Hahn Chooses Nominees for Police Panel

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn announced Tuesday his appointments to the five-member civilian panel that oversees and sets policies for the Los Angeles Police Department, selecting a demographically diverse group to fill one of the city’s most important commissions.

The Police Commission nominees, who must be confirmed by the City Council within 45 days, represent various ethnic groups and geographic regions of Los Angeles.

Four are attorneys, but only two of the appointees, including one returning commissioner, have experience working on criminal justice policy. Reacting to the nominations, some touted the group’s diversity, though one key council member also questioned the group’s relative inexperience with law enforcement.

During an afternoon news conference in his third-floor City Hall office--his first since being inaugurated as mayor last week--Hahn called the civilian oversight of the Police Department “an important bedrock of our city government.”

“We need a Police Department that protects us but also respects us, each one of us, in every community in the city,” the mayor said, echoing language from his inaugural address. “I know that each one of these fine individuals understands and respects the importance of their role, and I believe that they will perform their duties in a way that will make each one of us proud.”

The mayor’s appointees are:

* Herbert F. Boeckmann II, a prominent Republican civic leader and San Fernando Valley car dealer who has served on the Police Commission for 14 years under the last two mayors.

* Rick Caruso, a shopping mall developer who lives on the Westside and is president of the Board of Water and Power commissioners.

* David Cunningham III, an African American attorney specializing in redevelopment and land use. The son of a former city councilman, Cunningham lives in Baldwin Hills.

* Rose Ochi, the former director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service. Ochi, who was interned at a camp for Japanese Americans during World War II, was director of the city’s criminal justice planning office under former mayors Tom Bradley and Richard Riordan. She lives downtown.

* Silvia Saucedo, an attorney and member of the Mexican-American Bar Assn.’s board of trustees, who grew up in the Pico-Union district and lives in Los Feliz.

Hahn said he looked for people who represented “experience, as well as diversity” and called the group “the best of Los Angeles.”

Reaction was mixed to the appointments, the first of his administration.

“I think the appointees show balance,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas. “They show history. They show substance. I believe, as a group, they represent the city well.”

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, chairwoman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, called the nominees “a credible group,” but said they will face vigorous questioning by the City Council.

“The only concern is the level and depth of the knowledge of the LAPD,” she said. “There really has to be a serious discussion with them as to their view of where they think we are and where we can be in five years.”

Stephen Yagman, a frequent critic of the LAPD and a lawyer who often sues the agency and its officers, said Hahn’s nominees will do little to change the culture of the Police Department.

“He had a great opportunity to signal a sea of change to the LAPD, but not surprisingly he didn’t do that,” Yagman said. “We have what we’ve had in L.A. for many, many years: boards that have been gender- and racially diverse. But none of them have been sufficiently experienced to step in and be a policy maker for one of the largest police departments in the United States, and none of them have shown a propensity for reform.”

The four nominees hesitated to offer their opinions on compressed work schedules, police officers who live outside the city and other topics Tuesday, saying they want to first familiarize themselves with the issues.

If confirmed, the unpaid commissioners will inherit a department that has been sullied by the Rampart Division police corruption scandal and burdened with sagging morale that has left the LAPD ranks badly depleted.

Hahn has made it clear that bolstering the LAPD is the city’s most important task, and repeated Tuesday that recruiting and retaining officers is one of his top priorities. He also has promised the police union that within 90 days he will implement a compressed work schedule that will put many officers on longer shifts over a three-day week.

The commissioners also will have to wrestle with the question of reworking the department’s disciplinary system, which has drawn complaints from many rank-and-file officers.

In addition, Hahn’s Police Commission will have to work with a federal monitor who will oversee reforms of the department mandated by a consent decree negotiated with the Justice Department. And in the next year, the panel will have to confront the politically thorny question of whether to give Chief Bernard C. Parks a second term, should he apply for one.

On Tuesday, Hahn said he is not looking for commissioners who will bow to his opinions. Hahn said he did not ask his appointees if they concur with his support for a compressed work schedule or what they think about Parks.

“I was more interested in their philosophy about policing, and how they viewed the relationship of the Police Department to the community, and their understanding of the role of civilian oversight,” he said.

“I want commissioners who are going to be independent.”

In fact, a few minutes after the mayor spoke, Boeckmann voiced his concerns about the so-called 3-12 compressed work schedule. Boeckmann said he worried that officers could be tired after working shifts that could stretch longer than 12 hours and added that he feared many would take second jobs during their four days off. That, he said, could result in a police force with many officers more tied to their second jobs than their police duties.

Hahn said the decision about whether to implement the schedule would be up to the commission.

“They’re going to have to look at my recommendation and decide what’s best for public safety in Los Angeles,” he said.

Hahn also said he still supports the idea of making the Police Commission president a full-time job, but said the concept would have to be taken to the City Council and approved by the voters.

In addition, he said the LAPD must improve its community policing efforts, adding that he wants to reinstate in full the senior lead officer program, in which officers are assigned as full-time liaisons to neighborhoods.