Police Sweeps of Skid Row Are Curbed

Saying there’s a substantial likelihood that constitutional rights have been violated, a federal judge on Wednesday ordered at least a temporary halt to indiscriminate police sweeps on skid row in search of parole and probation violators.

U.S. District Judge Nora Manella issued the temporary restraining order in response to a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Lawyers Guild. A hearing will be held April 14 to determine whether the restrictions should be extended until the case goes to trial.

The suit, filed against the city of Los Angeles and Police Chief William J. Bratton last month on behalf of four skid row residents, contends that police have been violating the 4th Amendment by subjecting the plaintiffs to detention and searches without reasonable suspicion that they are parole or probation violators.

The ACLU and the lawyers guild praised Manella’s order.

“This puts an appropriate brake on some of the efforts of the LAPD to do whatever they please to clean up skid row,” ACLU attorney Peter Eliasberg said.

“It doesn’t prevent them from taking lawful action, but they can’t do as they’ve been doing and just grab everybody in sight. The judge’s order means that Chief Bratton has to follow the Constitution.”

It was not immediately clear how the restraining order would affect police operations on skid row, but Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said that police have been acting properly and that there probably would be no major changes.

Deputy Chief Gary Brennan agreed.

“Every step of the way, we have been in full compliance with the law,” Brennan said.

Skid row is one of three areas of the city targeted by Bratton to test his “broken windows” theory, which holds that cracking down on minor offenses prevents more serious crimes.

Two major sweeps in November were launched after business organizations complained about the burgeoning homeless population; 185 people were arrested. Most of them were parole violators, a majority of whom had been convicted of drug offenses.

McDonnell said those arrested had been carefully targeted.

“We acted when we had reasonable suspicion to believe the individual was on parole or probation and when an individual consented,” he said.

Brennan said there have been no large-scale operations in the area since then, but there have been many arrests of parole and probation violators on skid row.

“Officers working skid row every day address some of these issues,” he said.

Wednesday’s order directs police to stop detaining people on skid row or searching them, their residences and possessions without reasonable suspicion that they are on probation or parole and have violated the terms and conditions of that probation or parole.

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Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.