Under Siege at the LAPD
America's most controversial police department tries to clean up its act
Williams supporters say he inherited a department under siege because of the King beatings and recalcitrance of Police Chief Daryl Gates. "The resistance to him in the department--both because he was black and an outsider--was overwhelming," says an observer with close ties to the department. Still, even supporters concede that Williams's leadership has been at best disappointing.
Besides the turmoil at the top, the department has been plagued with the perennial problems of aging equipment and facilities, more guns in the hands of more gangs and too few officers to patrol this sprawling city's nearly 500 square miles. The result has been an alarmingly high rate of attrition.
In the 1994-95 fiscal year, 486 officers left the LAPD, up from 376 the year before. When he was campaigning for election three years ago, Mayor Richard Riordan vowed to hire 3,000 new officers. But a recent study by the department projects that an average of 609 officers a year will leave over the next five years, which would largely nullify the rate of new hires.
Moreover, it's not just cops nearing retirement who are quitting. A growing number of younger officers, with their excellent--and expensive--L.A. Police Academy training and street experience, have been transferring to other departments. Mike Kelly, a Huntington Beach, Calif., police officer, says his department has hired several former LAPD officers because they're saying, "I'm looking at a 30-year career, and I don't think I can do it in L.A."
The challenge facing Williams is to make reforms without worsening morale and speeding the exodus. The department is being asked by its overseers to act urgently on these reforms:
Excessive force. The department is trying alternatives to the kind of force the world saw in the videotaped beating of King. For example, cops have been experimenting with pepper spray and bean bags fired from shot guns.
Training. Although the police academy is considered among the nation's finest, the department wants more in-service training for veterans to bolster "cultural awareness" and interpersonal tactics that defuse street encounters.
Performance evaluations. The department wants to overhaul seemingly perfunctory reviews of officers, which in days gone by helped keep men like Fuhrman on the force.
Discipline. To address public concerns that cops cover up for one another, the Police Commission plans to hire an inspector general to "look over the shoulder of Internal Affairs," says Dierdre Hill, chair of the Police Commission.
Community policing. The Christopher Commission's overarching recommendation was that the LAPD adopt police practices that stress cooperation with neighborhoods to solve problems proactively rather than respond to 911 calls.
Officers like Danny Roman, a 17-year veteran now in the Hollenbeck division, are a big part of the LAPD's push toward community policing. "All the kids just call him 'Policeman Danny,' " says Mary Jaquez, a teacher at El Sereno Middle School who is organizing an "LAPD Appreciation Day" at an eight-hour barbecue this week. "He got Oscar [a 16-year-old former graffiti tagger] out of the gangs and into the Police Explorers."
Besides seeking such far-reaching reforms, Chief Williams faces the challenge of showing that the picture of the LAPD in the Simpson trial is aberrant. Even Angelenos might be surprised to learn that 53 percent of the department today is made up of women and minorities--the preferred hires in recent years. At the Ramparts division in Koreatown, for instance, Jason Lee and Song Suh, both naturalized American citizens born in South Korea, work the streets with officers Joe Espinoza and Sonny Garcia. "Gimme two, bro!" Garcia shouts to Suh at the end of their midnight shift, as they slap their palms together twice.
But to much of the community, Fuhrman is the face of the LAPD. Reformers want the public to focus on faces like Roman's, Suh's, Espinoza's and Garcia's. Until that happens, the LAPD is likely to remain on trial.
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