LAPD Reforms Must Not Waver

The Clinton Justice Department pushed, pulled and prodded Los Angeles into agreeing to a federal consent decree mandating reform in the aftermath of the Police Department’s Rampart Division scandal. But President-elect George W. Bush has repeatedly stated his opposition to such decrees, saying that he believes police matters are best handled locally.

The coming change in Washington puts a premium on an increased local commitment to police reform. If city leaders keep the pressure on to make sure that the decree is enforced, the people of Los Angeles will be best assured that police scandal cannot recur.

That’s why it was gratifying to see the Police Commission display unity last week when it adopted the first few of several recommendations from its Rampart Independent Review Panel. Of particular importance was the commission’s unanimous decision to allow its inspector general access to the deliberations of officer-involved shooting review boards.

Such resolve should continue next month when the Police Commission takes up several more of the review panel’s recommendations.

Late last week, a search to fill the post of independent federal monitor of the LAPD officially began. The monitor will assume a five-year job, determining whether a number of police reforms agreed to by city leaders and the Justice Department are carried out. All this grows out of the Rampart scandal, in which officers, among other things, faked crime scenes, falsified reports, planted weapons on suspects and perjured themselves.

The monitor will have a tough job, one that includes working with a traditionally insular LAPD to make sure that the department has in place within two years a sophisticated computerized system for tracking the conduct of police officers. Also, the monitor will report on whether the LAPD properly pursues new reforms, including rules on how police work with confidential informants.

It can be done as long as local leadership lives up to its responsibilities to keep the LAPD reform process on track.