Panel to Urge Wide Internal Reform of LAPD Probes

The Los Angeles Police Commission’s special panel of inquiry into the Rampart corruption scandal is prepared to recommend sweeping reforms in the way the LAPD identifies and investigates officers accused of using excessive force and other misconduct, according to a confidential draft of an advisory committee’s report obtained by The Times.

The committee--led by an attorney who has worked on police reform issues for nearly a decade--also is highly critical of the LAPD’s managerial culture, saying the department’s “insular mentality is reflected in its resistance to reforms.”

The panel sets forth a number of recommendations in its draft document, which is due out in final form later this month.

They include:

* Bolstering the staff of the Police Commission and its inspector general while making the commission president and vice president full-time city employees.

* Amending the City Charter to lengthen the amount of time the department has to initiate administrative complaints against officers accused of wrongdoing.

* Reinforcing provisions ensuring that the department refers all allegations of criminal misconduct to the district attorney’s office.

* Requiring police investigators to tape all pre-statement interviews with officers in connection with shootings or major force incidents. Tape recorders should also be left running continuously during questioning of all officers and witnesses, according to the panel.

* Directing the police chief to provide the commission with unedited transcripts of interviews conducted in the aftermath of officer-involved shootings or other major force incidents.

“What this document is saying--as so many others have argued in numerous reports--is that there is a deep sickness within the LAPD’s ability to investigate officer misconduct honestly, openly and fairly,” said one longtime departmental observer who has seen a draft of the report.

“This document also portrays a substantial discomfort with the interaction between the department and the Police Commission and suggests that, at times, the department has been pulling the wool over the eyes of the commission,” the source added.

Jan Lawrence Handzlik, the attorney who headed the committee looking into the use-of-force issues, said that although his group is still finalizing its report, he expects the majority of the recommendations to remain intact.

“The bottom line is, the LAPD is a leader in terms of the way in which it investigates officer-involved shootings,” Handzlik said. “However, we feel substantial improvements can be made, particularly in the area of reviewing officer conduct for possible criminal prosecution. To that end we have made recommendations to tighten up the process to make sure that these incidents receive thorough and independent scrutiny.”

He added that the group found that the LAPD’s investigative procedures are designed to keep its use-of-force investigations “in house.”

“Our belief is that independent agencies such as the Police Commission, the inspector general and the district attorney’s office should thoroughly review any questionable shootings or uses of force,” Handzlik said.

LAPD Lt. Horace Frank, a department spokesman, said that while the department has not yet reviewed the committees’s findings, he took issue with the accusation that the LAPD is “insular.”

“With this current chief of police, it is unfair to imply that this department is insular or resistant to making changes or reforms,” Frank said. “We are committed to making any and all necessary changes aimed at ensuring the efficacy of this department.”

The group’s findings will be compiled into a report and released later this month by the Rampart Independent Review Panel, which was formed last spring to look at a range of police issues in the wake of the biggest scandal in police history. The Rampart scandal involves allegations that anti-gang officers at the division lied under oath, falsified reports, planted evidence and in some cases shot unarmed suspects. About 100 criminal cases have been dropped or convictions overturned since the scandal broke more than a year ago.

Commission President Gerald L. Chaleff said he is anticipating that the review panel, which includes more than 100 professionals from across the county, will submit a lengthy list of recommendations on overhauling the Police Department.

“The commission is eagerly awaiting the report,” Chaleff said. “We feel this is an important step in improving the department and ensuring that another Rampart situation never occurs again.”

The proposed fixes are expected to dovetail with the consent decree being finalized by the city and the U.S. Justice Department. While the decree--to be filed in federal court and overseen by an outside monitor--will provide the city with an outline for reforming the LAPD, the Independent Review Panel’s report is expected to give the Police Commission the nuts and bolts of carrying out the fixes.

The panel’s Use of Force Advisory Group envisions implementing a number of improvements, including creating a separate agency to receive and monitor civilian complaints.

The group is also asking that officer conduct that results in large settlements or judgments, including punitive damages awarded on the basis of egregious or intentional misconduct, be “carefully studied to determine what went wrong and why.”

It further calls for setting up two separate internal affairs units, one to investigate administrative misconduct of officers and another to probe criminal behavior.

And the committee is urging the city to change its charter so that allegations of officer misconduct can be investigated for up to two years after they occur, or one year of discovery. The current deadline is one year after the alleged infraction.

“No other law enforcement agency in this state is subject to such a restriction,” according to the committee’s draft report. “This change would allow the [LAPD] to conduct a criminal investigation to its conclusion and then to conduct the administrative investigation without concern that the statute will expire before that portion of the investigation is completed.”