Police Academy to Drop Prayer

The city Police Commission decided Tuesday to substitute a moment of silent personal reflection for the traditional public prayer at Police Academy graduation ceremonies.

Commissioner Raquelle de la Rocha, who proposed the change, said it was prompted by last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision barring prayer at public school gatherings.

The commission’s vote to drop the prayer was 3 to 2, with De la Rocha, commission Vice President Dean Hansell and Commissioner Rebecca Avila in favor and Commissioners T. Warren Jackson and Herbert F. Boeckmann II opposed.

De la Rocha conceded afterward that the change “might not be very popular politically. . . . “

“Some people think--wrongly--that it’s against religion,” she said. “It’s not. I consider myself a religious person. The issue is that at a public ceremony, the audience may feel that it has no choice whether to participate. It’s not fair to force any isolated minority to participate.”

Hansell said the prayers at the ceremony have been nonsectarian, “but we know that some have been made in Jesus’ name . . . or have referred to the heavenly father, and that’s just not something that’s part of the religious traditions or beliefs of many of the officers.”

Dissenter Calls Vote Misguided

On the other hand, Boeckmann said he did not think the Supreme Court decision pertaining to schools applies to the Police Academy graduation ceremonies. He said a representative of the city attorney’s office, who was present during the vote, said nothing to indicate that the prayers at the academy violated any laws.

“I think sometimes we focus our attentions in the wrong areas,” Boeckmann said.

Insisting on a strict separation of church and state, the Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 on June 19, 2000, to strike down a Texas school board’s policy of allowing students to decide whether prayers would be included at football games, graduations and other school gatherings.

“The religious liberty protected by the Constitution is abridged when the state affirmatively sponsors the particular religious practice of prayer,” Justice John Paul Stevens said.

Times staff writer Kurt Streeter contributed to this story.