Chief’s Backers Pack Hearing

Hundreds of people who support the reappointment of Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks packed City Hall on Tuesday, questioning the fairness of the Police Commission and the process the panel will use to determine the chief’s fate.

For more than an hour, residents, clergy, community leaders and elected officials trooped before the five-member commission and urged the panel to retain the chief.

They accused Mayor James K. Hahn of trying to sway the decision by publicly opposing Parks’ reappointment before the evaluation and said the procedure for judging the chief’s performance is riddled with bias.

“We cannot allow this kind of preemption to take place, particularly when the whispers and the rumors are that the mayor has three votes sewn up” on the commission, said U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who was once one of Hahn’s most ardent supporters.

She and other elected officials implied that commission President Rick Caruso is inclined to back Hahn’s position because Caruso wants city backing for a large shopping development he is building in the Fairfax district. That project has already received city approval and is under construction at 3rd Street and Fairfax Avenue.

“I cannot see how he can be impartial,” said the Rev. Frederick Murph of Brookins Community AME Church.

Caruso angrily objected to what he termed “subtle threats” and implications that he and other commissioners will not be fair. He called those suggestions “highly unfair and inappropriate.”

“We are not beholden to the mayor,” he said. “I would ask you not to presume things that are not the case.”

Under the intense scrutiny of Parks’ backers, the commission will spend the next 30 to 45 days evaluating the chief’s performance on such issues as crime prevention and officer morale. The commission’s deliberations will largely take place outside public view, because the panel intends to discuss Parks’ fate in closed session. The City Council can overturn the commission’s decision with a vote of 10 out of 15 members.

Before the meeting Tuesday, about 150 people held a rally outside Parker Center, the LAPD headquarters, chanting, “Five more years!” and demanding that Parks stay on. The demonstrators then walked across the street to City Hall to attend the commission meeting, where they were joined by others.

Hundreds of people jammed the meeting room and poured out into the hallway, forcing officials to move the gathering to the City Council chambers.

Once inside, many of the chief’s supporters asked the commission to make the process more public and to explain how the panel will arrive at its decision.

“We are part of the voting public that is firmly discontented with the manner in which the reappointment process has been handled,” said Bishop Charles E. Blake of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ. “We hope that the commission will take its task seriously and not allow this to be a slam-dunk for one interest or another.”

The emotional testimony of many of the chief’s backers highlights the political pressure on Hahn, who has been castigated by former supporters for his opposition to the chief.

The mayor, who attended part of the commission meeting to present a community policing proposal, sat and listened as speakers accused him of betraying his electoral base. Hahn did not mention Parks or the chief’s bid for another term.

“You are the most arrogant and obnoxious individual I have ever met in my entire life,” said one man.

The mayor did not respond. At times, he offered a thin smile, even as people accused him of trying to sway the commission.

“Do you have a weak back and weak knees so you will bow down to what the mayor wants?” Danny Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood Crusade, asked of the panel.

Parks sat on the other side of the room from Hahn, also smiling occasionally as people addressed the panel.

He and the mayor did not speak, and Parks did not mention his desire for reappointment.

During Hahn’s remarks, the mayor laid out a proposal to fully reinstate the senior lead officers program, which deploys officers to work as community liaisons and attend neighborhood meetings.

Hahn has said the program, which Parks originally dismantled and then brought back at the urging of then-Mayor Richard Riordan, is not working consistently throughout the city.

“The senior lead officer program is L.A.’s signature community policing program,” he told the commission. “Right now, it’s not uniformly reinstated.”

The chief has said the officers are working according to the plan, which allows them to be called onto patrol duty when necessary.

But on Tuesday, Hahn said he wants the 168 senior lead officers to work full time on community policing, and asked that the department create a commander-level position to oversee the implementation.

The mayor also proposed that the senior leads work closely with patrol officers but have specified job responsibilities related to interacting with the community.

More than a dozen residents testified in support of Hahn’s proposal, saying the senior lead officers give them a link to the LAPD.

Police Commissioners Sylvia Saucedo and David Cunningham joined Hahn in recommending the changes to the existing senior lead officer program.

The commission asked the Police Department to prepare a report on the program in 30 days.

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Times staff writer Kenneth Reich contributed to this report.