Chief Staunchly Defends Record, Outlines Gains

In one of his most pointed efforts yet to defend his record, beleaguered Los Angeles Chief Bernard C. Parks delivered a lengthy speech Thursday to a group of prominent city residents in which he sought to explain in detail his priorities during four years at the helm of the LAPD.

Speaking at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel downtown at a luncheon meeting of about 250 members of Town Hall Los Angeles, Parks highlighted what he said were his accomplishments--including improvements in discipline and in fighting crime--and invoked the catastrophe of Sept.11 to argue against critics who want a new chief.

“This is not the time for us to be tinkering ... to see if someone out there is better and unknown, and doing a worldwide search to see who that might be,” he said.

In a news conference preceding the speech, Parks also gave new details about his approach to an evaluation process underway before the Los Angeles Police Commission, the five-member panel that is considering whether to appoint him to a second five-year term. And for the first time, Parks raised the issue of consistency in discussing the standards the commission will use to decide his fate.

Parks told reporters he is examining whether a set of criteria the commission has announced it is using to evaluate his merit is consistent with those used by previous commissions to judge his job performance.

“I was given certain criteria throughout my four years of chief that they rated me on,” he said in a follow-up interview. “I am working with the commission to determine if the listed criteria are the same.”

However, Parks stopped short of saying that he had detected inconsistencies in the criteria, saying only that it has not been determined whether they match those of previous evaluations.

If it turns out that the criteria differ, he said, he would seek clarification from the commission, asking: “If they are not the same, then where does that come from and why is it different?”

Parks, a 37-year veteran of the LAPD, faces opposition to a second term from Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, who announced last month that he has philosophical differences with the chief over community policing and other issues, and thinks Parks should step down. Hahn appoints the members of the Police Commission, who will decide Parks’ fate.

Commission members have asserted that a formal evaluation process, not political considerations, will guide their choice.

In his speech, Parks returned to subjects he has tried to spotlight repeatedly in recent weeks, including efforts to make officers more accountable and his efforts to control crime.

He also defended his record on community policing, a sore point in his relations with the mayor, by attacking community policing options that he perceives serve only the most active and vocal community members.

The LAPD should be “in partnership with the entirety of the community, not just with people who show up at [police] stations, not just those who like us, not just those who bring us cookies on Thanksgiving,” he said.

Parks received a modestly enthusiastic response from the crowd, which laughed at his few jokes--he had decided to seek a second term “only after talking to my psychiatrist,” he said--and offered mostly supportive comments afterward.