Report suggests setback in police progress

The independent monitor overseeing reform of the Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday that widespread allegations of police brutality during a May Day rally raise questions about a possible breakdown in training and supervision of officers, an apparent setback after years of progress.

The report by monitor Michael Cherkasky was released on the same day Police Chief William J. Bratton met with the more than 100 members of his command staff and cautioned them about the need to address the failure of line officers at the MacArthur Park rally to comply with crowd-control rules.

Cherkasky was appointed by a federal judge in 2001 to oversee a consent decree requiring more than 100 reforms after the Rampart station corruption scandal.

“While the details of exactly what occurred and why have yet to be determined, the police actions that occurred on May 1, 2007, have raised many questions,” Cherkasky wrote in the quarterly report on compliance with the consent decree that grew out of the Rampart case.

At least 30 civilians, including 14 media employees, were struck by officers wielding batons and firing foam-rubber bullets to disperse the crowd at a May 1 immigrants’ rights rally. Police said they acted after some people began throwing rocks and bottles at the officers.

More than 60 citizen complaints have been filed involving up to 100 officers, Bratton said.

Cherkasky, a former prosecutor, said the incident raises several concerns.

“Specifically, with regard to the incident itself, the questions of command, control, strategy and tactics at the scene, as well as deviation from departmental policies and procedures relative to permissible uses of force, must be fully examined,” he wrote. “Likewise, questions relative to the composition, training and readiness of the Metropolitan Division must be answered.”

The monitor said the incident should not obscure that the LAPD has made “significant progress” in reform in the last six years. However, Cherkasky’s report raised concerns about some elements of the LAPD reverting to bad practices of the past.

“Change is difficult,” Cherkasky wrote. “It is particularly difficult in large organizations, and it is not unusual or unexpected that vestiges of pre-change behavior may, at times, be revealed. The challenge for the department is how to respond when this occurs.”

Cherkasky, who did not return calls for comment, wrote that in addition to monitoring consent decree compliance, he also will be watching how the department handles the MacArthur Park investigation.

Cherkasky’s concerns are not new to Bratton, who has described the widely videotaped police action as disturbing and an embarrassment to the department.

On Tuesday, Bratton met for the first time since the incident with his entire command staff at the Police Academy, where he said all officers ranking captain and above will be required to undergo training in the restrictions agreed to with civil rights attorneys in the wake of lawsuits stemming from the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

“I just want to make sure all the captains and above are once again familiarized with those agreements, a number of which did not seem to have been complied with in the MacArthur Park situation,” Bratton said.

The chief said he has returned 57 officers with the Metropolitan Division to normal duties, two weeks after they were benched for their role in breaking up the immigrants’ rights rally. However, Bratton said a sergeant and two officers from the unit remained benched pending the outcome of the investigations into excessive force.

Bratton told the Police Commission that he expects to have a verbal report for the City Council on May 29.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com