Cooley Now Finds Merit in Programs

In the latest reversal of his campaign rhetoric, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley announced Wednesday that an internal review of crime prevention programs he once criticized as wasteful and politically motivated has found that the operations are worthwhile and, in most cases, should be expanded.

“Clearly, crime prevention is a component and part of the mission of the office of the district attorney,” Cooley said as he announced the results of a yearlong evaluation of the office’s crime prevention programs by a commission he appointed after his election in 2000. “We’ve done a great deal of improvement in crime prevention.”

When running for office, Cooley attacked then-Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti for investing heavily in programs that sent prosecutors into classrooms and the community to keep youths out of trouble. Though he was careful to say that crime prevention was an important task, he questioned Garcetti’s existing efforts.

“Some of these programs,” Cooley said during the campaign, “don’t belong in the D.A.’s office.”

Upon becoming district attorney, Cooley disbanded a nonprofit crime prevention foundation and enlisted a panel of citizen volunteers to determine the success and ultimate fate of seven crime prevention programs run by the office. The conclusion, announced Wednesday, is that all are worthwhile and will remain, though accountability needs to be increased in some cases.

During his run for office, Cooley also harshly criticized Garcetti’s handling of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart scandal. Subsequently, he declined to prosecute more than 50 other cases stemming from the allegations of widespread beatings and evidence planting. In one case he did pursue, prosecutors accepted a plea deal Tuesday that allows ex-LAPD Officer Ethan Cohan to serve one year in County Jail for conspiracy to obstruct justice and filing a false police report in connection with an assault on a gang member. Cohan had faced a maximum sentence of 5 1/2 years in state prison.

During the 2000 campaign, Cooley also criticized Garcetti for failing to prosecute anyone for the $175-million Belmont Learning Center construction fiasco. Cooley impaneled a task force to take a new look at the case, but no report has yet been released, and criminal charges are not anticipated.

Joe Scott, who helped run Cooley’s campaign and is now the district attorney’s director of communications, said the outcomes are a reflection of the realities of running for, and then running, a major office.

“You make promises in campaigns, and when you get into office you have a responsibility to the voters to look at the issues you raise,” Scott said. “The reality of investigating these things may not match your rhetoric, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t investigate them.”

Veteran Los Angeles political consultant Joe Cerrell said Cooley’s reversals should not harm him. It is not unusual for politicians to reevaluate critical stands once in office and change their opinions.

“It’s a lot better than being stubborn and letting the baby go out with the bathwater,” Cerrell said.

Cooley said Wednesday that his main criticism of crime prevention programs during the campaign was of the foundation run by the district attorney’s office, which received money from the settlement of criminal cases. Cooley has disbanded that operation, which, among its activities, financed an anti-pollution video starring Garcetti.

By studying the other crime prevention efforts and pledging to implement recommended reforms to make those programs more efficient and accountable, Cooley said, he has upheld his campaign promises. “We’ve outdone [Garcetti] on this area,” he said.

The report examined seven programs that cost $2.56 million annually and are almost entirely paid for by grants from other governmental agencies.

The commission recommended expanding two programs that target youths -- one that counsels first-time juvenile court offenders and another that seeks to rehabilitate youths who have committed hate crimes.

It also found that increased internal monitoring is needed for several programs to measure whether they are fully effective. In the case of the Abolish Chronic Truancy Program, the panel advised that the district attorney’s office may want to save money by sending less experienced prosecutors into schools to warn children and parents against truancy.

The other programs studied were the Strategies Against Gang Environment program; Project LEAD, in which prosecutors speak to schoolchildren about the consequences of making bad choices; the office’s domestic violence hotline; and a program that pairs troubled youths with firefighter mentors.