.”

Is the image of a brutal, racist and sexist deputy who sports tattoos like combat stripes fair and accurate? Is the Sheriff’s Department more dug in and resistant to reform than the LAPD shortly after Rodney King? Emphatically no. Both law enforcement agencies have moved forward since their deficiencies were catalogued in the 1991 Christopher Commission (LAPD) and 1992 Kolts investigation (Sheriff’s Department) reports. But there is neither time nor justification for complacency. The Board of Supervisors and Sheriff’s Department brass must continue to demonstrate in word and deed that the post-Kolts commitments to ongoing reform are here to stay. There must be rigorous accountability up and down the chain of command for unacceptable behavior and continued outside monitoring and public reporting.

My February 1999 monitoring report on implementation of the Kolts recommendations concluded that Sheriff Sherman Block had left the department in far better shape than Judge James G. Kolts found it. Block’s last year, regarding patrol operations, was a great step forward, validating strenuous internal and external efforts to inculcate responsibility and hold employees accountable.

The numbers bore it out: In 1998, money paid out in excessive force lawsuits was less than in any year since 1992. In 1989, 151 cases (66% of the pending lawsuits against the department) alleged excessive force. But in 1998, only 84 cases, or 26% of active lawsuits, alleged such conduct. There were fewer shootings by deputies than in any year since 1991. Whether every heart and mind in the Sheriff’s Department embraced reform may be open to question, but it cannot be disputed that there was less overtly bad conduct by sworn officers.

Baca should not cede an inch of the ground won for greater police professionalism under his predecessor--good will and good feelings, both inside and outside the department, will prove short-lived if repetitions occur of incidents like the alleged beating in Lynwood. Alleged misconduct involving the deputies at Century Station, the reported resurgent popularity of tattoos and the recent rash of sexist remarks about female officers should be wake-up calls to the brass.

Baca’s triumph in the harsh and gritty November 1998 election gave him legitimacy. He deserves plaudits for vowing to rekindle pride and draw the department together. He must do so without showing an iota of tolerance for the baser instincts of a few loosely controlled deputies and managers who remain in the ranks.

Block’s latter years demonstrated that internal vigilance, combined with outside monitoring, can suppress police misconduct. Baca must continue that approach.