Councilman Seeks Probe of Reports on Officer Shootings

Concerned that the Los Angeles Police Commission receives sanitized accounts of police shootings, City Councilman Jack Weiss on Tuesday called for an investigation explaining why key evidence undermining an officer’s version of events has often been omitted from commission reports.

Weiss’ call for a joint probe by the city attorney and the Police Commission came in response to recent findings by The Times that the civilian police panel has routinely found shootings “in policy” without knowing about physical evidence and witness accounts that strongly contradicted the police versions. In many cases, that information surfaced during civil litigation with costly consequences for city taxpayers.

“It is imperative that the council determine why this happened in the past and institute any necessary reforms to ensure that it does not happen again,” Weiss said in a motion to his colleagues.

The motion, seconded by Councilman Martin Ludlow, now goes before the council’s Public Safety Committee for discussion. If the committee approves the request, it will go to the full council for a vote.

Weiss also asked the LAPD and the city attorney to consider preparing “post-litigation” reports that would fully examine police abuse cases that result in city payouts of $50,000 or more.

Among the issues Weiss wants addressed in those reports are: whether material information emerged during litigation that wasn’t presented to the Police Commission; whether the case reflected a need to reassess training or policies; and whether discipline was imposed on any officers involved in the incident, and if not, why not.

Weiss’ proposal for comprehensive litigation reports echoes recommendations called for by the Christopher Commission after the 1991 beating of Rodney G. King and by the Police Commission’s first inspector general in 1997. City leaders have long complained that the LAPD learns little from successful litigation against its officers.

The Times, as part of an investigation into LAPD shootings since 1985, found numerous examples in which crucial information was not presented to the Police Commission -- only to emerge during civil litigation. For example, in one case highlighted by The Times, evidence that officers had mistakenly shot and killed an unarmed man in 1999 was left out of the investigative summary presented to the commission. Confronted with the full evidence, the city agreed to pay the man’s family $2.6 million.

“City agencies need to learn from past mistakes, and we need to institutionalize that process,” Weiss said in an interview. “We can’t just have bad facts getting swept under the rug.”

Weiss said he did not expect his motion to face much opposition by his council colleagues.

“I don’t see why anyone would be opposed to learning from the past or to trying to implement reforms that ensure that these sorts of failures don’t happen again,” Weiss said.

Katie Buckland, a spokeswoman for City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, said city lawyers currently generate reports for the council on litigation, but not in the sort of detail that Weiss has proposed.

“It sounds like an interesting idea and something we’ll take a look at,” she said.

Councilman Dennis P. Zine, who also serves on the Public Safety Committee, said he was in favor of Weiss’ motion.

“I’ve always questioned why we make these settlements when everything is supposed to be in order,” said Zine, a former LAPD sergeant. “If [a shooting] is in policy, then we need to stand behind it and defend the action. If it’s not, we’ve got to admit there’s a problem.”

As it stands, Zine said, the council is spending taxpayer dollars without really knowing whether a case merits it.

“We’re just writing checks,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”