Police Panel Struggles for Clout

Long faulted as a rubber stamp for the LAPD, the Los Angeles Police Commission is attempting to strengthen its civilian oversight role, most significantly by seeking funds to hire staffers who would provide independent information to the five-member board.

The change, which would make the commission less dependent on the police chief, may seem technical but it lies at the heart of reforms recommended by the 1991 Christopher Commission. That panel’s watershed report on police reform after the beating of motorist Rodney G. King has framed debate about the LAPD ever since.

“If [the panel] had this staff over the last 10 years, the Police Commission would have had a much greater ability to affirmatively manage the affairs of the Police Department,” said Merrick Bobb, a special counsel to the county Board of Supervisors on the Sheriff’s Department and former Christopher Commission staff counsel. “There would have been an early warning system or tracking system in place to avoid the Rampart scandal.”

The Police Commission has long been criticized as too weak. Although it is charged with managing the Police Department, critics contend that power too often flows the other way, with the board being managed by the department.

The commission’s newly appointed leaders are trying to change that--an effort undertaken unsuccessfully by past boards.

Commission President Rick Caruso, the natty shopping-mall developer appointed this year by Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, has shown a flair for independence. He has resisted several measures served up for the board’s approval, and sought to enhance the board’s image and influence.

Now, under Caruso’s leadership, the board is seeking city money for independent staffers to avoid depending on the chief for information.

To really take charge, Caruso said, the panel needs “policy-level, advisory-type people. Analysts.”

Outside observers, such as Bobb, agree. The board’s ability to take control of the department is hampered by the members’ lack of time and resources, and information from objective, independent sources, he said.

The members serve part time and without pay. Mostly, they have little prior experience with law enforcement. Thrown in charge of a complicated, highly politicized, $1.2-billion organization, they are easily overwhelmed, becoming “well-intentioned individuals struggling to comprehend and deal with an extremely complex institution,” Bobb contended.

Hiring the recommended staffers “would make us more effective as an independent body,” said Joe Gunn, executive director of the commission. “We would have the ability to do our own independent analysis rather than depending for input on the chief.”

Police spokesman Lt. Horace Frank said the chief and the department support an independent Police Commission, but Deputy Chief Julius I. Davis said it would be inappropriate for the department to comment further.

The commission is working on a 2002 budget request for five new auditor positions to fulfill mandates of the federal consent decree signed earlier this year stemming from the Rampart scandal.

A second, interim budget request will be filed with the City Council and Hahn seeking at least three positions for policy analysts--independent experts who could review and criticize information provided to the commission by the department.

Past police commissions have attempted to assert their independence in this way, requesting more staff and resources. The Christopher Commission, after faulting the police panel for its passivity, recommended that the board be given a staff of as many as 20 people, including lawyers and accountants. Although some related changes were made, the full reform was never implemented.

Nine years later, a report by the Rampart Independent Review Panel said the problem had not gone away. The Police Commission was still perceived as “weak and ineffective,” that panel said. “Part-time commissioners do not have enough time to do their jobs well, and they are overwhelmed by the resources, institutional knowledge and complexity of the department.”

The commission, however, is likely to face a difficult battle to hire more people. The city budget is tight, and there is a hiring freeze. A request to City Hall for more staff in last year’s budget has already been denied, Gunn said.

The board also faces major decisions in the coming months, including the possible reappointment of Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and the implementation of consent decree reforms.

In deciding whether to grant the commission’s staffing requests, the City Council is likely to consider that the panel already has a large staff that has grown in recent years.

More than 90 positions are budgeted within the commission, including sworn officers and civilians.

Gunn argued, however, that all but five of those are tied to other commission responsibilities, namely discrimination complaints and grievances, and the swelling number of permits--about 16,000 per year for everything from parades to massage parlors--that the Police Department oversees.

The Christopher Commission recommended that the police panel be relieved of the responsibility of overseeing permits, precisely because that duty tends to eat up so much staff time. Nonetheless, the existence of such a large staff and of budget constraints may work against the commission’s plea for more people.

For now, the panel has been trying to flex its muscles in other ways.

Earlier this year, after getting a proposed budget from LAPD officials only days before its due date, commissioners rebelled, demanding more time to review the 4-inch-thick binder. The mayor was forced to make do with a draft budget.

This month, the board crossed swords with the City Council over which entity should take charge of a multimillion-dollar effort to revamp the LAPD’s computer systems to track problem officers.

Also recently, the commission hired its own public relations firm. Fleishman Hillard is working on a pro bono basis. In part, the firm has been asked to remind the public, which may be muddled on the subject, that it is the commission, not the chief, that is charged with management and control of the LAPD.

It is not surprising that such moves have come from Caruso, who is “a jugular person,” not a “capillary person,” said S. David Freeman, former head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Caruso previously was president of that agency’s Board of Commissioners, working closely with Freeman.

Caruso “is quick, personable, and doesn’t waste time. And he says exactly where he stands. . . . He doesn’t want to sit around and talk, talk, talk,” Freeman said.

Always tan and noted as a tasteful dresser, Caruso presides over the commission with a brisk, breezy manner that conveys a preference for getting to the point and sticking to the facts.

At meetings he often seems to bristle with impatience at what he considers insufficient or poorly prepared materials.

Other commissioners also lament the lack of staff reports and recommendations on many issues.

USC constitutional law professor Erwin Chemerinsky said a core issue of democratic values is at stake: Police departments should have strong civilians at the helm.