Leader Defends Police Panel’s Post-Beating Role

In its first meeting since the videotaped beating of a car theft suspect, the Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday called for better training to stop “out of control” officers and for reconsideration of when officers can use flashlights as weapons.

Commission President David Cunningham III noted about a dozen policy initiatives that the citizen panel was pursuing as part of a so-called action memo members prepared in response to the June 23 incident. He also defended the commission’s role, which has been widely criticized, in the investigation.

“The Police Commission has been fully engaged in this matter from the very beginning,” Cunningham said. “It instituted a plan of action from Day 1 regarding the initiation of an investigation that has been very effectively carried out.”

Cunningham said the commission would review issues such as insensitive language and conduct by officers, use of so-called distraction blows to subdue suspects and police tactics at the end of police chases.

Police Commission member Rick Caruso, as well as police reformers professor Erwin Chemerinksy and former federal prosecutor Richard E. Drooyan, have criticized the panel. All said that the commission took “a back seat” in the aftermath of the beating case.

Caruso, in particular, chided the commission for failing to take a lead role in appointing an oversight committee to be part of the investigation, a step taken by Mayor James K. Hahn when he appointed a 12-member monitoring committee made up of community leaders.

But Cunningham, who did not refer to Caruso by name, said the mayor’s panel did not supplant the power and authority of the Police Commission.

Members said they had attended many community meetings for “education and outreach” since the incident, which was broadcast live on television.

Stanley Miller, 36, was shown jumping out of a car, which was stolen, after a chase through South Los Angeles and Compton. He ran beside Compton Creek before slowing down and raising his hands to surrender.

Two Los Angeles Police Department officers tackled Miller. Moments later, Officer John J. Hatfield kicked Miller, who was lying on the ground, and then struck him repeatedly with a flashlight. Hatfield was shown delivering at least five blows with his knee to Miller’s torso.

According to sources, Hatfield told investigators that he hit the suspect because another officer had shouted that Miller had a weapon.

Police Commissioner Corina Alarcon asked why other officers did not appear to intervene to stop the beating and why investigators took 40 minutes to separate the officers involved in the incident. Under provisions of a 2001 federal consent decree, if an incident is deemed a “categorical use of force,” likely to cause serious injury or death, officers must be separated immediately.

Cunningham and Commissioner Rose Ochi said the panel was continuing to take a hard look at the LAPD system that disciplines officers.

Outside the meeting, community activists Earl Ofari Hutchinson and Najee Ali were joined by former Police Commission President Melanie Lomax in calling on the City Council and Hahn to put a city charter amendment on the fall ballot to change the LAPD disciplinary system.

Lomax said the system at present denies the chief of police the ability to run the department, and changing the process would “provide for direct accountability” for officers.

Hutchinson said that, in practice, the police Board of Rights typically reduces officers’ punishment and does not increase it.

“The reality is: The LAPD doesn’t have a direct process to administer severe discipline,” he said.

Lomax said reformers from the Christopher Commission onward have repeatedly examined the issue, only to run into opposition and see major changes forestalled.