Civil Rights Probe of LAPD Expected to Grow

After two days of meetings, high-ranking U.S. Justice Department officials have told Los Angeles police and city leaders that they intend to intensify their civil rights investigation of the LAPD and expressed concern that the department has failed to implement key reforms that could have prevented the Rampart Division corruption scandal, sources said Tuesday.

According to those sources, Bill Lann Lee--head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division in Washington, D.C.--pointedly asked city officials and lawmakers why the LAPD has not implemented long-anticipated changes outlined by the Christopher Commission in the wake of the Rodney King beating.

Lee and his associates also raised questions about $162,492 of federal money set aside two years ago to help the LAPD enhance its computerized system that tracks the performance of its police officers. The tracking system was a key outgrowth of the Christopher Commission, but the money still sits in a bank account, unspent by the city.

“They are intensely interested in what happened to the issue of reform,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, one of the city leaders who met with Lee and members of his staff. “They want to know why more progress has not been made.”

The Justice Department officials are in Los Angeles to gather information that will help them decide whether to revive and expand a long-running inquiry known as a “pattern and practice” investigation. That inquiry, similar to cases brought in other American cities, would run alongside the investigations of possible criminal misconduct by Los Angeles police, and could subject the city to civil sanctions or even a federal takeover of part of the LAPD.

In response to the questions, officials offered a variety of assessments as to why the reform efforts have fallen short of expectations.

One official blamed Mayor Richard Riordan’s rapid expansion of the Police Department for the problems. Another questioned whether the Police Commission had been forceful--and independent--enough in recent years to ensure that LAPD had implemented the Christopher Commission reforms.

City Atty. James Hahn, whose office was included in meetings with the Justice Department, blamed the city’s “bureaucracy” for slowing down the disbursement process of the federal money for the police tracking system.

“The money has just been sitting around because nobody wants to make a decision,” Hahn said.

Lee, who was set to return to Washington on Tuesday afternoon, was accompanied to the meetings by top aide Steve Rosenbaum, who oversees the Justice Department’s ongoing inquiry into the LAPD.

After the release of taped interviews with former police Det. Mark Fuhrman during the O.J. Simpson trial, the Justice Department began monitoring the LAPD in 1996 to determine whether incidents involving excessive force fall into any recognizable pattern. The purpose of such “pattern and practice” reviews, authorized by federal law in 1994, is to ensure proper management and oversight at police departments and, if needed, to bring federal lawsuits to pressure local authorities into cleaning up their operations.

On their two-day visit, the Justice Department officials met with more than a dozen city officials, including LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks, Hahn, a number of council members and Riordan’s chief of staff, Kelly Martin. Also included in the meetings were members of the Police Commission and Inspector General Jeffrey Eglash.

Sources said Lee offered to give the commission assistance in investigating the Rampart scandal. He also expressed confidence in the abilities of Eglash--who used to work for the U.S. attorney’s office--and Commission President Gerald Chaleff, sources said.

Even so, Justice Department officials are very aware of the political currents within the city; they have questions concerning whether Chaleff and Eglash have the independence or detached perspective required to resolve LAPD’s problems, a federal source said Tuesday. As a result, sources said, Lee and his staff must decide whether Los Angeles needs people with no local relationships to probe the matter.

Participants in some of the meetings said officials from the federal government leaned hard on local authorities over the question of why the $162,492 that the Justice Department allocated to Los Angeles for a highly touted police reform has never been spent.

“That really bothers them,” said one person familiar with the talks. “They want some answers there.”

Others described the federal authorities as taken aback by Parks and two of his top aides, Deputy Chief Michael Bostic and Cmdr. Dan Koenig. The police brass defended their record forcefully, sources said, and vigorously resisted the suggestion that they had dragged their feet on reforms such as computerized officer tracking.

The meetings with some other officials apparently were less confrontational.

Eglash would not describe his interview in detail, but said the session primarily involved federal officials’ posing questions and their local counterparts answering.

“They had a number of questions and wanted information, including about various reforms that have previously been recommended,” Eglash said.

A number of city lawmakers said they appreciated the Department of Justice’s inquiries.

“The Justice Department’s team is in the formative stages of fashioning how they can constructively advance police reform in Los Angeles,” said Councilman Mike Feuer, who attended one of the meetings with the federal officials. “This is just the beginning.”

Certainly, the hard questions sparked a barrage of finger-pointing among the local officials.

In the wake of Lee’s arrival on Monday, lawmakers launched an investigation to find out why the federal money had not been spent. By Tuesday afternoon, the mayor’s office had issued statements blaming members of the City Council--who expressed concern over the contractor chosen to implement the computer system--for delaying the project.

“Before the City Council points a finger of blame at the mayor’s office, each one is going to have to need all their fingers and toes to count the 16 reasons why this grant was not applied toward a much needed tracking system,” said Jessica Copen, Riordan’s press deputy.

The council members, meanwhile, questioned the mayor’s culpability for the problems at the LAPD, saying his rapid expansion of the department in recent years contributed to a breakdown in supervision of the troops.

“From my point of view, the focus of this administration has not been reform,” Ridley-Thomas said. “The focus of the Riordan administration has been expansion and I think we are reaping the consequences of that.”

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KEEPING IT PRIVATE

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