Officials Urge Open, Fair Evaluation of Police Chief

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks’ announcement that he wants a second term prompted city officials Friday to stress the need for a fair and open evaluation process to avoid an outcome that divides the city.

Parks, who formally announced his desire to stay in the job at a private party Thursday night, will now be judged by the five-member Police Commission, appointed by Mayor James K. Hahn.

The commissioners will have to make their decision amid mounting calls both for the chief’s reappointment and ouster. The Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file officers, repeated its long-standing opposition to his reappointment in a statement Friday, labeling him “a failure.”

Meanwhile, African American community leaders are increasing their calls for the black police chief to stay on. On Tuesday, several hundred people attended a Police Commission meeting at a church in South Los Angeles to voice their support for Parks.

“We’ve got a very difficult job, and I think we’re up for the task,” said Police Commission President Rick Caruso. “If we do our job well, there should be a minimal divisiveness going on in the city. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll get it done.”

Hahn asked people to respect the process and not allow the issue to create tension in the city.

“This isn’t a process that ought to be swayed by politics or pressure or news conferences or anything else,” he said. “This is a serious evaluation of probably the most important general manager position in the city of Los Angeles. It ought to be made in an atmosphere of calm deliberation.”

Caruso said that in the next few weeks the commission will put out a list of the criteria the panel will use to evaluate the chief.

Those performance standards will reflect the responsibilities Parks was given when he was hired, Caruso said, adding that the commission will consider issues such as the crime rate and the implementation of a federal consent decree mandating reform of the Los Angeles Police Department. The commission’s deliberations will take place in closed session.

“We’re going to do this completely on the merits of the chief’s performance and, based upon that, decide whether we believe he’s the right person to lead the department in the next five years,” Caruso said.

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said she is glad the commission has indicated that it wants to get the evaluation process done quickly.

“There is tension that is out in all segments of our community,” she said. “We need not have that exacerbated.”

Parks’ decision to seek a second term was expected at a party Thursday night celebrating his 37th anniversary with the LAPD, but he kept his guests guessing until the end. As friends and family munched on spring rolls at the Sunset Room in Hollywood, his wife, Bobbi, and several members of his top staff said they didn’t know what he was going to say.

Finally, after about a dozen speakers praised his leadership, Parks pulled out a letter to the Police Commission announcing his request to stay on the job, and signed it on his son’s back as the guests applauded.

His decision heated up an issue that has been at a slow boil for months.

On Friday, the union kept up its drumbeat of opposition.

“Chief Parks has demeaned officers so that their morale is at the lowest ebb,” union leaders said in a statement.

At the same time, the union is trying to raise $1 million to wage a formal campaign against Parks. In a letter to retired police officers Jan. 17, league President Mitzi Grasso called Parks “a disaster” and asked for donations to the campaign.

The union’s tactics have drawn criticism from city leaders, including Hahn and Caruso. African American community leaders have accused the league of waging a dangerous campaign that could undermine public safety.

The debate puts Hahn, who won election with support of both constituencies, in a difficult situation. The mayor does not have a formal role in the reappointment process, but his opinion is expected to carry weight with his commissioners.

Hahn and the chief have had several public disagreements. As city attorney, Hahn pushed for the federal consent decree, while Parks fought it. Later, as mayor, Hahn asked Parks to implement a flexible work schedule for police officers despite the chief’s misgivings.

On Friday, Hahn said he will voice his opinion about the chief sometime during the evaluation process.

The mayor, who was not invited to Parks’ party Thursday, said the chief told him of his decision before the announcement. Hahn did not say what his response to Parks was.

“At some point in the process I’m going to let my opinion be known, but today is not that day,” he said.

The commission must make its decision about Parks by mid-May. The panel’s decision is final unless the City Council overturns it with a vote of two-thirds, or 10 members.

On Friday, most council members refrained from offering an opinion about Parks, saying they wanted to allow the commissioners to do their job.

“This is their moment,” said Councilman Jack Weiss. “The city is counting on them to be independent from politics and make the best decision on the merits.”

Former police commissioners encouraged the current panel to depersonalize the process as much as possible in order to cope with the intense pressure being exerted from both sides.

“You have to get input from the customers,” said Raquelle de la Rocha, a former commission president, referring to residents. “But the customers don’t understand the intricacies of the job. LAPD is a massively complex organization. You wouldn’t be doing a good job if [you] overweighted [public opinion].”

Although commissioners are assumed to share the mayor’s vision, they are also supposed to have enough independence from political leaders to ward off the potential for corruption, said Joe Gunn, executive director of the commission.

The current panel has shown several flashes of independence that mark a tendency to operate autonomously from Hahn.

The commission balked at rubber-stamping the department’s budget recently, for example, and rather than accepting the mayor’s proposal for disciplinary changes, it decided to study the issue first.

“You would have to be very naive to think the mayor’s opinion doesn’t count,” Gunn said. “But I can speak for my group here--they are pretty opinionated.”