Chief Parks Agrees to Establish Specific Disciplinary Guidelines

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks promised Friday to establish specific guidelines for how police who misbehave will be punished, agreeing to fix a long-standing issue that rank-and-file officers say has contributed to sagging morale.

“It gives everybody a clear understanding so we can eliminate the perception as we go through the disciplinary system that some people perceive others are being treated differently,” said Parks. The chief was flanked at a morning news conference by Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Protective League President Mitzi Grasso, a frequent critic of the chief.

The new guidelines, which Parks has in the past resisted, will lay out a range of punishments for police misconduct. Discipline is now handled on a case-by-case basis.

Parks’ statement comes a week after Riordan challenged department leaders to act on issues such as morale, recruitment and community policing, saying the LAPD is in crisis. On Monday, the mayor fired Police Commission President Gerald Chaleff, calling him ineffective at focusing on key policing issues.

That decision drew criticism from other city leaders and police reform advocates who complained that Riordan was holding Chaleff--instead of Parks--responsible for the department’s problems. But the mayor’s top aides said that Riordan’s recent discussions with the two men led him to believe that the chief was more responsive to his concerns.

On Friday, Riordan said the chief’s vow to create guidelines was an example of his receptiveness to the mayor’s challenge.

“This was done in response to the fact that I got fed up with the fact that this department is not headed in the right direction,” said Riordan after the news conference.

Parks insisted that he began considering creating disciplinary guidelines after discussions with the police union, but acknowledged that he has been affected by the mayor’s warnings, which have come both in public and private.

“The mayor is doing his job,” he said. “Any time the mayor is critical of any operation of the city . . . it’s certainly something we all should be concerned about.”

A change in the current disciplinary procedure would represent a victory for the police union, which has argued for years that officers need clearer guidelines, and a strong reversal for Parks, who rejected guidelines when he became chief.

Previous chiefs also have chafed at the notion of fixed guidelines, arguing that they limit a chief’s most important authority: the power to discipline wayward officers.

Currently, officers who misbehave--whether they accidentally discharge a gun, make a derogatory remark or unlawfully detain a person--face penalties based on how similar infractions have been punished in the past. Managers look to a chart of previous punishments for recommendations, but have broad leeway to penalize an officer as they see fit.

According to its critics, the system has contributed to uncertainty among officers about what discipline they will face, and has fostered a widely held feeling that higher-ranking officials get favorable treatment.

“When it comes to administrative conduct, we feel the system is very harsh and doesn’t let officers make honest mistakes,” said Grasso, head of the police union. “It’s a huge issue, because what it does is allow the system to be arbitrary and capricious and really removes a sense of security from the officers in their working environment.”

Grasso said her organization is “cautiously optimistic” that the chief and union can agree on the range of punishments for various types of misconduct. Parks and the union will negotiate the details in a “meet and confer” process mandated by state law, and then the chief will issue a special order establishing the guidelines.

“If they don’t change the system, quite frankly, we’re not going to have any officers left to work under the system,” Grasso said.

On Friday, Riordan gave the chief and the union a month to work out the specifics.

“If in four weeks it is not completed, I will speak out,” the mayor said. “I will speak out loud and angrily.”

Although it is coming to a head now, the issue of disciplinary guidelines has been debated for years.

A joint task force under the direction of former Police Commission President Raymond C. Fisher, another Riordan appointee, spent a year developing guidelines that would make penalties more specific and prioritize infractions, but Parks rejected them in 1998, saying they infringed on his authority.

Instead, he gave his top command staff a 72-page document that laid out his philosophy about how employees who misbehave should be punished.

At the time, he called it “one of the best documents the department has put together on any subject.”

Because of his previous opposition to guidelines, some city officials reacted with surprise to Parks’ announcement Friday while cautiously applauding the move.

“I’m amazed,” said City Councilwoman Laura Chick. She called it “a total reversal.”

Chick, a candidate for city controller, added: “I am supportive of any and all efforts to reform what I call a broken disciplinary system. I’m not sure if what was discussed by the chief and mayor goes far enough.”

USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky, who recommended a uniform penalty guide in his independent analysis of the Rampart corruption scandal, said he was happy to hear of Parks’ decision, but added that it was inadequate.

“There’s so much more that needs to be done,” he said. “We need to reform every aspect of the discipline system.”

On Friday, Parks said he and union leaders would continue discussing other issues.

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Times staff writer Kurt Streeter contributed to this story.