Chief to Investigate Charges of Officers Belittling Reform

The Los Angeles Police Department’s new interim chief launched an investigation Wednesday into allegations that officers have publicly undermined support for federally mandated police reforms, while Mayor James K. Hahn said he was “angry” that police officials have failed to implement some provisions of the decree that spells out those requirements.

The independent monitor overseeing the implementation of the consent decree concluded that the LAPD has fallen behind schedule in implementing a number of measures, including tracking racial data on pedestrian and traffic stops, says a report filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

Monitor Michael Cherkasky, with Kroll Associates, also cited several instances in which officers working on a special task force to implement the decree publicly denigrated the court-mandated reforms. Cherkasky said those remarks betrayed official ambivalence about the decree and served to erode public backing for it.

Although Cherkasky said in his report that he heard some remarks himself, he did not name the officers responsible for them. Martin Pomeroy, interim chief of the Police Department, said Wednesday that the department will try to find out who they were.

“If there is one place where we have let ourselves and the community down, that would be in those instances where the monitor said that some of our people have not had the best attitude about complying with the consent decree,” he said. “We launched an immediate investigation. We will find out who made those statements and have an appropriate reaction.”

Hahn also called on the department to act.

“I was very angry when I read the monitor’s findings,” Hahn said. “The attitude needs to change in the LAPD from one of hostility to one of really finishing the job.”

According to the report, officers assigned to the LAPD’s Consent Decree Task Force, the group responsible for seeing that the department implements the provisions of the decree, complained during public meetings that the reforms were “unnecessary and time-consuming.” The officers also alleged that the reforms were being imposed on the department by “outsiders.”

Cherkasky also faulted the LAPD for its handling of confidential informants and its efforts to track and thwart street gangs, among other things.

The monitor’s report was filed Wednesday with U.S. District Judge Gary Feess, who has the authority to punish the city for failing to comply with the decree. Feess is expected to hold a hearing on the matter in the coming weeks.

Los Angeles officials entered into the decree last year to head off a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice, which accused the LAPD of “a pattern or practice” of civil rights violations.

Months ago, Hahn said he would oppose Chief Bernard C. Parks’ bid for a second term because he questioned whether the chief was doing enough to implement the reforms outlined in the decree.

Expressing similar worries, the Police Commission voted 4 to 1 last month to deny Parks a second five-year term. Parks stepped down two weeks ago.