Partial Police Reform to Cost $5 Million a Year, Council Told

With a final price tag yet to be determined, the Los Angeles City Council was told Tuesday that it will cost $5 million a year to pay for some of the police reforms being sought by the U.S. Justice Department.

The City Council received the news at a closed-door meeting with a team of city officials negotiating with federal authorities over how best to implement long-sought changes in the police department. The next meeting is scheduled in two weeks.

Sources who were at the meeting said the city will need the additional funds to expand the power of the department’s Internal Affairs Division to investigate a broader category of police offenses, including ethnic slurs, unlawful searches and gender bias--violations normally reviewed by division commanders.

The tab for other reform measures was not discussed, partly because the entire reform package has not been drafted, but some council members expressed concern that the reforms won’t come cheaply. The meeting was cut short when the council lost a quorum.

If federal authorities are unable to secure the city’s agreement, they have threatened to file a civil rights lawsuit against Los Angeles to compel reform.

According to an internal documents obtained by The Times, the U.S. Justice Department wants the Internal Affairs Division to routinely investigate more than a dozen categories of offenses, about half of which are currently reviewed by division commanders.

The U.S. Justice Department is also pressing the department to complete police-misconduct investigations within six months after they are reported, according to the document. Currently, investigations often drag on much longer.

How much it will cost for the additional staff needed to meet the six-month deadline was uncertain, city officials said.

Meanwhile, some council members who attended the meeting expressed frustration over the length of the negotiations, and one councilman objected to holding the meetings in private.

“The council is becoming increasingly impatient with the pace at which it is being done,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas.

Councilman Joel Wachs agreed, saying “We are not going to bring closure on this if we continue with this pace.”

Wachs complained that the reform measures discussed by the council are “carefully orchestrated within a set of parameters. There is no broad discussion of reforms.”

Timing is crucial because Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican presidential nominee, has indicated publicly that he believes police matters are best handled locally, raising serious questions about how the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division will handle this case if he is elected in November.

Wachs was also angry that the negotiations have all been held in private, yet some key elements of the discussions have been leaked to newspaper reporters.

He said he has been pressing his colleagues to hold the negotiations in public so that the city’s residents can hear all sides of the debate, not just those that leak out.

“The people in the city who deal with the police should be involved in this,” said Wachs, who is a mayoral candidate running as a City Hall reformer. One of Wachs’ opponents is City Atty. James Hahn, who is leading the city’s negotiation team.

Councilwoman Laura Chick said she would like to discuss the negotiations in public but understands that the matter could end up in litigation and she does not want to jeopardize the city’s legal position.

“When it comes to litigation issues, I want to err on the side of caution to protect the public’s tax dollars,” she said.