Hear No Evil, See No Evil

The Rampart scandal cannot be put out of mind as the consequence of one or two rogue cops in the division’s CRASH unit. The cancer runs deep in the Los Angeles Police Department and the entire justice system. Removing bad cops is essential, but aggressive treatment throughout the system to prevent a recurrence is imperative.

Our first question must be: How could something this widespread have gone on for so long? Virtually everyone in the Los Angeles law enforcement community must share the blame.

Innumerable police officers, including supervisors, must have seen what was going on, but followed a “code of silence” and did not expose the wrongdoing of their fellow officers.

Countless assistant district attorneys repeatedly relied on testimony and evidence, even though they often must have had doubts about its veracity. Their desire for convictions caused them to look the other way rather than challenge the officers they relied upon in their cases.

Judges, who must have had suspicions about some of the officers’ testimony and evidence, accepted them and ignored the pleas of innocent individuals who claimed that they were being framed and that the officers were lying.

Preventing future Ramparts requires first that all those in the criminal justice system accept the responsibility that goes with the great powers provided them. Prosecutors must see it as their role to evaluate critically the police officers they work with, to refuse to use suspicious evidence, however helpful in their cases, and to report for investigation possible wrongdoing by police officers.

Stronger efforts must be taken within the police department to end the “code of silence” and to provide protection and rewards for officers who expose improprieties by fellow officers. The Police Commission must exercise its responsibility in managing the department; all too often in the past, the Police Commission has too strongly identified with the department that it is supposed to be managing. Judges, also, have a role in listening more carefully to police testimony and following up on suspicions of police wrongdoing.

Additionally, there must be structural reforms to prevent future scandals. The new City Charter, which will go into effect July 1, grants the LAPD’s inspector general greater powers, including the authority to investigate any matter with full access to all information. Great care must be taken to ensure that this position is not weakened by the police chief and the Police Commission as it was under the prior charter.

Perhaps most important, an external watchdog must be created, such as a permanent independent prosecutor to investigate wrongdoing in the police department. The Rampart scandal occurred and went on for so long because those within the system have every incentive to look the other way. There must be an independent body charged by law with the task of investigating police wrongdoing and bringing disciplinary actions and criminal prosecutions where appropriate. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, or perhaps the state of California, must establish a permanent independent prosecutor to investigate the LAPD.

This suggestion no doubt will be strongly resisted by the police department and the district attorney’s office. They will tell us that this is unnecessary, that they can get their own houses in order. But the Rampart scandal shows that corruption and acquiescence run too deep in these departments. An external watchdog is essential.

There is nothing more inimical to the rule of law than that those trusted to uphold it have framed innocent individuals and perjured themselves in court to gain convictions. The Rampart scandal--and the thought of innocent people incarcerated for years, and perhaps even dead, because of police wrongdoing, is an evil that cannot be put out of mind. The people of Los Angeles must demand that everything possible be done to make sure that it never happens again.