Chief Parks Orders Current Anti-Gang Units Disbanded

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks on Friday abolished the department’s anti-gang CRASH units like the one at the center of the LAPD’s growing corruption scandal.

The existing anti-gang units and other specialized details must disband in two weeks, Parks said. Those units will then be completely restructured to ensure better oversight and control.

“We’re starting from scratch,” said LAPD Cmdr. David J. Kalish.

All the officers who work those units now will be reassigned to patrol within their divisions. The department will implement a new selection process for the new anti-gang details, emphasizing, among other things, an officer’s experience.

Assignments to the new units will be limited to three-year tours, Kalish said.

As part of his response to the Rampart corruption scandal, Parks on Friday signed an 18-page order detailing how he will reorganize the specialized units, which perform some of the department’s most dangerous and street-level police work.

“It is important to continually assess and modify the system, as this will provide additional oversight and review of this critical function,” Parks said in a statement.

Parks’ order reads as if he went down a to-do list based on the testimony of ex-Officer Rafael Perez, who exposed many of the systemic problems with the Rampart CRASH unit during hours of interviews with investigators before his sentencing on cocaine theft charges.

Many of Perez’s allegations were substantiated in an internal LAPD report released this week, which noted that Rampart CRASH officers operated with little or no supervision and routinely ignored LAPD rules on use of informants, booking and interviewing of arrestees and conducting undercover operations.

Perez, who was sentenced to five years in prison for stealing eight pounds of cocaine, also told investigators that many officers in the Rampart CRASH unit conspired to frame innocent people, beat suspects and cover up unjustified shootings.

Police officials said many of the transgressions at Rampart CRASH were possible because the unit was housed away from the main police station and worked with little supervision. Under the chief’s new order, such arrangements will be prohibited.

The CRASH name, which stood for Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, is being abolished and replaced by the far more generic title of “gang detail.” The new gang details, new “career criminal details” and similar squads will make up a new entity that will be known as the “Special Enforcement Unit.”

The requirements for joining the new gang detail will be more rigorous than before, when officers essentially just voted in or personally sponsored new members. Supervisors in the gang details must have one year of experience as patrol supervisors. The officers must have three years on the job, two of which must have been spent in patrol.

The chief’s order does not address the adoption of logos and insignia by some specialized units, such as the one embraced by Rampart CRASH officers, which depicted a grinning skull wearing a cowboy hat with the so-called “dead man’s” poker hand splayed out behind it. That symbol was not only worn on Rampart CRASH officers’ jackets and shirts, but also was tattooed on some officers’ arms. Other CRASH units had similar logos.

Kalish said that issue will be addressed by the chief at another time.

Though LAPD officials say that the department will never give up its gang enforcement operations, the demise of CRASH effectively ends a program that was established in 1979.

There are about 240 CRASH officers throughout the city, with individual units varying in size from four to 26 officers. Their primary mission, according to LAPD documents, “is the prevention of gang activity through high-visibility patrol and aggressive enforcement by uniformed officers whose responsibilities are to seek out and identify gang members and their hangouts and to discourage gang activities.” The mission of the new gang detail is not expected to significantly change.

Under the chief’s order, CRASH will be disbanded March 12. The new gang detail will start work about a month later. In the interim, LAPD officials will be selecting officers for the new units and auditing many of the gang files and reports at the LAPD’s 18 divisions.

Kalish said patrol officers will pay attention to gang problems in their areas during the month in which the department establishes the new gang units.

“This is not a free month for gang members to run wild,” Kalish said.

The new officers selected for those units will undergo special training on their mission and their policing strategies, Kalish said.

One former Rampart CRASH officer said he was skeptical about the motivation behind the proposed changes.

“If they’re doing this because it’s what the public wants to hear, then I think it’s a bad idea,” said the officer, who asked not to be identified.

On the other hand, he said, “Gangs are probably the most pressing problem in the city. So [anti-gang] units should get the best people and the most resources.”

Although he favored increasing the experience level in such units, the former CRASH officer said he disagreed with limiting tours of duty to three years.

“You don’t start getting to know who the players are in the neighborhood for six months or year,” he said.

And once officers start to make arrests, he said, “I don’t see why you should penalize somebody for doing a good job.”

Ted Hunt, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said the union’s leadership has worked with the chief on the proposed changes and did not oppose them. He said the changes probably will improve oversight of such crucial units.

“No copper wants to get in trouble,” Hunt said. “We believe this will help put the brakes on anything that might become a problem in the future.”

The chief’s order grows out of a recommendation in the Board of Inquiry’s Rampart report.

Elizabeth Schroeder, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, called the chief’s order a “positive step.”

“But it’s inadequate in the effort to restore confidence in the operations of the LAPD,” Schroeder added. “We renew our call on the city leaders to create an independent blue ribbon commission that can look at the systemic problems throughout the department.”

City Council members--who Friday received individual briefings on the LAPD’s plan--said they were pleased with the department’s decision to restructure its gang enforcement efforts.

“Merely changing the name of CRASH is not acceptable,” said Councilman Mike Feuer. “We have to have an effective strategy. There needs to be close scrutiny given to how we deal with gang violence. And we have to do it right now.”

The LAPD’s announcement comes at time when the council is struggling to find ways to pay for lawsuits growing out of the Rampart scandal. On Monday, the city’s chief administrative officer is expected to release a report calling for the council to consider using judgment obligation bonds--instead of the city’s tobacco settlement funds--to pay for an anticipated onslaught of legal settlements.

The matter will be taken up by the council’s Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday.

Attorney Stephen Yagman, a frequent and vocal critic of the LAPD, was unimpressed with the proposed change to the department’s gang unit.

“I think it’s meaningless,” said Yagman, who is representing numerous clients in civil cases stemming from the corruption scandal. “Disbanding CRASH is useless without terminating the officers who were members of CRASH, because they’re just going to go to other assignments and keep doing bad things.”

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Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.

* A REMINDER FOR DEPUTIES

A poster quoting a Rampart officer’s apology causes debate among deputies. A18.