Riordan, Parks Vow to Carry Out LAPD Reform

Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, both blamed in a new report for contributing to problems at the LAPD, said in separate interviews Friday that while they do not accept all of the study’s findings, they are committed to pressing ahead with reform.

They said reform would be accomplished, in part, by implementing a sweeping agreement with the federal government.

Even though the study, titled the Report of the Rampart Independent Review Panel, accused Riordan of undermining his own Police Commission and of failing to advance important reforms, the mayor endorsed the panel’s findings.

“This is a solid report,” he told a graduating class at the Police Academy.

The report reverberated across Los Angeles government Friday. While Riordan and Parks were digesting its criticisms of them and suggesting ways to parlay its recommendations into a package of reforms, members of the Los Angeles City Council also attempted to launch that process.

The council voted 10 to 0 to approve an emergency motion calling for quick review and implementation of the Rampart Independent Review Panel’s recommendations.

“It’s extremely important for city government to collaborate and set priorities on how we’re going to accomplish these goals,” said Councilman Mike Feuer. “It is important for us to work together as a team.”

The motion, introduced by Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, calls for identifying any overlap between the Rampart panel’s recommendations and the reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department that are outlined in the recently approved federal consent decree.

Outside council chambers, Parks took issue with some of the criticisms in the report and said he believes that by focusing exclusively on problems of police misconduct, the report’s authors--a distinguished panel of lawyers and others convened by the Police Commission--ignored the vastly larger issues of patrolling the city and keeping its residents safe from crime.

The result is a distorted picture, Parks said: “In my judgment, when you come in and take a slice of the department, you lose perspective.”

Nevertheless, Parks said he agrees with some of the report’s observations about the LAPD’s approach to investigating and disciplining officers, and he said there’s always room for improvement in the field training that officers receive after leaving the academy.

“Is there perfection?” Parks asked rhetorically. “No. There’s never perfection. Are we going to have people who make mistakes in the future. Probably yes. Will those mistakes be intentional? Usually not.”

Riordan, meanwhile, used the occasion of the academy graduation to deliver his first detailed reaction to the report, which he and his staff received Thursday.

Reminding the audience of how far Los Angeles has come from the fear that clouded the city in 1993, when he was elected a year after riots had terrified residents, Riordan said the city should turn in coming months to the reform agenda.

That effort will be led, Riordan said, by the implementation of the recently approved consent decree, which addresses many of the issues outlined in the new report.

Although Riordan said he continues to have reservations about that decree, he said it represents the best deal the city could strike, and he added that it will force changes in the LAPD disciplinary and internal investigative systems that the new report criticizes.

“The consent decree that I finally signed contains a number of critical reforms, which will eliminate racial profiling, bolster the quality of internal investigations and improve integrity training for new recruits,” Riordan said. “Those are necessary reforms--reforms that will make your job easier and our city safer.”

In an interview later, Riordan also noted that the changes will not be cheap--and that residents may pay a price in declining services to finance the improvements.

“It’s going to come from sidewalk repairs, library hours, parks,” he said. “I don’t think anybody will be laid off, but you could have fewer people providing and performing services throughout the city.”

Moving beyond the reform issue, Riordan on Friday also proposed expanding recruitment age limits to “draw on a richer pool of applicants.” He also promised the academy graduates that he would redouble his attention to boosting officer morale and would continue his long-standing effort to improve the LAPD’s officer deployment.

Although the LAPD has grown and crime has dropped significantly during Riordan’s time as mayor--the crime trends mirroring those of some other big cities--the study this week criticized Riordan for meddling in the minutiae of Police Commission business.

Riordan retorted Friday by suggesting that the commission, whose members he appointed, had failed to take the lead in reforming the LAPD, forcing him to play a more active role.

“We need a Police Commission that doesn’t start going off on tangents,” he said. “Instead of my office being in charge, these types of things should be initiated by the department with the commission working with them.”

In its report, the Rampart panel recommended that one way to strengthen the Police Commission’s oversight ability would be to make the group’s president and vice president full-time officials with salaries equal to that of the police chief. On Friday, Riordan declined to take a position on that idea, but registered his skepticism.

“It has to do with the right leadership structure,” he said. “Are you emasculating the chief of police in doing it?

“No organization,” Riordan added, “works well without one person at the top.”

Even by the standards of the LAPD, the past week has been a tough one. Not only did the Rampart panel deliver its critique of the department, but a jury also convicted three LAPD officers on charges of lying and conspiracy.

On Friday, the City Council in closed session unanimously approved spending $10.9 million to settle 29 more lawsuits related to the Rampart scandal.

And yet, as Riordan addressed the newest class of officers, the new graduates proclaimed their loyalty to the department.

“It’s the best department in the world,” Officer Sean Kinchla, 23, of Burlington, Mass., said. “Nothing could change my mind.”

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Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.