A Task for the Tough

In announcing his five appointees to the Los Angeles Police Commission, Mayor James K. Hahn demonstrated that he paid appropriate attention to diversity, with key geographic areas and racial and ethnic groups considered. But at least at first glance he certainly doesn’t appear to have paid quite as much attention to depth and experience in choosing the five civilians who will oversee the Police Department and critical reform efforts.

Standing up to the police chief when he’s wrong (as he has been in resisting outside and civilian oversight), supporting him in fights when he’s right (as he has been in resisting three-day, 12-hour schedules for some officers) and forcing permanent reform of the LAPD will require political toughness on the part of the Police Commission. Doing the job well will mean that commissioners will have to buck powerful constituencies and sometimes make uncomfortable decisions. Does this group have the political mettle?

Bert Boeckmann, a veteran police commissioner from the San Fernando Valley who is being renamed to the panel, and Rose Ochi, who headed the Justice Department’s community relations division, have city service that dates back to the administration of the late Mayor Tom Bradley. Clearly they are experienced in government, but neither Boeckmann, who consistently supports Police Department management, nor Ochi has been seen as a police reform leader. They will be joined by attorneys David Cunningham III, the son of a former city councilman; Rick J. Caruso, past president of the Water and Power Commission, and Silvia Saucedo, a member of the board of the Mexican-American Bar Assn.

This commission, the city’s most important, needs hardy leaders. In recent years, Gerald Chaleff, Raymond Fisher, Dan Garcia, Gary Greenebaum and Deirdre Hill were commissioners who, though far from infallible, were unafraid to take difficult stands against business as usual at Parker Center.

Boeckmann, the veteran of the commission, did show some welcome leadership Monday when he questioned the three-day, 12-hour compressed work schedule for police officers that Hahn supports.

The new mayor was careful to say he had no “litmus test” for commissioners. That’s good, but it shouldn’t stop the City Council from asking just where the appointees stand on key issues: How would they strengthen the department’s inspector general, the civilian watchdog who oversees discipline and investigates police misconduct? How would they address discipline, morale, recruitment and retention? How would they monitor implementation of the federal consent decree?

The new police commissioners have their work cut out for them, in unpaid jobs that are often thankless but critical to Los Angeles. The best way to succeed is to do the job that must be done, without undue regard for political feathers ruffled to keep police reform alive.