Federal Monitor Says LAPD Is Making Progress

In the most upbeat assessment yet, an official said the Los Angeles Police Department is moving toward its goal of “substantial compliance” with a list of reforms.

The quarterly report was by Michael Cherkasky, named by a federal judge to monitor how well the LAPD, under pressure from the U.S. Justice Department, is improving operations.

The monitor was appointed after the Rampart corruption scandal, in which disgraced former cop Rafael Perez told authorities he and other officers had routinely planted evidence, framed suspects and covered up unjustified shootings.

The LAPD faces a June 15 deadline to make “genuine and good-faith efforts” to make changes in key areas, ranging from the tracking of citizen complaints and use of informants to supervision of undercover units and investigations of officer-involved shootings and other use-of-force incidents.

“While, as evidenced by this report, areas of concern persist, the monitor continues to be encouraged by the progress that the LAPD is making in instituting reforms to address the problems that it still faces,” Cherkasky wrote in the report covering the quarter that ended Dec. 31. “We remain optimistic that full compliance with the consent decree will be achieved.”

The report was the 10th since the city entered into a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department after the agency concluded the LAPD had engaged in a pattern of civil rights violations.

The department must measure up to the benchmarks in 140 categories. Cherkasky said the LAPD had achieved full compliance or made significant improvements in several key areas. They include:

* Better investigations into incidents in which officers use force and cause injuries that do not require hospitalization.

* Creation of concise and accurate logs to track incidents in which LAPD officers cause serious injuries -- such as gunshot wounds -- that require hospitalization.

* Emergence of the audit division as a cornerstone of department reform, singling out its reviews of the performance of gang units, and of occasions when officers stop and question citizens.

The monitor praised the growing involvement of the inspector general, the LAPD’s internal watchdog, in reviews of cases in which officers use force.

The report was critical of the city for what it called “resource constraints,” hampering the inspector general’s ability to complete oversight functions in a timely manner.

Inspector General Andre Birotte Jr. issued a review of his own, meanwhile, scolding the LAPD for its failure to fully investigate allegations of retaliation against police officers who report wrongdoing or problems within the department.

The inspector general’s report, which reviewed cases dating from 2001, found that investigators had not sustained a single allegation of retaliation in the workplace against an identified employee, despite the fact that Los Angeles had been forced to pay millions in verdicts and settlements from lawsuits in which employees sued the city or the department for retaliation.

The Los Angeles Police Commission voted Tuesday 5-0 to change its policies to incorporate the inspector general’s recommendations.