Chief Parks’ Wrong Turn

We have a dogeared copy of Dale Carnegie’s best-selling advice book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” We think we will forward it to Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks.

The common-sense lessons of the book are familiar: Charm works better than sourness; even when you know you are right concede that you might be wrong. Obviously this was fully known by Parks, who deftly worked his way up the ranks of a rigid department that was hostile to African American officers. Parks was so politically well connected that in 1994 when then-Police Chief Willie L. Williams gave him 10 days to resign or face a demotion, a pay cut and a reduced pension, several City Council members objected. Parks wound up demoted but also got a raise. The astute Parks ingratiated himself not only with politicians but with moguls and CEOs throughout the city.

Where has that man gone?

Late last week Parks seemed less like Parks and more like Daryl F. Gates, the intransigent former chief. That was when Parks informed the district attorney’s office that, thank you very much, he simply wouldn’t allow his officers to give the D.A. access to records on the LAPD’s Rampart Division scandal. Parks said he instead considered the U.S. attorney the lead prosecutor in the case. The action recalled a worrisome observation on the Times Commentary page by former cop and best-selling author Joseph Wambaugh: “The super-competent . . . Parks’ personality defects are becoming ever more apparent. . . . The chief can be abrupt and imperious, giving rise to the impression that he is covering up when the opposite more likely is true.”

Parks initiated the probe into allegations of officer corruption involving beatings, perjury and even murder. The department now is the subject of criminal and civil investigations. The chief cannot arbitrarily decide who will and who won’t receive pertinent information.

Before long, the chief was saying that his remark about not cooperating with Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti had been misunderstood. The change may have had a little something to do with opinions from the state attorney general and the city attorney saying that Parks had no authority to determine which law enforcement agency should investigate the scandal.

Two particularly unfortunate results of the chief’s actions: First, he undermines his ability to get to the truth in Rampart because he is alienating natural allies in City Hall and elsewhere; second, he creates political sympathy for Garcetti, who really does have a lousy record for prosecuting police cases, starting with his decision to cancel the deployment of deputy district attorneys to the scenes of police shootings. Garcetti only recently reinstated those squads, called roll-out teams.

In backpedaling Wednesday, Parks said he wasn’t cutting anyone out but simply and appropriately was giving all information to the U.S. attorney’s office, which would then decide which cases should be prosecuted in local courts. It was a thin argument. City Attorney James K. Hahn said that Parks had agreed to cooperate with the district attorney. Parks, speaking at a press conference, claimed that he had gotten only two requests for information from Garcetti’s office in the last month. “We have a two-year history of cooperating in this case . . . he has never been denied any information,” Parks said.

Earlier in the day, Mayor Richard Riordan was critical of the chief, whom he usually exuberantly supports. The mayor acknowledged that he had a role to play in trying to get Parks and Garcetti to work together. Riordan, who pushed hard to make Parks the police chief, might just be the last person able to get Parks to realize the destructiveness of his course.

Parks is isolating himself, leaving his supporters to guess at his intentions. “He’s just been wrongheaded about this from the start and he didn’t need to be,” said one usual ally. “Nobody was looking to jam him personally on [the Rampart scandal],” said another.

Parks has long understood what it takes to forge political alliances and how those alliances make it easier to accomplish what you want. If he is committed to reaching the bottom of the scandal, he must get back to basics. He needs the help and cooperation of many. He cannot and should not try to control every aspect of this investigation. Parks must win back friends he has alienated if he hopes to regain his influence.