D.A. Ends Policy on Checking Officers

At the behest of police officer associations, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley on Friday rescinded a policy of his predecessor aimed at ensuring that criminal defendants receive information about the credibility of officers who are witnesses in their cases.

The policy, setting up a central computer database to track allegations of officer misconduct, had been announced in October by then-Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti in the wake of the Rampart LAPD police scandal.

Cooley, who has established a new task force to revise the policy, said he agrees with the police associations that the policy was ill-conceived.

Cooley said he believes Garcetti designed it to try to appease voters during the final days before the November election, which Garcetti lost.

The new district attorney said he is hoping his task force will develop a plan that will be a model for the state and spur new legislation to fix a complex problem that plagues district attorneys around the state.

Under Garcetti’s policy, which was never fully implemented, information about LAPD officers was supposed to be logged in a newly created database kept at the district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors were to be required to check the names of officers associated with their case in the database. If they found any information that could affect the credibility of the officers, they were required to turn it over to the defense.

Garcetti said the policy was aimed at meeting prosecutors’ obligations under a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady vs. Maryland, that they disclose information favorable to defendants, including the integrity or truthfulness of police officer witnesses.