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Thin Blue Line Wrapped in Red Tape at LAPD
Bureaucracy and politics come between the Los Angeles police and their work.
And maybe, just maybe, the LAPD’s federal consent decree really is the colossal waste of time and money I’ve been saying it is since it was foisted on us in 2001. A remaining provision in that consent decree is the requirement that officers assigned to gang and narcotics squads provide auditors with detailed financial information, the disclosure of which is intended to deter or uncover corruption such as occurred in the LAPD’s “Rampart scandal” of the late 1990s. The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the labor union that represents rank-and-file officers, has opposed the implementation of this provision on the grounds that it is overly invasive and unlikely to achieve its intended goal.
Judge Gary Feess of the United States District Court for the Central District of California had granted the League a temporary restraining order blocking the measure, but then he lifted the restraining order with a ruling that not only insulted the League and its membership, but was also sneeringly condescending of Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who had offered a declaration in support of the League’s position. The League, Judge Feess wrote in his opinion, had not “provid[ed] any foundation for [Cooley's] expertise in the field.”
The arrogance — even for a federal judge, an occupation well known for its towering egos — is stunning. With one sentence Judge Feess casually dismisses the opinions of a man who has spent 27 years as a prosecutor, and who, since his election in 2000, has sought to undo the damage wrought by his predecessor’s incompetence in prosecuting cases arising from the Rampart scandal. Worse, perhaps, is the judge’s uncritical acceptance of the opinion of Michael Cherkasky, the independent monitor appointed to oversee the implementation of the consent decree. Without any supporting evidence, Cherkasky describes the consent decree’s financial disclosure provision as a “best practice,” yet Judge Feess’ opinion makes no reference to Cherkasky’s obvious financial interest in seeing the consent decree continue: the city of Los Angeles pays Cherkasky’s company nearly $200,000 a month — plus expenses — for its services.
LAPD Chief William Bratton, whose ego may rival that of any federal judge, was just as dismissive of his officers’ objections. He told the Los Angeles Times that the judge’s decision “was not unexpected,” and that the LAPD would implement the disclosure procedures immediately. He also brushed off the Protective League’s warning of an exodus of officers from the affected units. “There is not going to be any wholesale transfers,” Bratton told the Times. “The incentives to be in those units far outweigh any perceived” issues. He also said the department had seen no reduction in applications for those units.
Chief Bratton is being disingenuous in making these claims. True, there won’t be any wholesale transfers, but only because the measures to be imposed grant a two-year exemption to those officers already assigned to the affected units. This exemption is an obvious sign of recognition that most of these officers would sooner accept reassignment than provide the financial information being sought. It is also a tacit admission that the LAPD is confident that its gang and narcotics squads are already free of corruption; otherwise, why give them the two-year pass? And as for officers applying for these units, they have continued to do so only because the temporary restraining order was in effect. Things will be much different if the Protective League fails in its appeals and the financial disclosure measures are imposed.
Things will also be different if the incentives to which Bratton referred no longer exist. Despite record revenues in 2007, the city of Los Angeles claims to be in a financial crisis, one result of which is an effort to reduce overtime in the LAPD. Chief Bratton rightly celebrates the reduction in crime seen in the city since his appointment in 2002, but as he surely realizes it was only accomplished by cops willing to go out and lock up the criminals, one byproduct of which is cops working overtime both in processing arrests and appearing in court during their off-duty hours. Officers assigned to gang, vice, and narcotics units are among the heaviest users of overtime as they most often work at night, when gang, vice, and drug activity is heaviest.
But at one police station is South Central L.A., those officers were directed to work, albeit only briefly, during the daytime so as to reduce overtime costs. The order was rescinded after just two days, but the threat to reimpose it still hangs over the officers, with the implicit message being: only arrest as many crooks as you can while staying within the budget.
But perhaps the most egregious thumb in the eye to L.A.’s cops was the civilian police commission’s effort to expose instances of racial profiling in the LAPD. The fact that not a single allegation of racial profiling has been proved only reinforces their opinion that such practices are occurring. “We frankly have a continuing divide between where the department is and where members of the community are,” said commissioner John Mack. “I am not suggesting every single person who thinks they were stopped because they were black is accurate. But it is a continuing perception in Los Angeles and this country — and that perception is a reality in the minds of many people.”
Heather Mac Donald wrote “The Myth of Racial Profiling” back in 2001, and since that time no one — no one! — has produced any evidence that such practices occur, in Los Angeles or anywhere else. If Mr. Mack is searching for reasons why blacks and Latinos are stopped by police in numbers he considers to be disproportionate, perhaps he should consider the following facts: There are 19 patrol areas in the LAPD, but more than 36 percent of the city’s violent crimes reported so far this year occurred in the four areas that make up South and South Central Los Angeles, where the city’s black and Latino concentrations are highest. These four areas make up only 16 percent of the city’s total population. Mr. Mack may also be discomfited to learn — as he should be — that blacks, while comprising just 9.6 percent of the city’s population, made up 34 percent of its homicide victims in 2007 and 36 percent of its known homicide suspects.
It’s simple: where crime is highest, so too will be the number of contacts with police officers. Perhaps the city’s minorities might be better served if Mr. Mack and his colleagues concerned themselves more with the very real threat of violent crime in their communities and less with specious claims of racial profiling. And if they could cut loose with some more money for overtime, so much the better.
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“Jack Dunphy” is the pseudonym of an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. The opinions expressed are his own and almost certainly do not reflect those of the LAPD management.
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6 Comments
1. DavidN:This whole issue: whether the LAPD is any good at its job, and when it falls short, why, is one of those touchy issues that the city of LA seems to struggle with in a fashion that no other big city seems to. Perhaps it’s that we’re in the land of make believe. We’ve had not just the Rampart scandal, but the Biggie Smalls murder, and the whole intersected criminal action (documented rather thoroughly in the book LAbyrinth). And for whatever reason we get these absolutely silly criminal incidents where the most egregiously silly questions are asked as if they actually make sense. For instance, you get police officers accused of racial profiling in neighborhoods where the ethnicity of the residents is monolithic. A friend of mine used to teach junior high school math. The student body of his school literally was 99.5% Hispanic. One child in 200 was black, instead of Hispanic. Yet some moron is going to complain about racial profiling if white and Asian kids from the neighborhood aren’t questioned, too, whenever there’s a crime.
Our latest silliness is the Grim Sleeper killings. I didn’t come up with the name, and I agree it’s rather flip, but it’s handy, so I’ll use it. It was invented by LA Weekly. Apparently someone leaked the existence of a serial killer to the media. The police have been investigating for more than 2 decades. The killer murdered a number of people (I don’t have the figures in front of me, but it was 7 or 8 people, I think) back in the 80s, and then stopped for 13 years (hence the Sleeper reference) before restarting his crime spree in 2002 or 2003. The problem here, of course, is that media attention doesn’t catch serial killers; unfortunately, they’re usually caught by meticulous record-checking (Son of Sam), stakeouts (the Atlanta child killings), or sometimes dumb luck. If the community gets outraged, however, you have a large “task force” formed, which sops up money that would go towards fighting other sorts of crime, which wind up suffering as a result. This is why police officers are so reluctant to admit a particular set of killings are the work of a serial. They’re almost impossible to catch, regardless of what you see on TV, and the money can often be better spent elsewhere.
Be interesting to read what Mr. Dunphy has to say about this latest “scandal”.
Sep 5, 2008 - 2:56 am 2. Reactions, Media “errors” and more | The Anchoress:[...] a cop’s job even harder. Because that works so well in England. 3:05 [...]
Sep 5, 2008 - 12:05 pm 3. Rubicon:One wonders if “ALL” in public life were required to release all of their own financial information to the extent these officers must, if then that requirement might be considered onerous. Does the judge do this? Does the Chief do this? Are these records all to be “public”?
Sep 5, 2008 - 4:46 pm 4. Mike Boyce:Why should I allow my financial life to be broadcast to the world? Lets face it, the “leaks” coming out of public offices in local, state, and federal bureaucracies lately, are nothing short of breathtaking. So, once the financial dealings of an officer are revealed “accidentally, who pays the fines & who accepts responsibility for the “leak”?
The guy recommending this be implemented who also collects a $200,000 a month fee to review those records, is as biased as any partisan I’ve ever heard of. That fact alone should justify a higher court overturning this ruling.
BUT………… in liberal leftist la la land, where do as I say not as I do is the newest commandment of the liberal left, who knows!?
A fine and shining example of left wing, liberal, polictacl correctness gone awry and continuing to exist inspite of itself. The liberal politicians, judges and media just will not accept facts as evidence. They always have and always will continue to pound away at their theories and ram them down the publics throat in an effort to make a case that cannot be made. L.A. doesn’t deserve the quality officers they have. The people do, because they are the innocent victims (victims also of the propaganda foisted upon them) of a police force prevented from doing police work. I hate to remind the media in L.A., not to mention the police commision, that crime is not pretty and those who commit it are ugly and it takes tough, dedicated professionals to deal with it. I have an idea. Lets dismantle the LAPD and hire private, unarmed security guards under the ownership of confirmed liberals and see what happens. This PC madness has gone on way too long. Why is our American society so bent on self-destruction? And why do the pied-pipers of the left wing media manage to sell their tripe? It’s way beyond me. Thumbs up to the men and women on the street in the LAPD. I thank you doubly for your service in the face of crime, criminals and, oh yeah, people who break the law also.
Sep 5, 2008 - 5:17 pm 5. david:That was a depressing read. Thanks for the important info though.
Sep 5, 2008 - 5:19 pm 6. Irwin Copper:Last week, the media reported a historic reduction in the homicide rate for the City of Los Angeles. This is a great accomplishment for the hard working men and women of the thinnest of thin blue lines-the LAPD. The credit for the reduction rightfully belongs to the officers and detectives, not the managers that are assigned to desks shining their seat with their respective posteriors.
There could be so much more from this organization because as Mr. Dunphy astutely pointed out the LAPD is bogged down in a paper intensive, stifling, and an insanely inefficient bureaucratic nightmare. Thousands of officers are not assigned to field duties because Department managers, the courts, politicians have determined cops should be assigned to such critical divisions as Audit Division, Civil Rights Integrity Division, Art Theft Detail, Animal Cruelty Task Force, Professional Standards Bureau (one of the largest and most inefficient), Threat Assessment Unit, HAZ MAT, staff to command officers, and tons of specialized “do nothing” units that have absolutely nothing to do with the motto of the Department, “To Protect and To Serve.”
Don’t you believe me? If you can find one of these LAPD officers assigned to a specialized unit, ask them what they do on a daily basis. These “cops” usually work great hours with holidays, weekends, and three days a week off. The majority will attempt to explain to you how they spend their day on your tax money. The longer it takes that officer to explain their job to you the more you should deduce their job is a duplicate of another organization’s duty (like the Humane Society or even the feds) or responsibility, or it should be civilianized, or eliminated.
Badge carrying officers assigned to conduct audits of whether someone checked a box on an Investigative Report or Arrest Report. Ridiculous! Police officers assigned to units that traditionally were the purview of the Fire Department (Arson & HAZ MAT), teams of auditors, the Art Theft Detail. Court Liaison and Subpoena Control officers, and many filing units (officers that present cases to DA’s), There are too many to list.
The 257 people killed thus far this year in Los Angeles is a tragedy, not a success. To call this a success is especially horrifying considering the LAPD has thousands of officers not assigned to respond to help you if you call. Based on Chief William Bratton’s philosophy of, “…putting cops on dots,” (meaning placing officers in crime areas) the LAPD could do much better. If the LAPD put more officers and detectives in field positions instead of investigating whether Brittany Spears is harassed by TMZ, crime will continue to go down. By field positions, I mean officers and detectives that work 24/7 in the community police stations that patrol, conduct investigations, and respond to your calls in a timely manner.
How many Angelenos would not be victims of homicide, robbery, rape, burglary, and theft if the LAPD put the thousands of officers in the community, day and night, instead of behind a desk auditing reports or getting coffee for a Deputy Chief?
Sep 7, 2008 - 11:05 am