CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES
A federal judge said Monday that he needs more time to decide whether federal monitoring and oversight of the Los Angeles Police Department should continue.
U.S. District Judge Gary Feess had been expected to issue a decision this week but instead filed an order extending the consent decree to July 15.
Feess wrote that he received motions to terminate the consent decree from the city, as well as submissions from the police union and American Civil Liberties Union, and other materials since a June 15 hearing. “To insure proper consideration of all these materials, which are voluminous, the Court extends the Consent Decree to July 15 2009,” Feess wrote.
The consent decree, overseen by a federal monitor who reports to Feess, was implemented in June 2001. The city agreed to enter into the decree after the U.S. Department of Justice threatened to sue the city over what it called a pattern of police abuse.
The federal monitor and the city have proposed ending the decree and replacing it with a transitional agreement that would measure LAPD performance in a few areas.
-- Richard Winton
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