Council Will Try to End Stalemate on LAPD Decree

Unable to reach agreement among themselves after months of talks, the Los Angeles city representatives negotiating with the U.S Department of Justice over police reform sent a proposed settlement to the City Council on Friday that leaves more than a dozen issues for the lawmakers to resolve.

Among the critical points on which the 15-member council must decide is the basic question of whether the city should enter into a consent decree to prevent the Justice Department from filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city over the LAPD’s conduct. A consent decree is a binding settlement whose implementation is overseen by a monitor and federal judge.

Other issues unresolved by the sharply divided panel of negotiators include:

* Whether a federal monitor should be appointed to oversee a lengthy list of reforms in the problem-plagued Police Department.

* Whether the LAPD should be required to compile statistics on the race of individuals subjected to warrantless searches and pedestrian stops.

* Whether the department should have to undertake a study of how it treats mentally ill suspects.

* Whether federal authorities should have a role in designing a computerized system to track officers’ misconduct and in accelerating its implementation.

* Whether the civilian Police Commission’s inspector general should be hired under a contract rather than serve at the pleasure of the commissioners, all of whom are appointed by the mayor.

The negotiators and their federal counterparts did agree on many points, including expansion of the LAPD’s internal affairs division, as well as establishment of a special unit to investigate officers’ use of force. The agreement also envisions numerous audits of operations and reforms with regular reports to the civilian Police Commission, and so-called integrity checks of officers in the field.

For more than four years, federal officials have been investigating allegations that the LAPD routinely employs excessive force and infringes on the rights of minority residents. Their inquiry accelerated amid the allegations growing out of the Rampart scandal.

The council members--who were hand-delivered the 84-page agreement at their homes Friday night--are expected to meet Tuesday in closed session to determine whether they can reach some consensus on issues that have aroused the greatest contention since Washington announced its willingness to file a lawsuit to force Los Angeles into police reform.

On Friday, some council members expressed dissatisfaction with the number of difficult issues the negotiators left unsettled and wondered if the inconclusive result might not scuttle chances for accord.

“If there is a list of unresolved issues, it does cause one to wonder what it is they have agreed upon in terms of reform,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas. “There seems to be a fair amount of unfinished business. Are they expecting the council to resolve the outstanding issues or are they taking the more cynical view that the council will be hopelessly deadlocked and, therefore, incapable of resolving the matter?

“I suspect the anti-police reformers on the negotiating team are hoping for the latter, and that’s unfortunate,” he said.

From the start, the talks with representatives of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division were marked by deep divisions among the four members of the city team, which included City Atty. James K. Hahn, Police Commission President Gerald L. Chaleff, Chief Legislative Analyst Ronald Deaton and Mayor Richard Riordan’s chief of staff, Kelly Martin. LAPD Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy was also active in the negotiation sessions as Chief Bernard C. Parks’ representative. On most issues, sources said, Martin and Pomeroy were arrayed against the other negotiators.

“Clearly there was a sense from the mayor’s office and the Police Department that this was something they were going to be dragged into kicking and screaming,” said one source close to the negotiations.

Hahn, who has pushed strongly for settlement since the talks began, said Friday that he will tell the council members that they have no choice but to accept the Justice Department’s demands.

“I don’t think it will be difficult for the Justice Department to establish there has been a pattern and practice of civil rights violations by LAPD,” Hahn said. “The whole Rampart issue brought to light that there are still officers who feel that they can do anything they want and their colleagues will keep a code of silence. We as a city can no longer say, ‘Trust us.’ The LAPD can not longer say ‘Trust us, we can get the job done,’ ” the city attorney said.

“A consent decree gives the citizens the confidence that the job will be done. If we are serious about reform, we shouldn’t be afraid of a consent decree.”

Furthermore, Hahn said, taking the matter to court would prove very “harmful and destructive to the image of the Police Department” as the Department of Justice presents the grim details of years of police misconduct to a jury.

“No one in the world thinks we are going to win this case in court,” Hahn said. ‘

According to sources close to the talks, this week’s negotiations were conducted in the offices of the downtown law firm in which Chaleff is a partner. On Wednesday and Thursday, the talks stretched into the early morning and became so tense that at various points they dissolved into shouting matches between Martin and federal officials.

Martin said Friday night that the mayor opposes city agreement to a consent decree because he believes Parks should be given the chance to make the required reforms.

“The mayor’s position is that he is very interested in making the necessary reforms and we have negotiated a package that the Justice Department acknowledges is significant,” Martin said. “The city intends to live up to those reforms and we don’t need a federal judge telling us how to do it.”

On the issue of the Justice Department’s threat to sue the city if there is no consent decree, Martin said: “If we reach consensus on every other open issue, that’s a decision they have to make.”

* PRESCRIPTION FOR LAPD

For any reform to work, Police Department’s internal culture must change, a study says. A19