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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-22-2002 Articles Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Saturday, September 07, 2002 12:37 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Criticism of US Felon Program Grows http:~~www.~at[mes c~m~news~~~ca~~~a~me~fe!~n6sep~6 st~ry?c~~~=~a%2Dhead~ines%2Dca!~f~rnia Criticism of U.S. Felon Program Grows Benefits: Thousands of blind, disabled and aging Californians have lost Social Security payments after they were tracked down for long-ago crimes. By STEVE BERRY TIMES STAFF WRITER September 6 2002 A federal program designed to catch fugitives and deny them welfare benefits has snared thousands of blind, disabled and aging Californians. The program is coming under growing criticism from California lawyers representing the indigent. The fugitive-felon program has funded a massive computer dragnet that has saved $130 million and led to the arrest of thousands of fugitives, law enforcement officials said. Most of those caught are the aged, blind and disabled who are accused of violating probation and parole or other nonviolent crimes, many of which are decades old. The program has suspended Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits to nearly 7,500 blind, disabled and aged Californians since 1996, according to figures from the Social Security Administration. The SSI recipients also have been ordered to reimburse the agency for some payments. The program compares computer databases of aid recipients with fugitives. When Social Security turned the names and addresses of those aged and disabled recipients over to California law enforcement agencies, authorities apprehended 2,831 of them, according to Social Security statistics. The statistics showed that very few of them were murderers, rapists, robbers, kidnappers or other violent offenders. About 90% of those arrested in California have been violators of probation, parole or some nonviolent crimes. Nationwide, 4,721 have been arrested and 45,000 recipients have had their benefits suspended. Since midsummer, public defenders, court officials, legal aid lawyers and law enforcement officers in California have been contacted by people threatened with loss of benefits. Social Security officials said they will restore assistance if recipients provide proof that warrants have been cleared, said Mariana Gitomer, spokesman for the Social Security Administration in California. "A lot of taxpayers would be indignant to know that public funds are being used as fuel to escape law enforcement," said Dick Lynch, director of Social Security's Strategic Enforcement Division at the agency's Office of Inspector General in Baltimore. "Who can argue against the benefit of taking murderers, kidnappers and armed robbers off the street?" he said. Critics complain that the program has not focused on such crimes. 9/9/02 Page 2 of 3 "They make this sound like a law enforcement jihad, when they actually are getting old, toothless people who are easy to find and not fleeing from anyone," said Bruce Schweiger, a Los Angeles County deputy public defender, who alone has answered more than 100 calls in the last three or four weeks. "They are using a fire hose to extinguish a birthday candle," he said. San Francisco lawyer Jane Gelfand, whose Positive Resource Center represents people with HIV, said, "These are people who are severely disabled with limited assets and income and frequently cut off from family, friends or other social support." One of her clients, Mark Pruitt, thought that he had completed probation for a drunken-driving conviction in Florida. Pruitt, 41, said he never heard anything further about the incident until he got a notice from Social Security officials last year saying that his SSI benefits would be suspended. He said the SSI check provided one-third of his monthly income and helped pay for some of the drugs he needs to combat full-blown AIDS. He has diabetes and high blood pressure. Two hip replacement surgeries, a degenerative shoulder condition and deteriorating joints have left him unable to hold down jobs requiring much physical exertion, Pruitt said. In San Diego County, Chief Deputy Public Defender Bob Stall said most of the cases "are quite old, 15 years or older, and involve nonviolent offenses, drugs, bad-check cases." One great-grandmother in Los Angeles lost her benefits because she never completed probation on a 1973 drug possession conviction. Dora Price, 65, spent six months in County Jail that year and then violated probation early the next year, court records show. Price said she moved to Shreveport, La., to escape the daily, unrelenting pressure from her drug-using friends to resume her narcotics use. There, she beat her drug habit and got "a good-paying" job making telephones for AT&T. She returned to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s and has a clean record. Her notice came June 17, suspending her $175 monthly SSI check. She was left with $600 a month for rent, utilities and groceries. Price got good news this week. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge, at the request of her public defender, voided the arrest warrant. Although the law is called the fugitive-felon law, former SSI recipient Yolanda Randall, 50, never fled after she broke probation 27 years ago over a gambling-related charge in Los Angeles. Randall, 50, continued living in her home for two years after the judge entered a bench warrant for her arrest in 1975. Court records show that Randall's violation was failure to pay a $150 fine. Randall is disabled by obesity and arthritis, and has drawn SSI since 1995, her sister, Nora Ashford, said. She was drawing $750 a month when she got her notice on June 25. It also ordered herto repay $18,652 in benefits she had already received. "1 took her to three stations trying to get her into custody so we could clear up the warrant," Ashford said. Nobody would take her. One officer referred her to the public defender's office. Lynch said such violators have no one to blame but themselves. "You are supposed to pay for your crimes," he said. "If you have someone in their 80s with a warrant from their 40s, couldn't you argue they've had ample opportunity to turn themselves in?" One who tried that is Susan Irene Reid, who fled Los Angeles after pleading guilty to kicking a police officer in the leg in January 1988. Reid, who was a 24-year-old psychiatric patient, said she agreed to take medication for her illness and to remain on probation for a year. But she ran away from the probation office on her first visit. "1 couldn't admit to my psychiatric problems, and I didn't want to take medication," she said. Over the next 11 years, Reid was taken into custody three times-- first in Texas, where she turned herself in and spent nine days in jail, and twice in Minnesota-on the outstanding warrant. Each time Los Angeles authorities declined to 9/9/02 Page 3 of 3 extradite her. SSI helped pay her $400 monthly medication bill and qualified her for assistance for psychiatric care to control her manic depression, Reid said. But when the computers ground out her name July 31 for that 1988 warrant, the agency suspended the SSI. Last week a judge dismissed the warrant, in part because authorities chose not to seek extradition. Her payments will resume when she provides a copy of the court records to Social Security. Meanwhile, she said, she still has to battle Social Security's claim that she owes back payments, which she estimates could be at least $5,000. The fugitive-felon program grew out of a provision of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, which also prohibited fugitives from obtaining food stamps. Though the U.S. Department of Agriculture moved quickly to implement the law, the Social Security Administration did not. In 2000, Social Security gained access to FBI computer data on outstanding warrants. Early last year, the agency signed its first contracts with states to compare the names of SSI recipients to lists of fugitives provided by police. In return, Social Security would provide law enforcement with the addresses to which it mailed benefits. In California, the program got started earlier than in most states, Social Security officials said. The state's Department of Social Services started providing Social Security with addresses of SSI recipients it had matched with the Department of Justice's outstanding warrant files by 1998, Napolski said. In Los Angeles, authorities said they seldom bother with probation violators or others accused of nonviolent offenses that would not carry state prison time. if such violators ever appear in court, it usually is because the outstanding warrant surfaced in a later police encounter, such as a routine traffic stop. Only the more serious violators--those accused of murder, rape or other crimes that would put them in a state prison-- prompt law enforcement to go to the expense of a search and extradition effort, prosecutors and law enforcement officials said. "If it's a probation violation, it usually means the individual has not been sentenced to state prison," said John Paul Bernardi, director of the Los Angeles County district attorney's Support Operations Bureau. "When it comes to felonies, you still have to analyze how serious the offense is, how dangerous they are, its deterrence role, and then you have to decide whether it's a wise allocation of resources." If a trial will be required, the case may not be provable if witnesses are no longer available or evidence is missing, he said. LAPD Capt. James Miller, area commander of the 77th Street Station, said that even serious larceny cases do not always warrant extradition. He cited a mid-1980s case in which prosecutors decided not to extradite a man who had fled to the East Coast to escape charges of grand larceny and receiving stolen property. When asked about circumstances similar to Randall's gambling-related probation violation, Miller said, "Somebody who has gone for 25 years without being picked up, she's obviously changed her life, which is the whole purpose of probation." Schweiger, the Los Angeles deputy public defender, doesn't advocate abandoning the fugitive-felon program. It just needs to be amended, he said. "The problem is that you have these two huge bureaucracies that ... don't take the human costs into account," he said. "They are doing nothing but matching names and addresses with checks without giving thought to the actual consequences," he said. 9/9/02 Page 1 of 6 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Saturday, September 07, 2002 12:57 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Pt 1: Investigating the investigation of Tupac Shakur's Murder http:l/www~!atimes,comlnewslnationworldlnationl!a-fi-tupac6sepO6~story Who Killed Tupac Shakur? How a fi[Iht between rival Compton [lan[is turns into a plot of retaliation and murder. By CHUCK PHILIPS TIMES STAFF WRITER September 6 2002 First of two parts LAS VEGAS --The city's neon lights vibrated in the polished hood of the black BMW as it cruised up Las Vegas Boulevard. The man in the passenger seat was instantly recognizable. Fans lined the streets, waving, snapping photos, begging Tupac Shakur for his autograph. Cops were everywhere, smiling. The BMW 750 sedan, with rap magnate Marion "Suge" Knight at the wheel, was leading a procession of luxury vehicles past the MGM Grand Hotel and Caesars Palace, on their way to a hot new nightclub. It was after 11 on a Saturday night-- Sept. 7, 1996. The caravan paused at a crowded intersection a block from the Strip. Shakur flirted with a carful of women--unaware that a white Cadillac had quietly pulled up beside him. A hand emerged from the Cadillac. In it was a semiautomatic pistol, aimed straight at Shakur. Many of the rapper's lyrics seemed to foretell this moment. "The fast life ain't everything they told ya," he sang in an early hit, "Soulja's Story." "Never get much older, following the tracks of a soulja." Six years later, the killing of the world's most famous rap star remains officially unsolved. Las Vegas police have never made an arrest. Speculation and wild theories continue to flourish in the music media and among Shakur's followers. One is that Knight, owner of Shakur's record label, arranged the killing so he could exploit the rapper's martyrdom commercially. Another persistent legend is that Shakur faked his own death to escape the pressures of stardom. A yearlong investigation by The Times reconstructed the crime and the events leading up to it. Evidence gathered by the paper indicates: The shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier. Orlando Anderson, the Crip whom Shakur had attacked, fired the fatal shots. Las Vegas police discounted Anderson as a suspect and interviewed him only once, briefly. He was later killed in an unrelated gang shooting. The murder weapon was supplied by New York rapper Notorious BI.G, who agreed to pay the Crips $1 million for killing 9/9/02 Page 2 of 6 Shakur. Notorious B.I.G. and Shakur had been feuding for more than a year, exchanging insults on recordings and at award shows and concerts. B.I.G. was gunned down six months later in Los Angeles. That killing also remains unsolved. Before they died, Notorious B.I.G and Anderson denied any role in Shakur's death. This account of what they and others did that night is based on police affidavits and court documents as well as interviews with investigators, witnesses to the crime and members of the Southside Crips who had never before discussed the killing outside the gang. Fearing retribution, they agreed to be interviewed only if their names were not revealed. Revolutionary Upbringing The slaying silenced one of modern music's most eloquent voices--a ghetto poet whose tales of urban alienation captivated young people of all races and backgrounds. The 25-year-old Shakur had helped elevate rap from a crude street fad to a complex art form, setting the stage for the current global hip-hop phenomenon. Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in 1971 into a family of black revolutionaries and named after a martyred I ncan warrior. Radical politics shaped his upbringing and the rebellious tone of much of his music. His godfather, Black Panther leader Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, spent 27 years in prison for a robbery-murder in Santa Monica that he insisted he did not commit. Pratt was freed after a judge ruled in 1997 that prosecutors concealed evidence favorable to the defendant. Shakur's stepfather, Black Panther leader Mutulu Shakur, was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list until the early 1980s, when he was imprisoned for robbery and murder. His mother, ^feni Shakur, also a Black Panther, was charged with conspiring to blow up a block of New York department stores--and acquitted a month before the tapper was born. Shakur grew up in tough neighborhoods and homeless shelters in the Bronx, Harlem and Baltimore. He exhibited creative talent as a child and was admitted to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied ballet, poetry, theater and literature. In 1988, his mother sent him to live with a family friend in the Bay Area to escape gang violence in Bart[more. Living in a tough neighborhood north of Oakland, he joined the rap group Digital Underground and signed a solo record deal in 1991. Shakur's debut album, "2Pacalypse Now," sparked a political firestorm. The lyrics were filled with vivid imagery of violence by and against police A car thief who murdered a Texas state trooper said the lyrics incited him to kill. Law enforcement groups and politicians denounced Shakur. Then-Vice President Dan Quayle said the rapper's music "has no place in our society." Shakur's recordings explored gang violence, drug dealing, police brutality, teenage pregnancy, single motherhood and racism. As his stature as a rapper grew, he pursued an acting career, drawing admiring reviews for his performances in "Juice" and other films. But he never put what he called the "thug life" behind him. During a 1993 concert in Michigan, he attacked a local rapper with a baseball bat and was sentenced to 10 days in jail. In Los Angeles, he was convicted of assaulting a music video producer. In New York, a 19~year-old fan accused Shakur and three of his friends of sexually assaulting her. While on trial in that case, the rapper was ambushed in a Manhattan recording studio, shot five times and robbed of his gold jewelry. Shakur later said Notorious B.I.G. and his associates were behind the attack. Shakur, convicted of sexual abuse, was serving a 4 1/2-year prison term when he was visited by Suge Knight, founder of Death Row Records in Los Angeles. Knight offered to finance an appeal of his conviction if Shakur would sign a recording contract with Death Row. Shakur accepted the offer and was released from prison in 1995 on a $1.4-million appellate bond posted by Knight. Hours later, Shakur entered a Los Angeles studio to record "All Eyez on Me." The double CD sold more than 5 million copies, transforming Shakur into a pop superstar whose releases outsold Madonna's and the Rolling Stones'. Two Fights On Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur, still out on bond, traveled to Las Vegas to attend a championship boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Selden at the MGM Grand Hotel. 9/9/02 Page 3 of 6 The sold-out arena was jammed with high rollers: Wall Street tycoons, Hollywood celebrities, entertainment moguls. The fight also attracted an assortment of underworld figures: mobsters from Chicago, drug dealers from New York, street gangs from Los Angeles. Shakur arrived around 8:30 p.m. accompanied by armed bodyguards from the Mob Piru Bloods, a Compton street gang whose members worked for Knight's Death Row Records. Shakur and Knight sat in the front row, smoking cigars, signing autographs and waving to fans. "Knock You Out," a song Shakur had written in honor of Tyson, blasted over the loudspeakers as the boxer entered the ring. Tyson flattened his opponent so quickly that many patrons never made it to their seats. After congratulating Tyson, Shakur, Knight and a handful of bodyguards in silk suits headed for the exit. In the MGM Grand lobby, one of Shakur's Bloods bodyguards noticed a member of the rival Southside Crips lingering near a bank of elevators. The Bloods and Crips have a 30-year history of turf wars: beatings, drug heists, drive-by shootings. The Crips dress in blue, the Bloods in red. When the two gangs aren't pushing dope or terrorizing citizens, they take pride in retaliating against each other. The hoodlum standing in the lobby was Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, 21, a Crip who had recently helped his gang beat and rob one of Shakur's bodyguards at a mall in Lakewood. Anderson had a string of arrests for robbery, assault and other offenses. Compton police suspected him in at least one gang killing. After the beating of Shakur's bodyguard, Anderson had dared to rip a rare Death Row medallion from the man's neck--an affront to Knight's honor and a slight to the Bloods. The Bloods had been fuming for weeks, waiting to exact their revenge. Now, unexpectedly, there was Anderson, standing before them. Shakur charged the Crip. "You from the South?" he asked. Before Anderson could answer, Shakur punched him. His bodyguards jumped in, pounding and kicking Anderson to the ground. Knight joined in too--just before security guards broke up the 30-second melee, which was captured by a security camera. Shakur and his entourage stomped triumphantly across the casino floor on their way out of the hotel. They walked half a block down the Strip to the Luxor hotel, where Death Row Records had booked more than a dozen rooms After dropping off Shakur and the bodyguards, Knight drove about 15 minutes to a mansion he owned in a gated community in the city's southeastern valley. The plan was to regroup later at a benefit concert for a youth boxing program featuring Shakur and other Death Row acts. The midnight concert was to be held at Club 662, a nightspot just opened by Death Row. The club's name was an emblem of how gangs had infiltrated the rap business. On a telephone keypad, 662 spells "mob." Planning a Retaliation A bruised and shaken Anderson gathered himself off the floor in front of dozens of startled onlookers. MGM security guards and Las Vegas police tried to persuade him to file a complaint against his assailants, but he declined. Anderson headed out to the Strip and crossed over a pedestrian bridge to the Excalibur Hotel, where he had checked in with his girlfriend. News of the beating swept through the gang underground. Before he reached his room, Anderson's pager was beeping with calls from his Crips cohorts, according to what he later told associates. Anderson phoned his comrades and set up a meeting at the Treasure Island hotel. He changed his clothes and hopped into a taxi, heading for the hotel with the huge neon skull and crossbones out front. Treasure Island had served as a Crips headquarters during boxing matches for years. The gang would rent a fleet of luxury vehicles, ride across the desert in a caravan, hand their keys to the valets and head to a block of rooms booked under fake names. Drug trafficking paid for all this. The ritual had little to do with boxing. Many gang members never attended the fights. They came to party and bask in the post-fight revelry: the drinking, the gambling, the drugs, the prostitutes. Other street gangs followed suit, flying in from 9/9/02 Page 4 of 6 Harlem and Atlanta, taking over establishments up and down the Strip. By the time Anderson's taxi reached Treasure Island, more than a dozen gangsters were holed up in a Crips-raserved room. Marijuana smoke clouded the hallway. Alcohol was flowing as Anderson opened the door. The gang was furious. The topic of discussion: Who gets to pull the trigger? According to people who were present, the grips decided to shoot Shakur after his performance at Club 662. The plan was to station two vehicles of armed grips outside the nightspot and lie in wait. The gang put in a call to a grips hide-out in Las Vegas, a rented house used to stash drugs and firearms and shelter gang members on the run from crimes committed in Los Angeles. They told a man there to bring some backup weapons over to the hotel. Soon. Killers for Hire For the grips, the beating of Anderson was an egregious affront warranting swift and fatal retaliation. Still, the Cdps thought, why not make a little money while they were at it? They decided to ask Shakur's biggest enemy to pay for the hit. The gang arranged a rendezvous with Notorious B.I.G. The Brooklyn rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, hated Shakur and had been feuding with him for more than a year. Once tight friends, the two entertainers now ridiculed each other at events, in interviews and on recordings. In one song called "Hit 'Em Up," Shakur bragged about having sex with Wallace's wife and vowed to kill him. The threats between the rappers and their labels, Death Row and Bad Boy Entertainment, escalated into a series of assaults and shootings--one of which resulted in the killing of a Death Row bodyguard in Atlanta in 1995. Fearing for his safety, a friend of Wallace's arranged for the grips to supply bodyguards for the tapper whenever he traveled west. Over the years, the gang was paid to provide security for Wallace at casinos in Las Vegas, clubs in Hollywood and award shows in Los Angeles. Besides cash, Wallace gave the gang access to stars, groupies and the inner sanctums of the music business.. Wallace began flashing grips gang signs and calling out to the homies at concerts, sometimes even inviting gang members on stage. Privately, he prodded the gang to kill Shakur--and premised to pay handsomely for the hit. On Sept. 7, 1996, the grips decided to take him up on the offer. They sent an emissary to a penthouse suite at the MGM, where Wallace was booked under a false name. In Vegas to party, he didn't attend the Tyson-Selden fight but had quickly learned about Shakur's scuffle with Anderson Wallace gathered a handful of thugs and East Coast rap associates to hear what the grips had to say. According to people who were present, the grips envoy explained that the gang was prepared to kill Shakur but expected to collect $1 million for its efforts. Wallace agreed, on one condition, a witness said. He pulled out a loaded .40-caliber Glock pistol and placed it on the table in front of him. He didn't just want Shakur dead. He wanted the satisfaction of knowing the fatal bullet came from his gun. On the Strip It was a gangsta rap parade. Fans waved. Women flirted and asked for autographs. Photographers snapped pictures. Knight was leading a caravan of at least five Death Row cars heading toward Club 662, Shakur and Knight turned heads as the convoy proceeded slowly north on Las Vegas Boulevard. Around 11 p.m., police stopped Knight for cranking the black BMVV's stereo too loud and not properly displaying its license plates. Shakur and Knight joked with the officers and talked them out of issuing a ticket. Then the BMW turned right on Flamingo Road and headed east toward the club. Moments earlier, Anderson and three other grips took an elevator down to the Treasure Island lobby. They walked out into the valet parking area. Hovering under the hotel's skull-and-crossbones logo, the four grips waited silently as the valet brought out a 1996 white Cadillac and opened the doors.. They piled in and eased the sleek new sedan into traffic. A fifth grip in an old yellow Cadillac met them at the curb and followed close behind. He rode solo, with an AK-47 assault rifle lying across the front 9/9/02 Page 5 of 6 seat. The traffic in front of Treasure Island was bumper to bumper. Cars honked Billboards flashed. Neon-lighted fountains trickled nearby. The driver of the white Cadillac lighted a cigarette. Behind him sat Anderson. The Cdp in the front passenger seat handed Anderson the loaded Glock from Notorious B.I.G. The four men discussed staking out the club where Shakur would perform. After waiting at a stoplight between Caesars Palace and the Barbary Coast hotel, the Cadillacs turned onto Flamingo and headed east toward Club 662. As they passed the Bally's hotel on the right, the driver saw a caravan of luxury cars ahead on the left. The vehicles, packed with Mob Piru Bloods and Death Row employees, were stopped at a red light across from the Maxim Hotel.. The crosswalk was filled with tourists. Leading the convoy was Knight's black BMW. Shakur was in the passenger seat. They were alone in the car, unarmed. The Clips couldn't believe their luck. They decided to chuck their plan and strike immediately. The Cadillac raced up on the convoy and pulled up beside the BMW. Shakur didn't notice. He was flirting with a carful of women in a lane to his left. "1 saw four black men roll by in a white Cadillac," said Atlanta rapper E D.I. Mean, who was in the vehicle directly behind Shakur's. "1 saw a gun come from the back seat out through the driver's front window." Bullets flew, shattering the windows of the BMW. Shakur tried to duck into the rear of the car for cover, but four rounds hit him, shredding his chest. Blood was everywhere. "We heard shots and looked to the right of us," Knight said. "Tupac was trying to get in the back seat, and I grabbed him and pulled him down. The gunshots kept coming. One hit my head." In the chaos, neither Knight nor Mean could make out who had fired. The driver of the yellow Cadillac just behind the assailants never got a chance to fire his AK-47. "It all happened so quick. It took three or four seconds at most," Mean said.. Then the white Cadillac screeched around the corner. A bodyguard near the back of the Death Row caravan fired at the fleeing sedan. In a ruse designed to confuse Shakur's entourage, the Crip in the yellow Cadillac chased the white Cadillac around the corner, as if in hostile pursuit. Knight made a U-turn, his bullet-riddled BMW squealing around the concrete median. The Death Row convoy followed him back to the Strip, where he rammed his car onto a curb. Las Vegas police were soon on the scene. After summoning an ambulance for Shakur, they ordered everyone else in the Death Row convoy out of their cars at gunpoint. The police forced Knight, who was bleeding from a head wound, to lie face down on the pavement. By the time the detectives figured out that Knight and his caravan were victims, not suspects, the Crips had returned to their hotel rooms and gathered their belongings. Staggering their departures to avoid attracting attention, Anderson and his fellow gang members hit the highway, each in a different car. Two younger gang members drove the white Cadillac back across the desert. Interstate 15 moves fast at night. It was still dark when the Clips disappeared over the California border. Epilogue Surgeons at University Medical Center in Las Vegas removed Shakur's right lung in an attempt to stop the internal bleeding. When his condition deteriorated, they put him on a ventilator. He died six days after the shooting, with his mother at his side. 9/9/02 Page 6 of 6 Wallace returned to New York, where he recorded a CD called "Life After Death," which has veiled references to the shooting in several songs. According to the Crips, Wallace paid the gang $50,000 of the promised $1 million through an intermediary a week after Shakur died. In March 1997, Wallace discussed his feud with Shakur during an interview with a San Francisco radio station. Asked whether he had a role in the rapper's death, Wallace said he "wasn't that powerful yet." Three days later, Wallace was in Los Angeles for the Soul Train Music Awards and an after-party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. He was gunned down as he sat in his Chevrolet Blazer at a traffic light on Wilshire Boulevard. No one has ever been charged in the killing. Two days after Shakur was shot, gang warfare erupted in Compton as the Bloods sought revenge on the Crips. A rash of drive-by shootings left three people dead and 12 injured, including a 10-year-old girl. Informants told police that Anderson had been seen brandishing a Glock pistol. Las Vegas police interviewed Anderson once. They said they could not build a case against him as Shakur's killer because witnesses in the rapper's entourage refused to cooperate with them. Anderson said he had nothing to do with Shakur's death. "If they have all this evidence against me, then why haven't they arrested me?" he said a year after the shooting. "It's obvious that I'm innocent." Anderson was shot dead May 29, 1998, at a Compton carwash in a dispute police say was unrelated to Shakur's slaying. The three other Crips who were in the white Cadillac that night in Las Vegas still live in Compton. None of them has ever been questioned by police about the crime. Coming Saturday: Why the police investigation foundered. If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to www. lats.com/r~hts. 9/9/02 Page 1 of 5 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Saturday, September 07, 2002 12:58 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Pt 2: Investigating the Investigation of Tupak Shakur's Murder http:llwww,!atimes~comlnewslnationwoddlnationl!a-fl-tupacTsepO7story WHO KILLED TUPAC SHAKUR? How Vegas Police Probe Foundered By CHUCK PHILIPS Times Staff Writer September 7 2002 LAS VEGAS -- Six years ago today, rap and film star Tupac Shakur was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting on a crowded street a block from the Las Vegas Strip. Despite the public setting and the victim's notoriety, no one has ever been arrested for the killing. Shakur's family, many of his followers and some black entertainers cite the case as evidence of a double standard in the justice system. Had a white celebrity been gunned down in the open, they contend, police would have found those responsible without delay. Las Vegas police say their investigation stalled not for lack of effod, but because witnesses in Shakur's entourage refused to cooperate. That, however, is only part of the explanation. A Times review found that police committed a string of costly missteps: They discounted an incident, hours before the shooting, in which Shakur took part in the beating of a gang member in a Las Vegas hotel lobby. They failed to follow up with a member of Shakur's entourage who witnessed the shooting and told police he might be able to identify one or more of the assailants. The witness was killed several weeks later in an unrelated shooting. They did not pursue a lead about a sighting of a rented white Cadillac similar to the car from which the fatal shots were fired at Shakur and in which the assailants escaped. Las Vegas homicide Sgt. Kevin Manning, who oversaw the investigation, defended his department's work. He said detectives fielded thousands of phone tips, interviewed hundreds of witnesses and chased numerous leads during a year when the homicide unit was besieged with a record 168 murders. "Tupac got the same treatment as any other homicide here," said Manning. "But you know what? We can't do it alone. We rely on cooperative citizens to step forward and help us solve crimes. And in Tupac's case, we got no cooperation whatsoever." The Times reported Friday that court documents as well as interviews with investigators and gang members, including witnesses to the crime, indicate that Shakur was attacked by the Southside Crips, a Compton gang, to avenge the earlier beating of one of their members. The Times also reported that the man who had been beaten fired the fatal shots. The following account of how the Las Vegas police investigation went aground is based on the same sources and on interviews with Nevada police, six Los Angeles-area investigators involved in the probe and three independent gang experts. Gang killings are extremely difficult to solve because there is usually little evidence and few witnesses are willing to talk. Shakur's associates were particularly unlikely to volunteer information. Like the rapper himself, many had criminal records and a deep-seated hostility toward police. To some extent, the feeling was mutual: Shakur first gained notoriety with lyrics depicting violence against police. 9/9/02 Page 2 of 5 There was a deeper problem: Las Vegas police were slow to grasp that the roots of the killing lay in a feud between rival gangs in Compton, and were slow to act once they did realize it. To identify those responsible, police would have to take their investigation to Compton and develop informants within the gangs. The Vegas cops were ill-suited to do that. They had little experience with gang investigations or gang culture. The Compton Police Department did have entree to the gang underworld. Its investigators had known many gang members since they were babies. They took their first mug shots. They testified at their trials. They visited them in jail. In return, they often got valuable information. But Las Vegas police worried that the Compton investigators were too close to the gangs and their rap-industry patrons and might leak information. The Vegas detectives kept their distance from the gang squad, and their investigation quickly hit a dead end. "How is a cop from Vegas supposed to go out to Compton and get a powerful street gang to cooperate in a murder probe?" asked Jared Lewis, a Modesto police detective who is director of Know Gangs, a group that presents seminars on gang homicides for police agencies nationwide. "Gang homicide investigations are very complex," he said. "This was no easy case to solve, by any stretch of the imagination. I can understand why it ended up the way it has." Sept. 7, '1996 On the evening of Sept 7, 1996, Shakur and his record company chief, Marion "Suge" Knight, attended the Mike Tyson- Bruce Selden heavyweight boxing match at the MGM Grand Hotel. Also in Las Vegas for the fight were scores of gang members from Los Angeles. As he was leaving the hotel after the fight, Shakur attacked a man in the MGM lobby. Shakur's bodyguards and Knight joined in the beating. The victim was Orlando Anderson, 21, a member of the Southside Crips. Shakur and Knight were affiliated with a rival Compton gang, the Mob Piru Bloods. Shakur's bodyguards were members of the Bloods. The Bloods had been spoiling for revenge against Anderson because he had beaten one of their members at a Lakewood shopping mall several weeks earlier. Now, the attack on Anderson became the basis for another act of retaliation--this time against Shakur. The rap star was shot 2 1/2 hours later as he and Knight waited at a red light on a street teeming with tourists and other onlookers. The shots were fired from a white Cadillac carrying four Crips. Shakur suffered massive chest wounds and died a week later. Immediately after the shooting, the assailants returned to Compton, where they bragged to their friends and girlfriends. The Compton gang unit was soon deluged with tips implicating the Crips and "Baby Lane," Anderson's gang nickname. Informants reported that Anderson had been seen brandishing a GIock semiautomatic pistol, the kind of weapon used to kill Shakur. Investigators passed this information on to Las Vegas. Las Vegas police had heard about the beating in the MGM Grand lobby and reviewed a security videotape of it. But they did not know who Anderson was or why the incident mattered. Manning, the homicide commander, issued a statement at the time saying, "Investigators have no reason ... to believe that the altercation has any connection to the shooting." A week after the shooting, Compton gang investigators reviewed the videotape at the request of Las Vegas police. They identified the beating victim as Anderson, explained his gang affiliation and said the bodyguards seen flailing at him were Bloods. "We told Vegas right then we thought the Southside Crips were responsible for the murder and that Orlando was the shooter," said Bobby Ladd, then a homicide investigator with the Compton gang unit and now a Garden Grove police officer. Las Vegas police stuck to their position that the beating was irrelevant. Manning told an interviewer, "It appears to be just an individual who was walking through the MGM and got into an argument with Tupac.... He probably didn't even know it was Tupac Shakur." Having ruled Anderson out as a suspect, Las Vegas police did not try to track him down for questioning or show his photograph to members of Shakur's entourage, a dozen of whom remained in Las Vegas for a week after the shooting while the rapper fought for his life in a local hospital. 9/9/02 Page 3 of 5 Police also failed to retrieve additional security video that might have captured Anderson's movements after he was beaten. Security cameras are pervasive in Las Vegas, sweeping hotel lobbies, hallways, parking areas and other public places around the clock. Crips gang members say Anderson and his accomplices passed in front of video cameras as they gathered at the Treasure Island and MGM Grand hotels to plot the killing and, later that night, when they picked up the white Cadillac in the valet parking circle outside Treasure Island. Because casinos routinely tape over surveillance footage every seven days, the potential evidence was lost. "Overlooking the gang fight at the MGM was a mistake," said Wes McBride, president of the California Gang Investigators Assn. A retired gang intelligence sergeant for the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department's Operation Safe Streets division, McBride runs a gang training program for police academies. "In gang culture, that fight was a killing offense," he said. "If you embarrass a gang member in public, they will retaliate with a vengeance." Lou Savelli, a New York gang-unit sergeant and vice president of the East Coast Gang Investigators Assn., concurred. "If a drive-by shooting happened in New York and we found out that there was a gang beating three hours earlier involving the murder victim, I guarantee that would be my No. '1 lead," he said. Manning now says Las Vegas police may have misjudged the significance of the fight in the MGM lobby. In a recent interview, he said police discounted Anderson as a suspect based on information that he had been detained by hotel security long enough that he would not have had time to arm himself and organize the Crips' ambush of Shakur several hours later. Manning said that information had proved incorrect. He declined to elaborate. Working With Gang Members investigators say it takes special effort to develop a rapport with gang members. Because gang culture places a premium on respect, gang detectives will treat thugs and their families with great courtesy, even deference. In return, they sometimes provide confidential information that helps solve crimes. That did not happen in the Shakur case. From their first moments on the scene, Las Vegas police unintentionally alienated the witnesses most likely to be able to identify the rapper's assailants. After summoning an ambulance for Shakur, police ordered Knight, bleeding from a head wound, and other members of Shakur's entourage out of their cars at gunpoint. "The police shoved guns in our faces and threatened us," said rapper E.D.I. Mean, who was in the car directly behind Shakur's. "They made us lie face down in the middle of the street. Even after they realized we were telring the truth, they never apologized." Las Vegas porice say they had no way of knowing at first whether Knight and the others were victims or suspects. After establishing that they were the former, patrol officers had them sit along a curb until homicide detectives arrived. That took nearly two hours. Then Manning and his men ushered the witnesses one by one into squad cars and took their statements. They were, Manning said, "extremely uncooperative." Knight, founder of Death Row Records in Los Angeres, summed up relations between the witnesses and the police during an interview with ABC-TV's "PrimeTime Live" two months later. Knight said that even if he knew who killed Shakur, he would not tell Las Vegas authorities. "It's not my job," he said. "1 don't get paid to solve homicides. I don't get paid to tell on peopre." Las Vegas detectives were disgusted. "It's the typical gang mentality," Manning said. "Their best friend got shot and nobody saw nothing. The way I see it, if somebody tells me they don't want to talk, what's the point of calling them back over and over again? In this country, citizens have rights." There was, however, one witness willing to help: a 19-year-old tapper named Yafeu "Kadafi" Fula. He had spent part of his childhood in the same households as Shakur and was particularly close to him. Fula, who was with Mean in the car 9/9/02 Page 4 of 5 behind Shakur's that night, told police he might be able to identify one or more of the assailants. Fula was among the dozen or so members of Shakur's circle who remained in Las Vegas after the shooting, keeping vigil at University Medical Center, where Shakur was on life support. During that week, detectives made no attempt to follow up with Fula. His only contact with police was confrontational. On Sept. 9, two nights after the shooting, patrol officers stopped a motorist outside the hospital. Fula and some other Shakur associates who knew the man protested and got into a scuffle with police. Fula was handcuffed and searched but not charged. After Shakur's death on Sept. 13, Fula left Las Vegas, traveling to Atlanta and Los Angeles and then New Jersey, where his relatives lived. Compton investigators, meanwhile, had assembled mug shots of a handful of gang members, including Anderson. They hand-delivered the photos to Las Vegas. Manning said detectives called Fula's lawyer to set up a meeting with the teenage tapper so they could show him the pictures. Manning said the calls were not returned. Police did not try to locate Fula on their own. By Nov. 10, it was too late. Fula was gunned down in a housing project in Irvington, N.J. Potential Witnesses Dismissed Early on the morning of Oct. 2, 1996, Compton police, FBI agents and members of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department swept through Compton, arresting nearly two dozen gang members and seizing weapons and ammunition. Their aim was to stifle a gang war that had erupted after the shooting of Shakur. Orlando Anderson was among those sitting in the Compton police Iockup. He had been picked up on a warrant stemming from a gang kirring six months earlier. The other gang members were being held on drug, weapon and other charges. Compton police believed that some of them were involved in Shakur's slaying or knew something about it. Two Las Vegas detectives took part in the roundup at the invitation of Compton police. One of them questioned Anderson for about 20 minutes. The visiting detectives brushed aside a suggestion that they question the other gang members. This stunned the Compton cops and sheriffs deputies, who thought the obvious thing to do was to use the threat of prosecution to try to extract information about Shakur's killing. "We had a bunch of gang members in custody who knew exactly what happened with Shakur--some who we believed were in the Cadillac," said Ladd, the former Compton investigator. "Las Vegas expressed no interest whatsoever in talking to any of them. They barely even interviewed Orlando." Anderson was released two days later; prosecutors had declined to file charges against him for the gang killing. Las Vegas investigators never spoke to him again. He was killed May 29, 1998, in a drug-related shooting at a Compton carwash. Savelli, the New York gang investigator, said the arrests in Compton were a missed opportunity. "The success rate on these kinds of homicides hinges completely on having informants inside of the gang," he said. "You lean on gang members with rap sheets for information about the crime. If you don't get the information the first time, you go back. You get in their face. Two. Three. Four times. Eventually they talk. But relentless follow-up is essential." Manning said his detectives, operating outside their home state, lacked authority to interrogate the Compton gang members-that morning or later. Los Angeles authorities took issue with that assertion. They said that once local police invited the detectives to question the suspects, there was no legal reason for them not to do so. Manning also said his detectives asked Los Angeles County sheriffs officers to question gang members on their behalf. Sheriffs investigators said they were not asked to interrogate the suspects about Shakur's killing. Rather, they said, the Las Vegas detectives asked them to pass on anything they learned about the case while questioning the gang members on the local charges. Manning said he had no regrets about how his officers handled the situation. 9/9/02 Page 5 of 5 "You can't just go in and push everybody aside and say, 'OK, we're taking over,'" he said. "Even if we did, do you think these guys are going to talk to us simply because we walk up and ask them to? Do you think we scared them so bad they would just puke their guts out and admit to everything?" The White Cadillac Two days after the shooting of Shakur, two Crips were seen in Compton driving a white 1996 Cadillac bearing a rental sticker. An informant told the local gang unit that the Crips had visited a car stereo shop whose owner also did bodywork. In Las Vegas, one of Shakur's bodyguards had gotten off a shot at the white Cadillac as it fled. The word on the street in Compton was that the Crips brought the car to the stereo shop to have the damage repaired. Compton police relayed this information to Las Vegas investigators, who added it to their file. The Compton gang investigators then canvassed every rental agency in the area to determine whether any had rented a white Cadillac that had been driven to Las Vegas around the time Shakur was shot. They found that a Carson agency had rented such a car to a man with possible ties to the gang underground. They took a photograph of the car and detailed their findings in a report. Compton investigators say they gave this additional information to Las Vegas police. Manning said his detectives never received it. "We thought there was a possibility that we had located the Cadillac used in the crime," said retired Compton Sgt. Robert Baker. "It was a solid lead that should have been pursued." Concerned About Corruption Investigators say it was understandable that Las Vegas police would have concerns about cooperating closely with their Compton counterparts. Compton had a history of political corruption, and some Police Department figures had been alleged to have gang ties. In 2000, after years of feuding with the police brass, Compton Mayor Omar Bradley and City Council members disbanded the department and contracted with Los Angeles County to provide police services. But at the time of Shakur's shooting, the gang squad was regarded as one of the finest in Southern California. People familiar with the investigation say Las Vegas police were concerned that city officials were too cozy with Suge Knight, who grew up in Compton, contributed money to Bradley's political campaigns and knew members of the police force. Knight's security chief, Reginald Wright Jr., is a former Compton police officer whose father ran the gang unit. Knight's name had figured in some of the speculation about Shakur's death. One theory was that Knight arranged the rapper's killing so he could exploit his martyrdom commercially. Las Vegas detectives worried that Wright's father and other officers might protect Knight or pass information to him. Knight's refusal to cooperate with them sharpened the Nevada detectives' suspicions. To ease those concerns, Hourie Taylor, then Compton chief of police, removed the elder Wright from the Shakur investigation and replaced him with Baker. Nevertheless, Las Vegas investigators continued to keep their distance. "The investigators with the best inside information about the Southside Crips worked in the Compton gang unit," said McBride, the former Sheriffs Department gang investigator. "They were good investigators. But even if Las Vegas didn't trust them, what did it hurt to listen? It's not like Vegas had to give up anything. In my mind, if you aren't even close to solving the case, what do you have to lose?" Though the investigation into Shakur's slaying has been dormant for years, some former Compton officers refuse to give up hope of catching some of those involved. "1 believe Tupac's murder could have been solved-and it still could be," said Tim Brennan, a Compton gang investigator now with the Sheriffs Department. "All the clues are right there. What the investigation lacked was input from detectives who understood the gangs involved and how they operate and who all the players are. I believe justice could still be served." 9/9/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2002 6:45 PM To: Update@NACOLEorg Subject: [NACOLE Update] Houston CHief's Perjury Indictmt, Allegedly Lied in Personnel Matter; Suspended http;llwww cl~ron.comlcslCDA/story.htslmetropo[!tan1156482 4 Sept. 7, 2002, 12:57AM Indictment causes dismay, calls for resignation By MATT SCHWARTZ and ROMA KHANNA Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Police and politicians expressed dismay Friday over Houston Police Chief CD. Bradford's perjury indictment, with several suggesting he give up his job as the city's top cop even before his case is tried. And while the indictment handed up Friday is unrelated to the flap over the mass arrests last month of people at restaurant and retail parking lots, several said the charge against Bradford irreparably colors that case as well. "1 think this indictment will reflect badly on all of us, but certainly should undermine his ability to run his department. And that's a concern," said City Councilwoman Annise Parker, who also noted Bradford's "admirable" stewardship of the department overall. Bradford was accused of perjury by Capt. Mark Aguirre, the officer who later took charge of the so-called Kmart raids. Aguirre had been reprimanded for using profane and threatening language toward subordinates. At Aguirre's disciplinary hearing in May, Bradford testified under oath that he had never used such language with his subordinates. Bradford was later contradicted by Assistant Chief J.b Breshears, who testified that the chief had called him a profane name during a meeting. The grand jury indictment cites that disciplinary hearing as the basis for the perjury charge against the chief. Mayor Lee Brown on Friday relieved Bradford of duty, with pay, pending the outcome of his trial. The lawyer for Aguirre, who is suspended for his actions in the Kmart raids, said Bradford's indictment should cause his client to be reinstated to the force immediately. "There is a cloud over the entire police department when the highest-ranking officer is indicted for perjury," attorney Terry W. Yates said. "Captain Aguirre feels the indictment validates what he has said all along -- that the chief lied and that the chief has been biased against him." The indictment also prompted some City Council members to renew calls for an independent investigation of the Kmart incident, a botched raid that resulted in the arrests of 273 people for trespassing on a west Houston strip center parking lot last month. 'I think everybody just wants to get to the truth," Councilman Mark Ellis said. "1 think there has to be a full investigation into the relationship between the captain and the chief. I think the incident that occurred at the Kmart, I think we're at the tip of the iceberg." Aguirre is under a department order not to talk about the raid, the subsequent investigation or his suspension. But his supporters, including siblings, say his suspension by Bradford was the result of a personal vendetta. Meanwhile, controversy over the mass arrests outside a 24-hour Kmart and Sonic Drive-In has continued to swirl around both Aguirre and Bradford. During two hours of questions by City Council last week, Bradford disavowed the Kmart raid, saying he was embarrassed by the mass arrests, and suggesting that officers should have disobeyed orders to take everyone into custody. The chief has suspended 13 supervisors, including Ag uirre, who were present at the raid in the 8400 block of Westheimer. The raid is the subject of a $100 million lawsuit by one of those arrested and is the focus of an investigation by the police 9/9/02 Page 2 of 2 department's internal affairs division. "The problem has been that lAD reports directly to Bradford, who is biased, and has been signing often orders that affect my client," Yates said. "Now, the grand jury has validated our contention that it was not fair." Yates said he would ask acting Chief Tim Oettmeier, who was installed in Bradford's place by Brown on Friday afternoon, to review all of Bradford's decisions on the investigation, including Aguirre's suspension. News of Bradford's indictment caught council members by surprise but appeared to generate little sympathy among rank and file police officers. "Using foul language, that's a minor thing," said one officer, who requested anonymity. "And if you lie about that, I'm sure the grand jury was wondering what major stuff has he lied about. If 12 people say he said it, and he says, '1 didn't say it' -- what did he have, an aneurysm?" A sergeant, who asked not to be identified, said the grand jury had little choice but to indict Bradford. "if other witnesses testified he said that, how could the grand jury come up with anything else?" he said. "Whether or not (Bradford) gets convicted is another story." If convicted, Bradford could face the loss of his license as a certified Texas peace officer. "We will open a case and follow it, and if he is convicted, we can take action against his license," said Charles Barrett, an investigator with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, the state licensing agency for police officers. Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, applauded the decision to name an interim chief. "We need to make sure the reputation of the department is not damaged any further," he said. "We have 5,400 officers looking for leadership, and with these questions swirling around him, there is no way their chief could provide it at this time." Councilman Michael Berry called for Bradford to resign, saying the indictment would undermine public confidence in the police depadment. For his part, Brown, a former Houston police chief, expressed confidence in Bradford. "Obviously, I'm not happy about it," Brown said. Asked how confident he was that chief would be acquitted, Brown said, "1 have confidence in Chief Bradford as a man of integrity. I believe in the system that we operate under, that a person is innocent until proven guilty. And I look forward to his coming back and assuming his position as police chief after the trial." Chronicle reporter Peggy O'Hare contributed to this story. 9/9/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol·com Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2002 6:50 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Houston PD History of Problems http ;//www chron, com/cs/CpA/story.hts/metrop~!itan/1564882 Sept· 7, 2002, I:02AM Look at HPD history shows problems not first for department Ex-Chief Lynn served prison time By PAD SALLEE Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Chief C.O. Bradford is believed to be the only Houston police chief to be indicted in office, said Police Department spokesman Robed Hurst. Hurst said he asked people around the department and none could remember it ever happening· However, former Chief Carroll Lynn, ironically appointed by Mayor Fred Hofheinz in 1974 to reform the department and improve its image, was indicted after he left office and later sentenced to prison. A thumbnail history of chiefs and their difficulties over several decades: · Hermann Short was appointed by Mayor Louie Welch in 1964 and resigned in 1973, describing Hofheinz as too liberal to work with. Short, who died in 1989, was regarded as a "cop's cop" who built up the department's manpower and equipment. Admirers credited him with helping to prevent the sort of riots that erupted in a number of other cities during the turbulent '60s. On the other hand, Short ran a mostly white Police Department that included some Ku Klux Klan members. In a 1967 raid, police fired on a dormitory at Texas Southern University, then stormed the buildin9 and arrested several hundred students, none of whom was convicted of wrongdoing. Officers under Short also conducted illegal wiretaps and kept dossiers on civil rights advocates and others, including files titled "miscellaneous niggers" and "swingers." · Lynn stepped down from the top job in 1975 after one year of morale problems and criticism of his management, which included taping office conversations with his officers. Returned to the rank of deputy chief, Lynn was fired in 1979 and later sentenced to 12 years in prison for extortion, perjury and obstruction of justice.. Federal and state authorities videotaped Lynn asking an oilman to pay him $25,000 to keep the "Mexican Mafia" from killing him. Lynn was paroled in 1984. · B.G. "Pappy" Bond, genial and portly, was appointed by Hofheinz in 1976 and began the slow process of reform by establishing an internal affairs division to investigate police wrongdoing. But Bond, who died in 1986, also resigned after one year in the job -- a year that included some of the department's darkest days. The worst was May 8, 1977, when the body of Jose Campos Torres was found floating in Buffalo Bayou, and it was quickly discovered that Torres had been in police custody and beaten before he jumped or was pushed into the water. The officers involved received probation in state court, outraging the Hispanic community and leading to riots in Moody Park. The case was then tried in federal court, resulting in sentences of one year and a day. - Harry Caldwell, an ex-Marine with graduate degrees in policing, was Hofheinz's next choice. He served from 1977 to 1980 and continued the changes Bond had begun, including internal affairs. Some of Caldwell's worst problems were inherited· In 1979, federal authorities notified him that a pistol allegedly found on 9/9/02 Page 2 of 2 teenager Randall Webster, whom police had killed in 1977 after a car chase, came from the police property room. It was also discovered that another "throw-down" weapon had been used to justif7 the 1975 police shooting of a second teen, Billy Joyvies. The two cases ended in probation and acquittal for the officers charged. . B.K. Johnson was named by Mayor Jim McConn in 1980 and retired after two years, saying he could not work with newly elected Mayor Kathy VVhitmire. Johnson also cited budgetary constraints that eliminated take-home cars for many officers, kept pay raises Iow and reduced overtime. Johnson was too quotable for his own good, once likening Northerners to hemorrhoids and reciting verses about Sambo while reporters checked their microphones. · Lee Brown, appointed by VVhitmire in 1982, broke the mold in at least two ways. He was an outsider, arriving fresh from the Atlanta Police Department, and a black man, Houston's first minority chief. Criticized as emphasizing community relations over crime-fighting, Brown reorganized the department, met often with community groups and mended fences with minority residents. But Brown also faced declining budgets, personnel shortages and rising crime. And public confidence was shaken by the 1989 police shooting of Ida Lee Shaw Delaney and Byron Gillum, both black, in separate incidents. Delaney was on her way to work as a janitor when her car was chased and forced off the freeway. Three off-duty officers, in civilian clothes after a night of drinking, were in the other car. One, Alex Gonzales, approached Delaney with his gun drawn, and she shot him in the stomach. Gonzales returned fire and killed her. Gonzales was convicted in 1990 of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison, but the verdict was ovedurned in 1992. A new trial resulted in six months in jail and two years' probation. Houston police officer Scott Tschirhart, who is white, shot and killed Gillum, a security guard, during a traffic stop in the 3700 block of Scott. A grand jury declined to indict Tschirhart, but the officer was fired by Brown. Both deaths sparked an outcry in the black community that led to protests, marches and changes in Houston Police Department policies. Brown resigned in 1990 to become police commissioner of New York City, and would later be named the nation's drug czar before returning to Houston and running successfully for mayor. · Elizabeth "Betsy" Watson, the city's first woman police chief, was appointed by Whitmire in 1990. She built on Brown's policies of "community-oriented policing," and received the same criticism as her mentor. In 1992, after VVhitmire was unseated by Bob Lanier in a mayor's race that focused in part on crime, Watson stepped down to become police chief of Austin.. · Sam Nuchia, Lanier's choice, was a former police detective and federal prosecutor who emphasized the nuts and bolts of police work. With Lanier's help in securing the needed money, he built up the department, and crime rates fell. In 1996, Nuchia was elected to the 1st Court of Appeals here and was succeeded by Bradford. 9/9/02 Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aoLcom Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2002 10:34 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA Mayor's Choice of LAPD Chief Will Affect Dept & City Profoundly httpJ~www'~atime~ c~m~new~caI~a~e~chief8s~p~$~5~41~st~ry?c~=~a%2Dhead~ines%2Dca~if~rnia Hahn's Choice Will Affect LAPD and City Profoundly Reform: With L.A.'s image at stake, many expect a new chief to be committed to change. By HENRY WEINSTEIN and TINA DAUNT TIMES STAFF WRITERS September 8 2002 With 13 candidates vying for the job of running the LAPD, Los Angeles' political leadership now faces a choice with profound ramifications for the city and its Police Department, as well as for Mayor James K. Hahn's political future. The LAPD's struggles have reverberated throughout the modern history of the city, altering Los Angeles politics and twice precipitating catastrophic riots. Over the last 10 years, the LAPD has had three chiefs, all of whom left under fire. Now the Police Department is widely viewed as an agency in disarray, the result of controversies from the Rodney G. King beating to the Rampart scandal. Even after a decade in which crime declined in Los Angeles and across the nation, the LAPD's work force is hemorrhaging. Department leaders are still trying to adjust to formal oversight by the U.S. Justice Department, imposed by federal officials unconvinced that the LAPD could improve itself. Moreover, recent repods by federal overseers say the department has failed to pass muster in 29 of 58 categories set forth in a court-approved consent decree. A broad consensus of Police Department observers-from lawyers who have sued it to Hahn himself-holds that profound change is needed to restore the LAPD's competence and reputation. "My sense from talking to a number of people in and around the LAPD and reading reports by [the federal monitor] is that the LAPD is a dispirited and troubled institution," said Merrick Bobb, a consultant who monitors the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department and has provided advice to troubled law enforcement agencies across the country. The LAPD, he added, is "not very actively policing the city." Former Mayor Richard Riordan was elected in 1993 largely on the strength of his promise to rebuild the LAPD. He too believes the agency is facing a crisis. The selection of the new chief "is the most important decision Hahn will ever have to make as mayor," Riordan said. "As the department goes, so goes the health of the city." Interviews with many civic leaders suggest that picking a new chief thrusts Hahn and the rest of the city leadership into cross-currents of competing interests on other points. Some argue that radical change is required and that only an 9/9/02 Page 2 of 4 outsider can deliver it. Others see a narrower need for leadership of a proud institution, which they see as battered over the years but still basically sound. Race, once a bellwether concern in the search for an LAPD chief, appears to have receded in the current debate. But other factors have replaced it, in some ways complicating the hunt. In the selections of both of the last two chiefs, many outsiders saw the choices in symbolic terms as much as practical ones, said Raphael J. Sonenshein, a Cai State Fullerton political scientist and author of "Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles." Willie L. Williams, tapped for the job in 1992, was the first African American to head the LAPD and the first outsider to become chief in many years. Bernard C. Parks, who succeeded Williams in 1997, was seen as an antidote to Williams' widely faulted management style. And many city leaders said they thought itwas important to return to an in-house candidate after Williams' failings were partly attributed to his unfamiliarity with the LAPD. This time, Sonenshein said: "The city has to sit down and think about what it wants the chief to actually do, rather than thinking about the chief as a symbol of the racial and ideological battles of the city. "How do you find someone who can earn the confidence of the troops without being a captive of the troops, challenge the department to reform, lower the crime rate, recruit and retain officers and gain the confidence of the community the department serves?" Sonenshein asked. "In the past, we have been able to get one piece at the expense of another. Ultimately, what is at play now is finding a package." Even those who see the LAPD as fundamentally sound stress the importance of finding the right candidate this time. Carol Schatz, president and chief executive officer of the Central City Assn., said she believes the Police Department is "well run ... essentially very effective," and the subject of "a lot of unfair shots." But she said the selection would send an important signal about Los Angeles' commitment to public safety. "What I have come to understand as a business leader is that, without public safety, you have nothing," Schatz said. "Because of the ups and downs this department has had over the past 10 years, who is selected ... is critical. It's not only what the chief is doing on a daily basis, but it's the perception of leadership that is so important." Among those most anxiously "waiting in anticipation" are the LAPD's 9,020 officers, said Mitzi Grasso, president of the Police Protective League. "The department is improving, but it still has a long way to go," Grasso said. Those officers need a charismatic leader because "their self esteem is down the toilet" after years of being vilified, said Bill Berger, president of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police. James Q. Wilson, a recently retired UCLA professor who is considered the philosophical godfather of community policing, agreed. Hahn needs "to pick a chief around whom members of the LAPD can rally. Morale is terrible, and the crime rate is going up." With so much at stake, the selection process also has acquired political implications. The choice principally rests with Hahn, but the Police Commission, whose members he appointed, is expected to submit three finalists for-his consideration. If Hahn rejects all three, he can ask the commission for another slate. After the mayor makes his choice, the votes of a majority of the City Council will be needed to confirm the nominee. Hahn has indicated that he hopes to announce his choice by the end of September. As a result, the selection will involve much of Los Angeles' elected leadership and will become public just as two sections of the city-the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood--are poised to decide whether to break away from the rest of the city. "With secession in the air, it is especially important that the new chief understand the diversity of the city and recognize the need to serve the many communities of Los Angeles," said former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, the Los Angeles attorney who headed a commission that urged major reforms in the LAPD after the 1991 King beating. But Christopher quickly cautioned that it would be unwise for the Police Commission or Hahn or the ~ity Council to make its decision solely with an eye to affecting the secession vote. Among the 13 finalists who emerged from an original field of 51, there are 11 men and two women. Four of the finalists are Latino and one is black. Joe Sanchez, a Latino businessman who served on the Fire Commission during the administration of Mayor Tom Bradley, said he thought it was important that a Latino be chosen for the position. But a vast 9/9/02 Page 3 of 4 majority of those interviewed said competence, not ethnicity, should be the primary consideration in the decision. In contrast to that general point of consensus, opinions diverged sharply on whether an outsider is needed to implement the sort of fundamental change that most say is needed in the department. Of the finalists, eight either work at the LAPD or have spent much of their careers there, while five come from other departments. Two, William Bratton, who headed the New York Police Department under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and John Timoney, who worked under Bratton in New York and then became the head of Philadelphia's Police Department, are considered strong candidates. "The problem with the LAPD always has been with its culture," said Venice attorney Stephen Yagman, who has sued the department for excessive force dozens of times in the last 20 years. "Cultural problems always require comprehensive and deep changes, and only an outsider who is both dedicated to reform and stubborn enough to achieve it will bring change." Jaime Regalado, director of the Pat Brown Institute at Cai State Los Angeles, agreed. "Breaking out of the box is what's needed," Regalado said. "It would not be best to pick someone who has been trained by the culture of resistance [to change] that we've had at the LAPD." But a Los Angeles civil rights lawyer, Connie Rice, who also has been a critic of the department's culture of "blind loyalty," said an outsider would have a more difficult time because "the LAPD is aggressively xenophobic." In an interview last week, Hahn did not disclose whether he is predisposed to an insider or an outsider. But he said he wants a break from the past, and he reiterated the four goals he has set for the LAPD's next chief: lowering the crime rate, reforming the department, increasing officer morale and strengthening community policing efforts. "Doing more of the same is not what I'm interested in," Hahn said. "We want some creative, innovative approaches. For too many years, the LAPD has not encouraged innovation. In fact, it has discouraged it. We have to have someone who is committed to this consent decree and to police reform." For the new chief, then, one of the principal challenges will be to improve the department's crime-fighting abilities, even as it tightens rules to prevent officer misconduct. Over the years, that tension has been highlighted by the 1991 Christopher Commission-which concluded that racism and brutality were stubbornly persistent within the department-and by the revelations associated with the Rampart scandal, which resulted in the resignation or firing of more than a dozen officers, nine criminal prosecutions so far and more than $100 million in taxpayer payouts in civil cases. The next chief will approach those and other issues under the eye of a federal judge. Los Angeles was forced last year to enter into a federal consent decree, overseen by a judge, after the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that the LAPD had been engaging for years in a "pattern or practice" of civil rights violations. The Justice Department has pursued similar cases at other agencies, but none as big as the LAPD. Under the decree, the department is obligated to make dozens of reforms aimed at rooting out corruption and other problems. In addition to determining the extent of racial profiling by LAPD officers, the department must also install a computerized system to track performance evaluations, complaints, disciplinary actions and other data on officers. In a just-completed report, Michael Cherkasky, the LAPD's independent monitor, said the department continues to struggle. Department efforts to identify problem officers are missing "significant red flags" because of understaffing and a serious backlog of uncompleted audits. The report also concluded that: * The department is failing to analyze data collected on pedestrian and motor vehicle stops to determine whether the LAPD engages in "racial profiling." * Bureaucratic indecision is hampering the department's efforts to develop a computerized "early warning" system to help track potential at-risk officers. * The confidential-informant database contains critical errors that make it difficult to identify unreliable informants. Cherkasky, of New York's Kroll Associates, pointedly linked these problems to a lack of commitment to change in the department. 9/9/02 Page 4 of 4 In an interview, Cherkasky, a former New York City prosecutor, said the issues confronting the LAPD make the decision over its chief a crucial one: "The person who is brought in is going to be asked to completely change the management of the department, and that is always a difficult job." (BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX) The Process and the 13 Candidates The city began seeking a new chief after the Police Commission voted in April to deny Bernard C. Parks a second five- year term. Former Deputy Chief Martin Pomeroy is heading the department temporarily. Pomeroy, who had retired, has said he plans to return to his home in Montana, once a new chief is selected. Under the City Charter, the commission will select its three top choices and forward the names to Mayor James K. Hahn, who will make the final decision-subject to City Council approval. The candidates are: Portland, Ore., Chief Mark Kroeker and Oxnard Chief Art Lopez, both former LAPD deputy chiefs; LAPD Assistant Chief David Gascon; LAPD Deputy Chiefs David Kalish and Margaret A. York; LAPD Cmdrs. George Gascon, James McDonnell and Sharon Papa; Santa Ana Chief Paul Walters; Sacramento Chief Arturo Venegas; Cambridge, Mass., Chief Ronnie Watson; former Philadelphia Chief John Timoney; and former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton. Hahn has said he is looking for someone who can lower the crime rate, reform the department, motivate the rank and file and strengthen community-policing efforts. 9/9/02 Marian Karr From: Hector. W. Soto@phila.gov Sent: Monday, September 09, 2002 9:16 AM To: update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Racial Profiling The Legislative Analyst's Office has just issued the following report: An Evaluation of Racial Profiling Data Collection and Training In an effort to determine the extent to which racial disparity is a factor in traffic enforcement, many law enforcement agencies in California have begun collecting traffic-stop data. In this report, we discuss many of the issues concerning the collection and analysis of these data and recommend a number of changes for racial profiling data collection, analysis, and training in the state. (20 pp.) Available in the following formats: HTML: http://www.lao.ca.gov/2OO2/racial_profiling/8-O2_racial profiling.html Adobe Acrobat: http://www.lao.ca.gov/2002/racial_profiling/8-02 racial profiling.pdf Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update_nacole.org September 5-11, 2002 cover story Policing Post-9/ll The city's current chief talks about policing since thc attacks. by Sylvester M. Johnson The whole world changed as a result of the terrible events of Sept. 11, 2001. Police departments had to change more than most public institutions, however, because we are on the frontline in both preventing further terrorist atrocities and responding to any that might occur. The Philadelphia police department, although not directly affected by the Sept. 11 tragedy, made a number of major changes in the way we protect those who work, live, study and visit our city as a result of it. We created a new bureau with responsibility for fighting terrorism and dealing with emergencies. The head of this bureau reports directly to me and had been charged with building more effective working relations with other police departments, both in our region and more widely, as well as with state and federal law enforcement authorities. No police department, no matter how large, can hope to deal on its own with the threat of international terrorism. It is very encouraging to see how a new spirit of cooperation has developed between all the agencies concerned. But the changes that have affected the Philadelphia police department since Sept. 11, 2001, go much further than a new emphasis on dealing with terrorism. Clearly, the most obvious change has been at the top of the organization. In January of this year, Police Commissioner John Timoney resigned to pursue a new challenge in the private sector. All of us in the department and, I believe, all Philadelphians, were very sorry to see John Timoney go, but no one misses him more than I do. We worked closely together for almost four years and I learned so much from him. I have no doubt that it was because of what I learned from him while I was his First Deputy responsible for operations that Mayor Street asked me to take over from him. I am greatly honored to hold this position and grateful to the mayor for the confidence that he has shown in me and more importantly, for the support that he has provided myself and the whole department since the day he took office. Although the public tends to think of the police department mainly in terms of our 7,000 or so sworn officers, we also employ 1,002 civilians and 1,037 school crossing guards. Our civilian staff are the unsung heroes of the department and I want to pay special tribute to them. We could not do our crime-fighting job without the scientists and technicians in our forensic science laboratory, our 911 call-takers and dispatchers, our fingerprint technicians, our crime-mapping experts, our administrative staff, our secretaries and our custodial staff. Although terrorism is our newest challenge, our mission has always been much wider. It is to enhance the quality of life for all Philadelphians by reducing the fear and incidence of crime, enfoming the law and maintaining public order. These are still the principal objectives that we expect our officers and their support staff to pursue. In my view, our first priority must be to reduce the number of homicides in the city. This number has fallen from around 400 a year, where it had been stuck for about 10 years before 1998, to the low 300s a year, where it has remained for the last three years. This was an important achievement and the department is proud of it. But this number is still far too high. We must reduce it further. And implementing crime control strategies is one of the objectives that I have set for our newly appointed deputy commissioner. (As some of you will know, the new deputy commissioner is the first female to hold this rank since the department began. I am delighted to have been able to make history in this way, but my aim in appointing her was not to make history, but to make sense. Deputy Commissioner Patricia Giorgio-Fox is simply the best person for this particular job and that is why she was appointed.) Our analysis of these murders has shown that 79 percent were caused by firearms, a far higher proportion than in other major cities in the Northeast. It is therefore obvious that one of the most effective ways of preventing homicides is by reducing the number of guns on our streets. We are determined to do this. It is also clear from our analysis, and from reading the newspapers, that a very large number of homicides are related to illegal drag activity. As I am sure all readers of this paper know, in the last three months this department has taken its drag fighting efforts up to an entirely new level of intensity and effectiveness. Under the leadership of Mayor Street, we launched Operation Safe Streets to take back our neighborhoods' street comers from the drag dealers who have come to believe that they can operate on them with impunity. This has been an intensive operation and the difference that it has made to those who live in the areas affected has been dramatic. Children can now play outside in safety, folks can walk to the comer store without fear; these are the tangible, immediate results of this effort. We intend to keep up the pressure on the drug dealers until they realize that our streets are not open-air drag markets, but neighborhoods where residents can live and play and work with their families and friends in a secure and welcoming environment. Operation Safe Streets is not our only anti-narcotics effort. We still intend to go after the drug organizations that supply and profit from the street-level drug dealers and to educate school children and others on the long-term effects of illegal drag use. I am convinced educational campaigns, such as our highly successful Heads-Up program, are our best hope for a drag-free society. Drags are sometimes seen as a problem primarily for minority communities. That is because 85-90 percent of those who die violently as a result of drag activity are African- Americans. It is worth remembering, however, that 85-90 percent of those who die as a result of drag overdoses are Caucasian. No racial or economic group in our society has escaped the destructive force of this scourge. That is why we must continue to attack it with every weapon in our arsenal. As I said at the outset, the events of Sept. 11 have exposed our society to new threats and given our police department new responsibilities. We cannot, and we will not, skimp on these; they protect the liberties that provide the framework of our free society. But, by the same token, we cannot, and will not, allow these new tasks to reduce the intensity o£our efforts directed at reducing homicide, tackling illegal narcotics activity and maintaining a civilized quality of life in our neighborhoods. Sylvester M. Johnson is the city's police commissioner. ,.~ -- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Marilyn Head [corpus@evl.net] Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 10:04 AM To: Amnesty International, Martin Baer; C-Cubed Institute - New Directions in Corrections Conf.; Campaign for Houman Development. Stephanie Weber; Common Cause Texas, CCHolt; Keys of Hope; Moratorium 2000; NOW- Houston area; Physicians for Social Responsibility, Wayne Shandera; ProTex list serve; Rainbow Houston; NACOLE; NAACP; ACLU Houston Chapter Subject: Todays Chronicle Houston Chronicle, Editorial & Viewpoints, 09-10-02 HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www. HoustonChronicle.com I Section: Editorial Sept. 9, 2002 PERJURY Police chief's indictment serious, as is need to dig deeper Houston Chief C.O. Bradford is facing a third-degree felony indictment on allegations stemming from whether he used foul language with subordinates. It's hard to imagine that any Houstonian would be shocked -- shocked -- to learn that the top cop in America's fourth-largest city had used bad words in front of other police officers. However, everyone in this city should take seriously the offense with which Bradford is charged. The issue is not whether he used foul language, but that he is accused of lying about it under oath in an official proceeding. If convicted, Bradford, who is a lawyer, could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The chief, who Mayor Lee Brown has suspended with pay, maintains he is innocent of perjury, but has accepted his suspension by acknowledging that he is "not above the law." We hope the former, and know the latter, is true. The allegation against Bradford stems from a rift between Bradford and Capt. Mark Aguirre, the officer who supervised last month's botched raid at a west side Kmart. The chief had reprimanded Aguirre for using profanity and threatening language with his subordinates at a meeting (unrelated to the raid) a year ago with South Central patrol division supervisors, who Aguirre oversees. Aguirre appealed the reprimand and was granted a Civil Service Commission hearing. Bradford testified there, under oath, that he had never used profanity with his subordinates. Assistant Chief J.L. Breshears contradicted Bradford, prompting Aguirre to ask Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal to investigate. Rosenthal's office referred the case to the grand jury without charges. All the same, it is refreshing to see the district attorney and grand jurors take an allegation leveled against a police officer so seriously: Houston police officers who have shot and killed citizens under dubious circumstances typically have little to worry about from grand juries after The district attorney presents such a case. We trust that conscientiousness, and not politics, is responsible for the outcome in Bradford's case. As grave as the allegations Bradford faces are, the question remains whether more serious issues underlie the matter. Aguirre had been disciplined many times in his HPD career, and yet it was not until he directed parking lot raids that resulted in questionable mass arreststhat intense public attention led to his suspension. If Aguirre is as bad an officer as his disciplinary records seem to indicate, why couldn't he have been redirected or relieved of duty sooner? Are there officers who should be gotten rid of but cannot be because of overly restrictive civil 9/10/02 Page 2 of 3 service rules? Of most immediate concern is Bradford's indictment. Houston needs a working police chief, not a stand-in. And even if the circumstances underlying his indictment are fairly banal -- lying about using curse words is just not on the same level as lying about, say, official corruption -- the charge is serious enough to warrant great concern. A police Officer who is willing to lie, allegedly, about something trivial, and while under oath, calls into question whether he is willing to lie about matters of much greater significance. Innocent until proven guilty and don't paint the whole police department with the alleged misdeeds ora few are principles that still apply. But, these are issues that must be thoroughly investigated and publicly aired to ensure that the Houston police force, by virtue of its people and its internal structure, is able to uphold its mission to serve and protect the people. Sept. 9, 2002, 7:01PM VIEWPOINTS Bradford indictment flap He should turn in badge If Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford lied about something as mundane as using profanity, is it any wonder that he and the Houston Police Department have lost credibility? I don't condone swearing, but if he lied about that, then what else has he lied about? For example, did he lie to the Houston City Council when he told them he did not know ahead of time about the Kmart raid? No matter what the outcome of this indictment, he has tainted the reputation of our police department. The best thing he can do for Houston is to resign. Mike Dietrich, Houston Indict him for stupidity The indictment of Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford for perjury is unbelievable. I have seen enough R-rated cop movies to know that cops have foul mouths and do a lot of yelling at their subordinates. This should not come as a big surprise. Of course, if Bradford lied about the cursing, it was an incredibly dumb thing to do. So indict the man for stupidity -- not perjury. Make the punishment fit the crime, please. Terence Vinson, Houston City needs assurances Both the Sept. 9 cartoon by C.P. Houston, about the grand jury investigation into the Kmart raid, and Bill Coulter's Sept. 9 Editorial Page column, "Brown needs to reassure Houstonians," hit the nail on the head. 9/10/02 Page 3 of 3 The Kmart sting operation and previous questionable activities of the Houston Police Department demand local investigations and legislative studies into the patterns and practices -- not the policies and procedures -- that are currently going on in the city. Houstonians must be assured of the service and the protection being provided by the HPD. Marilyn Head, president, Corpus Justice, Houston Bigger issues on radar For a Harris County grand jury to indict Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford for not owning up to using profanity towards his staffwas ludicrous, especially in light of former Earon chief Ken Lay and other officers of Enron who are still running around with no indictments, even though they put so many people out of work. The problem is a grand jury appointed by conservative and partisan judges who have no right to indict over something so trivial. There are far bigger issues to be concerned with. Keith Guillory, Bellaire 9/10/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 12:36 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] [Calif Law Enforcement] War Room's Eyes Out for Terror (& links to drugs crime) LATimes 9 10 02 [California Law Enforcement] War Room's Eyes Out for Terror ~ Safety: Data center links the intelligence gathering of police agencies statewide. By WILLIAM OVEREND, TIMES STAFF WRITER Hidden away in an industrial park in the City of Commerce is the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center for Los Angeles County. The sign near the entrance says it all: "War Room." Inside, on the walls, are four large screens, pinpointing major law enforcement operations in progress. On a busy day, about a dozen computer operators are needed to track it all. This isn't something out of a Tom Clancy book, where high-level officials watch secret operations as they unfold via satellite feed. At least not yet. The technology is limited: the computers, a couple of TVs, the large Iocator screens. But officials say this is a crucial part of California's post-9/11 anti-terror network, intended to link 100,000 law enforcement officers around the state. If a terrorist network in California is ever to be found, state officials think the break might come at this grass-roots level. And the California Anti-Terrorism information Center, or CATIC, could provide intelligence that paves the way. "It's probably the one element in the whole anti-terror structure that's going to give us the one nugget we need someday, that final piece of the puzzle," said George Vinson, chief anti-terror advisor to Gov. Gray Davis. "That's because the information coming into CATIC is coming from street cops who are out there. While the FBI may end up putting 80% of the puzzle together with the high-level intelligence it gathers, I think it's going to ultimately come down to the cop on the street who notices something strange one day." In addition to the Los Angeles County center, there are now special state DepaKment of Justice task force operations scattered throughout the state. There is another room like this in Sacramento, and there are offices in Fresno, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose and Shasta counties. The California Anti-Terrorism Information Center system is one of three components in the state's homeland defense network, Vinson said. At the highest level are Joint Terrorism Task Forces run by the FBI, involving the CIA and all major urban police agencies. Those groups are deluged daily with secret global, national and local intelligence. Then come regional response teams known as Terrorist Early Warning Groups, often headed by local sheriffs. These are assigned the job of coordinating the immediate response to any terrorist incident. "We become the intelligence arm at the street level for everybody else," said Ed Manavian, chief of the criminal intelligence bureau for the state Department of Justice. "We work anything, and once we find something we pass it along." The California Anti-Terrorism Information Center links them all. Right after Sept. 11, state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer gave Manavian responsibility for putting the center together. To move fast, he borrowed from existing law enforcement systems whenever possible. Area police chiefs already had a drug-tracking system available through the Los Angeles County Regional Criminal information Clearinghouse, and the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center was allowed to share one of its rooms in the City of Commerce. On any given day, symbols flashing on the room's large screens show hundreds of drug raids and stakeouts in progress just in the Los Angeles County area. The screens might locate one or two anti-terrorist investigations. Officials expect it will pretty much stay that way. Manavian sees drug dealing and terrorism as a natural pairing. He believes that Al Qaeda terrorists entering California 9/10/02 Page 2 of 2 would have to, at some point, hook up with local drug dealers linked to the Middle East or possibly to East European crime groups that would have the kind of money needed to help hide and protect the terrorists. At the moment, a particular interest is the Middle Eastern dominance in the smuggling of pseudoephedrine, a main ingredient of methamphetamine, into the United States from Canada, where it is not illegal. A couple of major busts in that area could help produce an important informant or two down the line, Manavian said. That's often how secret organizations are ultimately penetrated. Meanwhile, a major preoccupation for Manavian and other top state and federal anti-terror officials is keeping communication lines open and avoiding the kind of turf problems that arise frequently among rival law enforcement agencies. At all levels, officials say, there has been so much intelligence to process this year that they have suffered from information overload at times. But they are still at a stage where almost all tips must be checked. A major goal for this year is improving analysis capabilities. "It's as important that we get our information out as it is for them to get their information to us," said FBI Assistant Director Ron Iden, head of the Los Angeles division. "When anything strikes me as potentially important, I'm on the phone personally to the top people in the LAPD and the Orange County and Los Angeles [County] sheriff's departments. We all have to share on this one." Still, at least some of the top-secret information received by the FBI can be passed along only in general form for reasons of national security. That was one reason for another decision made by Manavian and top officials immediately after Sept. 11: They refused to accept any information that could not also be legally passed on to the public. "We don't want people in the dark," said Vinson, the governor's chief anti-terrorism advisor. "If there is a threat anywhere, law enforcement will know about it. We will give it to them if they ask or not." 9/10/02 Page I of 1 Marian Karr From: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin by Email [feedback@newschoice.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 12:38 PM To: Suelqq@aol.com Subject: Police file new challenge to study This article was emailed to you at the request of: 3ohn Murphy - jemurphy909@earth!ink.com The sender included the follwing brief message: Sue, FYI. More to come. L!ok to this article Link to Inland Valle~y Daily Bulletin Police file new challenge to stud Claremont issue involves racial profiling By L.C. GREENE, STAFF WRTTER Thursday, August 15, 2002- POMONA ~- The city of Claremont had no right to unilaterally implement a police racial profiling study without first entering into labor negotiations, a Claremont Police Officers Association attorney said in court documents filed Thursday. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge is expected to rule today on the association's attempt to stop the survey that began July 1. It is scheduled to run 15 months. Attorneys for the city in their Thursday filing argued that city and police administrators maintain the managerial right to determine whether police officers employ racial profiling when targeting motorists. The survey requires officers to record several pieces of information after every traffic stop, including the driver's race or ethnicity, age, gender, and city of residence. The Claremont Police Commission devised the study and recommended its implementation in response to community concerns voiced after a :1999 officer-involved fatal shooting of a young black motorist. A Claremont Graduate University doctoral candidate, working in conjunction with City Manager Glenn Southard, is overseeing the study. The cities of San Jose, Oakland and Riverside have also conducted traffic stop studies, though Ciaremont's is apparently the first to be challenged on grounds it dramatically impacts police officers' jobs. The study effectively alters officers' conditions and terms of employment while introducing additional avenues for performance evaluations, association attorney Michael Morgues wrote in his Thursday brief. However, Richard Kreisler, an attorney for the city, argued the racial profiling study created no significantly new duties for officers. L.C. Greene can be reached by e-mail at I_greene~dailybulletin,~om or by phone at (909) 485-9357_ 9/I 1/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin by Email [feedback@newschoice.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 12:42 PM To: Suelqq@aol.com Subject: Judge lets racial profilin9 study continue This article was emailed to you at the request of: John Murphy - jemurphygO9@earth!ink,net The sender included the follwing brief message: FY! Link to this arCide Link to Inland VaJle~Dailv Bulletin 3udge lets racial profilingLstudy continue Claremont police challenged procedure By L.C. GREENE STAFF WR~TER Thursday~ August 22~ 2002 - CLAREMONT -- A Superior Court judge denied Wednesday a Claremont Police union petition to stop a study to determine whether city officers use racial profiling when stopping motorists. The 15-month traffic stop survey does not impose significantly new responsibilities on officers, as the association contended, and therefore did not require union bargaining prior to implementation, .ludge Conrad Aragon wrote in a 7-page ruling. In addition, the study's objective, to detect possible racial profiling, suggests the project falls within the scope of management's rights to set standards and determine methods of operation, Aragon said. "We felt strongly we had the right to do this as a policy issue,' Councilwoman Sandra Baldonado said in response to the ruling. "! was happy to see the judge felt the same way.' The Claremont Police Officers Association was disappointed by Aragon's decision, said association attorney Deiter Dammeier. "T will be recommending they appeal the decision for the benefit of our officers and officers throughout the state,' he said. Tn his ruling, the judge clearly agreed the traffic survey impacted officers' duties, Dammeier said. With terms and conditions of employment affected, the city should have been obligated to negotiate with the union, he said. The survey, which began .]uly 1, requires officers to record several pieces of information during every traffic stop, including noting the driver's race or ethnicity, age, gender and city of residence. The Claremont Police Commission devised the study and recommended its implementation in response to community concerns voiced after a :~999 officer-involved fatal shooting of a young black motorist. The traffic stop forms take only two minutes to complete and thus imposes no significant burden on the officers, Aragon said in his ruling. Union attorneys had also argued the traffic stop study increases officers' exposure to discipline, and as such, should have required union bargaining. While agreeing to some degree with the association's contention, Aragon said, "The slightly increased exposure to discipline is outweighed by the study's intended benefits.' 9/11/02 Page 2 of 2 The court's ruling will do little to help police administrators in their efforts to increase traffic ticket production in the city, Dammeier said. Last year, the number of citations issued dropped by about half over the previous year. "I don't think this will help morale/ Dammeier said. Councilman Llewlyn Miller also expressed concern regarding what he termed officer cooperation. "I hope this won't affect anything,' he said. L.C. Greene can be reached via e-mail at I_greene~dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-9337. 9/11/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Pierce Murphy [LPMurphy@cityofboise.org] Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 3:14 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] More On Denver PD's Secret Files Denver in an Uproar Over Police 'Spy' Files Law: Dossiers on people and 'criminal extremist groups' are called an invasion of privacy. The data are being made public before purging. By TOM GORMAN TIMES STAFF WRITER September 10 2002 DENVER -- Sister Antonia Anthony, 74, found herself in the files, characterized as a member ora "criminal extremist group." Great-grandmother Helen Henry, 82, was in there too, with the notation that her Toyota sedan was affixed with a "Free Leonard Peltier" bumper sticker. Both had aroused the suspicions of the Denver Police Department, which has maintained dossiers on about 3,200 individuals and 208 organizations that it believed bore watching. When the files were discovered this spring, the ensuing uproar, from the mayor on down, compelled the department to get rid of them. But first, the department was advised, the subjects of files should be given a copy so they could learn what the police had on them. The release of the so-called spy files began last week, and more than 300 people jammed police headquarters, wondering whether they were the focus of police intelligence. Representatives of 70 groups also showed up. Some with police files were angered by what they said was an invasion of privacy. It harked back to longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's extensive files on the rich, famous and politically active; it also echoed concerns that America's war on terrorism has turned back the clock on civil liberties. Others dismissed the files' contents as laughable. "It's the KGB-meets-Keystone Kops," said Stephen Nash, the subject of an 18-page file because he is active in Amnesty International and two local police watchdog organizations. Anthony's apparent offense: The Catholic peace and justice advocate is co-founder of the local Chiapas Coalition, campaigning for the civil rights of the indigenous people in that Mexican state. In her file, police noted that her organization was working to overthrow the Mexican government. "All we're trying to do is raise consciousness about how U.S. economic, military and political policy decisions are having an impact on the lives of the indigenous people of Chiapas," she said. The American Civil Liberties Union learned of the existence of the files in March as it was pursuing a civil- 9/11/02 Page 2 of 3 rights lawsuit. The ACLU is now suing the city over the database, with depositions in the federal civil case scheduled to begin this week. Because of the pending litigation, city officials are saying little. Mark S ilverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado, said the gravity of the files, developed largely by police monitoring attendance at rallies, protests and political activist meetings, should not be discounted. "People should be able to participate in a peaceful rally without fear their names will wind up in police files, falsely branded as criminal extremists," he said. "Individuals will be less likely to join a protest or rally if they fear they will be branded and smeared with these false labels as being considered sinister, dangerous or deviant." Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb, empathetic because he was identified in FBI files as a young political activist, convened a panel of three judges that reviewed each file and concluded that many should be purged as useless and improper. Only those that contain bona fide information pertaining to criminal investigations, as deemed by an independent analyst, will be kept. "It was very clear that something went wrong here," said mayoral spokesman Andrew Hudson. "The obvious downside of this entire thing, beyond the absurdity of keeping files on people who shouldn't be in files, is that it fuels people who already are so full of conspiracy theories, in an era of government distrust. "Intelligence work is necessary, but has to be done right and in a way in which civil liberties aren't trampled." The computer database was created in 1999 when the Police Department culled about 100,000 "Rolodex records" compiled since the early 1950s and transferred the most recent ones into its computer system. After the ACLU's revelations, city officials ordered the files purged from police computers, after first making them available through Nov. 1 to those named in the files. Critics worry that people won't know whether files exist on them unless they personally request the information. C.L. Harmer, spokeswoman for the city's Public Safety Department, said that those named in the files are not being notified for fear of contacting the wrong person. Sheepish city officials admit the files reflect a police intelligence strategy gone awry, exacerbated by a new computer system that prompted poorly trained clerks to mischaracterize organizations as "criminal extremists" because it was one of the few options in the software's menu. "We are not as mean-spirited as some might think," Harmer said. "There was a fracture in the computerized database" that is now being corrected. The Police Department has responded coolly to the controversy. "We've issued no oops-we-blew-it statement," said Lt. Steven Carter, department spokesman. "We're releasing the files because they don't need to be stored any longer." He said that the department will still maintain intelligence files on people who arc suspected or convicted of criminal activity, but that the new criteria for inclusion will be strict. An outside consultant will review the files on a quarterly basis to ensure that only those with a criminal nexus will be maintained, Harmer said. The files have angered some, but have been applauded by others. "You've got to worry about our freedom and right to privacy when you hear about this," said Doc Green, who tends an upscale downtown bar. "I know we're at war, but our civil liberties are slipping away." 9/11/02 Page 3 of 3 Businessman Paul Rusin said he wasn't bothered by the files. "If the police are keeping records of protesters, that's part of their job," he said. "People who are vocal should expect to be looked at. If they protest at the state Capitol, the police will want to know who and what theyYe dealing with. The times are changing, my friend." Henry, the great-grandmother, was ambivalent about her inclusion in the files. She's not even sure why she was ofpolice interest, but she had organized the Unitarian Universalist Network on Indigenous Affairs. Her Pelfier bumper sticker supported the American Indian activist who is serving two consecutive life sentences for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Having a file "might have bothered me 40 years ago, but it doesn't now," Henry said. "The police are just doing their job." If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to www~lats.com/rights. Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times 9/11/02 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 1:13 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Indy: [Sheriffs] Deputy Review Panel Proposed Indianapolis Star [Sheriffs] Deputy review panel is proposed Councilman recommends a body like the one that airs allegations of misconduct against IPD. By Tom Spalding tom~spa!ding@indystar~com September 10, 2002 City-County Councilman Bill Soards announced a proposal Monday to establish a special panel to review complaints against Marion County sheriffs deputies. Soards' proposal has the backing of the Sheriff's Department. He'll introduce it at a council meeting Monday, recommending a system that mimics the Citizens Police Complaint Board, which investigates allegations of misconduct against Indianapolis police officers. IPD's complaint board, now 13 years old, has served as an outlet recently for citizens upset at what they termed rude behavior by some traffic patrol officers during the Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration. "This new board would give community leaders and regular citizens the opportunity in a public forum to lend insight, give suggestions and raise concerns within the Marion County Sheriffs Department," Soards said. About 110 law enforcement agencies in the United States have an ombudsman or some type of outside review system. Sheriffs Col. Larry Logsdon says the citizens panel concept is endorsed 100 percent by the Sheriffs department. Last year, the department held a series of crime summits in the suburban townships. And while residents in those summits gave the Sheriffs Department a 90 percent job approval rating, they also asked for the review board. Citizens wanted involvement after businessman John Leaf was killed by a deputy investigating a burglary report at Leafs Nora apartment in May 2001 "What we've found out is, on controversial issues people say they want to talk to somebody who is a lay person, who sees it as a lay person from another perspective," Logsdon said, "and not a police officer (taking the word) of another police officer." Vince Huber, first vice president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 86, said officers prefer peer review because of the complex nature of policing. But Soards' proposal includes 36 hours of mandatory annual training in police procedures plus time spent riding with a deputy to get a feel for the job. Nine of the 11 board members would each represent one of the county's townships. "If they do that, I don't think we'd have a problem," Huber said. The department would continue to conduct its own internal probes and recommend disciplinary action when warranted. Deputies may not have much to fear. Only 8 percent of the 889 written complaints of police misconduct filed with the Citizens Police Complaint Board since 1997 against IPD have been upheld. Yet, Chris Reeder, who is executive director of that board, said the reassurance the public receives by having an objective outlet "is part of it." "It's probably long overdue for the Sheriffs Department," Reeder said. "Those are allegations, but there needs to be somebody to address those." Call Tom Spalding at 1-317-327-7939. 9/11/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 1:14 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Claremont Ca Commission Faces Issue of Agendas http://www !atimes.com/!~-!vo-po!ice09sepO~story Commission faces issue of agendas Claremont police committee enters second term with lingering questions over its mission. By Tipton Blish Inland Valley Voice September 9 2002 CLAREMONT -- The Police Commission is beginning its second term with two new members, new leadership and, after 18 months, a mission that remains sketchily defined. "It's apparent that the commission is on a learning curve, as I will be," said Muriel O'Brien, one of two new commissioners. She attended her first meeting Thursday and quickly made her presence known. O'Brien, 80, whose tone is that of the Royal Air Force in which she served during World War II, rebuked the commission for how it set its agenda, told her colleagues they needed to be setting priorities and goals and jumped in to answer questions from the public. The second addition is Gary Soto, an education consultant who spent eight years on the Human Services Commission. He, too, spoke out frequently and fought a proposal by Commissioner Stuart Holmes to give the panel veto power over its agenda. The appointments of Soto and O'Brien were opposed by City Councilman Llewellyn Miller. According to Miller, the Police Commission should include members who either believe or have experienced directly that police are capable of abusing their power. At the commission meeting Thursday, audience members called on the commission to distance itself from the Police Department. "1 would have a hard time sitting on a commission that doesn't work collaboratively with both the department -- its management and its officers -- and the community," Soto said. Much of the first meeting of the second term was spent trying to decide the governance of the monthly agendas that define the work of the commission. For its entire first term, the commission was consumed with creating a traffic-stop study that is part of an examination of whether Claremont police officers use racial profiling. What the commission does next is unclear. Because it has no set responsibilities, it is up to panel members to set the agenda, Miller said. The ordinance that created the commission "was rather skeletal about its mission, and the direction [it takes] is driven by who is appointed," he said. The commission picked Richard Fass, one of the drivers of the traffic-stop study, as its new chairman. He succeeded Helaine Goldwater, who stepped down and who has said that she had problems getting issues on the agenda. The veteran commissioners all said that there were issues over the last 18 months that they wanted to talk about but didn't make it into a meeting. City Manager Glenn Southard, attending his second commission meeting, promised that anything that the commission, the public or the Police Department wanted to raise would be considered. The commission is one of the most watched and controversial in the city. It was created over the furor following a January 1999 police shooting of an 18-year-old black man during a traffic stop, and with the way the city handled the aftermath. In the years after the shooting the Police Department was accused of racial profiling, a charge that officers vigorously deny 9/11/02 Page 2 of 2 and that city officials believe is unfounded. Nevertheless, the Police Commission was born out of that climate, Miller points out. The commission was created after months of hearings over the department's attitude toward racial and ethnic minorities. And questions about the city and the department that were raised in the hearings won't be answered if commissioners dismiss even the possibility of police abuse, he said. "That is why we have one ia commission] in the first place," he said. "My understanding is that it was a result of hearings and that there were a lot of accounts of questionable encounters with the police by community residents and the suggestion was that some of that might be based on race. "One of the first questions you might want to answer is: Is there any truth to it? And: What are you going to do about it?" That is why Miller voted against Soto's and O'Brien's appointments. Soto vigorously defended himself against any suggestion that he was an insider. His being Latino and gay put him far outside the mainstream, he said, and sensitive to how minorities are treated. VVhat the Police Commission will do in its second term will be determined by the newly configured membership. The traffic study is nearing the end of its first three-month trial period -- although it has been challenged in court by the police officers' union. Former Police Commissioner John Murphy said he believes that the commission should turn to how new police officers are recruited to the department. Another place to watch is how officers are evaluated once in the department, he said. At last week's meeting, Murphy harangued his former colleagues about cultural sensitivity in the department, saying that although city documents suggest officers are expected to be culturally sensitive, none of the evaluation forms measure that. Southard interrupted the conversation to concede that Murphy was right. He then vowed that police officers would, in the future, be evaluated for racial and cultural sensitivity -- as would the rest of the city work force. 9/11/02 The Citypaper, Philadelphia, PA September 5-11, 2002 cover story On Edge Among other things, Philly's former top cop thinks Ashcroft must go. by 3ohn F. Timoney photo by michael t. regan *********** Over the past year, I have been interviewed countless times, here and abroad, about the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. The questions ranged from silly to profound and Ym sure that some of my answers were less than satisfactory. It's difficult to assess and analyze major events of this kind on the fly; it's even more difficult and perilous to predict the future. What is less difficult is to measure the impact of that horrific day on the United States and to assess the government's response from a law enforcement and security perspective. Early attempts to assess the damage inflicted on Sept. 11 were concerned mainly with the number of lives lost and the economic impact. Both of these are relatively easy to measure, but the former was completely overestimated while the latter was widely underestimated. The early estimate of 7,000 killed was eventually reduced to a still-shocking 3,000. The initial predictions of the economic impact show how little the experts really know. What we viewed originally as a strike with limited impact, affecting mainly Lower Manhattan, we now know has had -- and continues to have -- national and international repercussions. Lastly, the impact on the American psyche, especially on New Yorkers, is incalculable. You would be hard-pressed to find an American who does not think that there will be another terrorist attack sooner or later. A "one year later" poll by the New York Daily News found that the vast majority of New Yorkers are sure there will be another attack. Thus, a year later, most New Yorkers -- and ! daresay most Americans -- are still on edge. it appears that the institutions most responsible for reassuring Americans, from politicians to police to the private sector, have not done a very good job. The private sector, specifically those concerned with security, reacted, much like their counterparts in law enforcement, by throwing bodies at the problem. There was a need to convince employees that the company cared and would spend whatever was necessary to reassure scared workers. The Wall Street Journal estimated that corporate spending on security would jump from $45 billion to $80 billion or even $100 billion. Had corporate spending continued unabated from Fall 200:~, the Journal would have been right. By the end of the year, however, and with no new terrorist strike, corporations began to analyze and annualize their security costs, quickly concluded that these security measures were too costly and began to cut them. The further we moved from 9/ll, the greater the cuts. To be fair, corporations continue to spend more on security than they did before Sept. 1:~, but a lot less than they did last fall. While this may be understandable, what is unforgivable is the complacent attitude that is emerging in some businesses. Some feel that the further we move from 9/1~, the safer we are. But the average American believes that the further we move from 9/:11, the closer we are to the next attack. There is only one thing that could have prevented the Sept. ~1 terrorist attack: good, hard, reliable intelligence. While ! had many visceral reactions to the attack, my main professional reaction was to wonder how it could have happened. How could all four hijacking teams have escaped detection on the ground? How could we have been caught by surprise? Whose fault was it? A year later, some of my questions have been answered, though not satisfactorily. One thing is very clear; there was a massive failure of our intelligence gathering arrangements, especially at the national and international level. As the national media and the U.S. Senate and House oversight committees began to ask questions, the biggest lie in law enforcement was exposed, the notion that all law enforcement agencies work well together. At the national, state and local levels, the law enforcement community appeared to be dysfunctional, non-communicative and uncooperative. Turf battles abounded and egos ruled the day. It was clear that the notion of a corporate approach to fighting crime was pure fiction. Whether the mission or target was a drug kingpin, a mafia boss and his organization, or a terrorist cell committed to the destruction of the United States, individual agencies tended to act as individuals rather than cooperative teams. Embarrassed by these revelations, federal law enforcement agencies, especially the FBI, pledged to improve their working relationships with others in federal, state, and local police agencies. To be fair, there have been some improvements in the last year, but big city police chiefs still complain that it can take as long as three months to get a colleague cleared to receive classified intelligence information. As far as ! am concerned, in the days and weeks following the attack, President Bush said and did all the right things. He articulated the anger and resolve of the average American. He made a great decision in choosing Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge to head the Homeland Security Office. Unfortunately, as the months passed, the steady hand of the President in the fight against terrorism was replaced by the not-so-stable figure of Attorney General Ashcroft. The promise of more effective homeland security has not materialized; there have been too many internal squabbles and ego wars. The scope of this vital office, including its organizational structure, remains a mystery almost a year later. The promised report on Homeland Security due out this summer remains a mystery as summer ends. The biggest disappointment of the past year has been the failure of the Justice Department under 3ohn Ashcroft to convince the American public that the war on terrorism can be conducted with minimal infringement on civil liberties. Time and again the attorney general has attempted to push the envelope regarding the powers of federal law enforcement and prosecution, except when they are opposed by his friends in the N.R.A. How else can he square his refusal to allow the FBI to check the "Active Terrorist Watch List" against gun purchasers' background-check lists, even though Justice Department lawyers have advised him that such checks were lawful? He further alienated and embarrassed FBI veterans by announcing to the world, on television, the arrest of a Iow level Chicago gang member as if he were in the top tier of al-Qaeda. John Ashcroft has clearly become an embarrassment to the administration and President Bush should fire him, name Tom Ridge to replace him as attorney general and appoint retiring Senator Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) to head the Office of Homeland Security. To paraphrase the president, what a trifecta! John Timoney was Philadelphia Po/ice Commissioner from 1998-2001, and is currently CEO of Beau Dietl & Associates in New York City. ~) -- Respond to this addcle in our Forums -- click to jump there Use of Administrative Hearing Officers Page 1 of 1 Marian Kart From: Bytof, Linda [LRBytof@oaklandnet.com] Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 3:30 PM To: 'Update@nacole.org' Subject: [NACOLE Update] Use of Administrative Hearing Officers The City of Oakland, California Citizens' Police Review Board (CPRB) is considering using paid, contract Administrative Hearing Officers to hear and make findings and recommendations on selected complaints of police misconduct. Other cases would be heard by a Mayoral-appointed citizen Board, mediated, referred without hearing to the City Manager, and closed administratively. CPRB hearings are public and hearings before Administrative Hearing Officers would also be public. We are interested in learning whether any other oversight agency uses Administrative Hearing Officers to hear police misconduct cases and make findings and recommendations, and if so, experiences with the process. We are also interested in any feedback on the benefits and/or drawbacks of this procedure. Thank you. Linda R. Bytof, Manager Citizens' Police Review Board Office of the City Manager City of Oakland One Frank Ogawa Plaza. 11th Floor Oakland, CA 94612 Telephone: (510) 238-6909 Fax: (510) 238-7585 Emafl: Irbytof@oaklandnet. com 9/12/02 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Pierce Murphy [LPMurphy@cityofboise.org] Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 9:02 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Police In Ukraine Torture 30% of Detainees BBC Monitoring Service, September 12, 2002: Ukraine police tortures 30 per cent of detainees - ombudsman Kiev, 12 September: No less than 30 per cent of Ukrainian citizens detained for various reasons suffer tortures at the hands of police, Ukrainian ombudswoman Nina Karpachova said today at a joint news conference with her Russian counterpart, Oleg Mironov. According to Karpachova, many politicians cannot even imagine the full scale of the problem. Most of the cases happen at the district police stations, she said. "I consider it my professional priority to protect people from tortures inflicted by police," Karpachova said. In her view, the term of preliminary detention in Ukraine should be cut down from three to two days, which will reduce the scale of the problem. Karpachova also said that 450 Russian citizens were being kept in Ukrainian remand centres. Another 1,650 Russians are serving their time in corrective labour institutions in Ukraine and 3,676 Ukrainians are being kept in similar institutions in Russia. Source: UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian © BBC Monitoring 9/13/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 10:55 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LAPD Probe Implicates Ex Official (Retired Deputy Chief) in Corruption LAPD Probe Implicates Ex-Official . ~ Police: Report supports claim that former deputy chief aided son's drug ring. He denies it. 9 13 -2 LATimes By SCO'VF GLOVER and MATT LAIT, TIMES STAFF WRITERS A recently retired deputy chief from the Los Angeles Police Department was, for at least seven years, an active player in his son's cress-country cocaine ring, helping to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit profits, a confidential LAPD report alleges. Deputy Chief Maudce Moore, who retired earlier this year as one of the LAPD's highest-ranking officials, allegedly retrieved, delivered, stored and then laundered drug money through real estate transactions for his son, who orchestrated the operation from federal prison, according to the LAPD's internal investigation, a copy of which was obtained by The Times. "His misconduct represents the worst in public corruption," the report states. Moore, 67, denied any wrongdoing through his attorney. LAPD investigators based their findings on real estate and escrow documents, court bond papers, city financial disclosure forms, statements from FBI informants and interviews with people convicted in connection with the drug ring, according to the LAPD report. Interim Police Chief Martin Pomeroy has reviewed the report and has requested further analysis before deciding whether to sustain six allegations against Moore, according to a department spokesman. Those allegations include money laundering and a violation of LAPD rules known as maintaining improper relationships with people involved in "an ongoing criminal enterprise." Although some of the allegations in the report, if true, would constitute crimes, the statute of limitations for many of them has passed. As a result, the only practical effect of the LAPD recommendations, if upheld by Pomeroy, would be to retroactively reprimand the retired deputy chief. To sustain an administrative sanction, department officials must believe a preponderance of evidence supports a guilty finding. That burden of proof is lower than is required in criminal court cases, which require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Moore's alleged criminal conduct first came to the attention of federal agents who were investigating his son, Kevin Moore, in the mid-1990s. At the time, Kevin Moore was in federal prison serving a 13-year sentence for cocaine trafficking. Despite his incarceration, Kevin Moore continued running a major drug network, for which he was later convicted. Federal agents' suspicions about the elder Moore were aroused when they searched the house of Kevin Moore's wife and found a photograph of a smiling Maurice Moore seated behind the wheel of his son's antique Mercedes-Benz Gullwing, a car that can sell for more than $200,000. As the federal investigation into Kevin Moore's prison activities continued, agents interviewed an informant who implicated Maurice Moore in the picking up and dropping off of drug money. Federal agents later suspected that Kevin Moore's drug money had helped underwrite five real estate transactions, three of which directly related to Maurice Moore. Then, the LAPD findings state, when it became clear that he was facing a significant prison term, Kevin Moore thought about making a deal. "According to the FBI, Kevin admitted the involvement of Deputy Chief Maurice Moore and at one point was willing to testify against family members in return for some type of deal," the LAPD report states. Ultimately, however, Kevin Moore refused to cooperate. 9/13/02 Page 2 of 3 "It appears that he has been as loyal to his father as his father has been to him," the report states. The federal investigation lost steam when Kevin Moore refused to cooperate. It further stalled when the informant, who was Kevin Moore's ex-wife, failed a polygraph test. Still, on Dec. 3, 1999, the FBI sent a letter to then-Chief Bernard C. Parks alerting him to agents' suspicions that Maurice Moore was involved in a major drug ring. The FBI's information on Moore was delivered to Chief Parks in the midst of the then-ballooning Rampart corruption scandal, with its allegations of unjustified shootings, beatings, evidence planting and drug dealing by a gang of rogue cops. Despite the allegations against Maurice Moore, Parks allowed the deputy, whom Parks had promoted into that job, to help direct the department's official inquiry into the Rampart revelations. Meanwhile, the LAPD's investigation into Maurice Moore's alleged drug activities languished, in part because the FBI was slow to turn over some of its confidential reports on the investigation, according to LAPD documents. Nonetheless, the LAPD should have pursued the case more vigorously on its own, the report states. Former LAPD Cmdr. Thomas Lorenzen, who wrote the report on the department's internal investigation of Maurice Moore, said the deputy chief should have been immediately relieved of duty based on the information provided by the FBI in December 1999. "There should have been a joint FBI-LAPD investigation team put in place and this matter should have been thoroughly and immediately investigated," said Lorenzen, who retired from the LAPD in July and is now chief of police in Taos, N.M. "1 don't understand why this was managed the way it was," said Lorenzen, who assumed control of the investigation in the spring of 2001. "If it would have been your average police officer, it would have been utterly different." Police Commission President Rick Caruso declined to discuss the contents of the report in detail, saying only that he was "really disturbed" not only by the allegations against Moore but also by the FBI and LAPD's handling of the case. Caruso added that he plans to introduce a motion at next week's commission meeting in which he will seek to turn the case over to the department's inspector general. Parks, who was denied a second term as chief and is now a City Council candidate, did not return calls seeking comment. Many of the most serious charges against Moore, such as conspiracy to launder money, are beyond the statute of limitations. Some lesser allegations, such as perjury, could still be prosecuted, law enforcement officials said. Although the allegations of misconduct can no longer affect Maurice Moore's career, they do threaten the reputation of a much-admired senior officer who spent 40 years with the LAPD. They also shed new light on the association between Moore and his son, whose drug-dealing conviction was unknown even to many senior LAPD colleagues of Maurice Moore. "As a blood relation, Deputy Chief Moore's continued association with Kevin should not be viewed as consensual, as a son is always a son," the LAPD report states. "However, even such a relationship can become improper for a police officer when he or she becomes aware that the son is engaged in ongoing criminal activity." Maurice Moore should have notified the department of his son's legal problems when he was first sent to prison on drug charges in 1989, the reports states. The reason he did not, according to the report, "becomes more apparent as one looks deeper into Deputy Chief Moore's involvement with Kevin and some of his associates." Anna Moore, one of Kevin Moore's ex-wives, gave the FBI specific details related to dates, real estate purchases and money drops of her ex-husband's drug ring, as well as details of Maurice Moore's involvement. But when she was given a polygraph test, she failed one aspect of it. "Deception was detected over the amount of money [she said was] delivered to and from Deputy Chief Moore," the LAPD report states. "W~th this exception, [her] statements were consistent with documents, timetables, arrests and statements of other subjects related to this investigation." Anna Moore and another onetime wife of Kevin Moore's, Teresa Moore, "each separately cited numerous instances of Deputy Chief Moore delivering and retrieving large sums of money for Kevin," according to the LAPD report. "Indeed, until 1997, much of the money was delivered to and stored at the house of Deputy Chief Moore's ex-wife Donna Moore." Donna Moore could not be reached for comment Thursday. 9/13/02 Page 3 of 3 According to a letter from the FBI to the LAPD, Anna Moore told federal agents that Maurice Moore collected a total of about $1.9 million in illegal drug proceeds from cocaine customers who owed Kevin Moore. In addition to collecting drug money, the LAPD report alleges that Maurice Moore helped launder it, investing it in legitimate enterprises. According to Anna Moore, Maurice Moore provided $200,000 of alleged drug money for a down payment on a four- bedroom house with a swimming pool she purchased in Cheviot Hills. The property was later deeded to Maurice Moore in 1992. Years later, when Kevin Moore entered a plea deal in connection with his drug-trafficking case, he listed the property--still under his father's name--as his personal asset. Another property under Maurice Moore's name, but listed by Kevin Moore as his own, was an apartment complex in Los Angeles. According to the LAPD, Maurice Moore received $90,000 from Anna Moore for the down payment. Maurice Moore later put up the property as collateral for a bond to get Anna Moore and her sister out of jail when they were indicted on money wire fraud charges, according to documents. At the end of LAPD report, then Cmdr. Lorenzen noted his concern that action was not taken against Maurice Moore several years ago, thus allowing him to continue serving as a deputy chief for several years before his retirement. "Unfortunately for the department, we may never know if Deputy Chief Moore's association with his son tainted his on- duty activities," Lorenzen stated. "We certainly know now that the case was managed poorly from the beginning. Better decisions could have been made regarding this case." 9/I 3/02 Marian Karr From: Jacqueline Thomason [jackiett@mindspringcom] Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 12:38 PM To: Update@nacole,org Subject: [NACOLE Update] use of 3-member panels for medium priority cases My city is considering several alternatives to facilitate the hearing of citizen complaints in a timely manner and to reduce the backlog of complaints. One alternative being looked at is the use of 3-member panels to hear cases judged by a screening panel to be of medium priority. These panels would report their findings to the full board for ratification. More serious cases would continue to be heard by the full board. We are interested in hearing from other agencies that uses such panels to hear police misconduct cases about what their experiences have been. In particular, what have been the benefits and drawbacks, and has the process facilitated the agencies' hearing more cases? Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this matter. Jacqueline Thomason jackiett@mindspring.com Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update nacole.org Marian Karr From: Pittinger, Beth [Beth. Pittinger@city.pittsburgh.pa.us] Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 2:15 PM To: 'NACOLE Mailing Fist' Subject: [NACOLE Update] Pittsburgh Consent Decree Partially Lifted Judge removes most federal oversight of police Friday, September 13, 2002 By Torsten Ove, Post-Gazette Staff Writer A federal judge today granted a request to lift most of the federal oversight of the Pittsburgh police force under a 1997 consent decree with the Justice Department. After listening to the parties involved present their opinions all morning, U.S. District Judge Robert Cindrich granted a joint motion filed by the city and the U.S. Justice Department to terminate the decree except for provisions governing the Office of Municipal Investigations. That office will continue to be monitored by James D. Ginger, a court- appointed auditor, who will begin conducting more comprehensive audits to address problems of staffing and training at OMI in an effort reduce a backlog of cases by Feb. 28, 2003. OMI conducts investigations into police complaints. Civil rights groups, who had helped spur the consent decree, had opposed lifting the oversight. Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://ganma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update_nacole.org Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Marilyn Head [corpus@evl.net] Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2002 12:04 AM To: NACOLE Subject: Police offices bought "no trespassing" signs. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1572957 Sept. 12, 2002, 11:06PM Signs point to more questions Trespassing placards bought on eve of raid By KRISTEN MACK Houston Chronicle A Houston police officer paid for "no trespassing" signs with his city credit card the day before a weekend of mass arrest, the city controller confirmed Thursday. Dilip Patel, budget coordinator for the Houston Police Department's South Central division, purchased $256.50 worth of signs on Aug. 15, coinciding with police raids of a westside Kmart, Sonic Drive-In and James Coney Island parking lots. Nearly 300 people were arrested for trespassing in early morning raids on Aug. 17 and 18. "It appears that the timing of the purchase raises a few eyebrows," said City Controller Sylvia Garcia. Councilwoman Ada Edwards sent a letter to Garcia's office Wednesday asking her to look into the purchase after council members received an anonymous call from a police officer alerting them that the police paid for the signs. The caller said Capt. Mark Aguirre ordered Patel to get 50 signs. Patel works in the South Central patrol division where Aguirre served as captain before he was suspended in connect with the arrests. Buying the signs is legal, but posting them on private property is not, because city funds cannot be spent for private use, city officials said. "I don't think the city of Houston should purchase 'no trespassing' signs to be placed on anything but city of Houston property," Garcia said. "If they went on private property, I would have concerns, and I think the taxpayers would have concerns." Garcia said her office will continue to look into the matter to determine if there was a violation of city policy or procedure. John Leggio, a Houston Police Department spokesman, said the purchase and placement of signs is part the department's internal affairs investigation and, therefore, he could not comment. 9/17/02 Page 2 of 2 "If it happened, it isn't kosher," Edwards said. "This is targeting a group of people and setting them up for criminalized behavior." Who bought the signs is secondary to the fact that the order was made, according to Councilman Bruce Tatro. "The people in the chain of command should not be condemned or held officially accountable," he said. "It should fall hard on Aguirre's shoulders." Police officers targeting drag racing along Westheimer rounded up 298 people and arrested them for trespassing during the August raids. Those charges are in the process of being dismissed. The city attorney's office said those who have already pleaded guilty can request that their convictions be set aside. Aguirre, a 23-year HPD veteran, is one of the 13 officers suspended in connection with the raids. 9/17/02 Marian Karr From: legalise_freedom [legalJse_freedom ~yahoo,com] Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 9:33 AM To: legalise_freedom@yahoogroups,com Subject: [legalise_freedom] Key West - Citizen Review Board May Make Ballot ........................ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ........................ > 4 DVDs Free +s&p Join Now http://us.click.yahoo.com/pt6YBB/NXiEAA/MVfIAA/FZTolB/TM The Committee for a Citizen's Review Board A Public Forum Newsletter Key West, Florida September 16, 2002 1) Citizen Review Board May Make Ballot 2) City Leaders Get a Second Chance at Public's Trust With Review Board Decision 3) Julio Eats Crow: Police Review Board Committee Gets Enough Verified Signatures To Put Question To Binding Referendum 4} Cop Charged With 2001 Battery Agrees To Deal 1) Citizen Review Board May Make Ballot The following article is reprinted in its entirety. It was published as a front page headline article September 5, 2002 by "The Key West Citizen" and was written by Peter Deluca: Wednesday night, the Key West city commission debated and voted on several issues that have caused a schism in the community. Racially charged agenda items like city redistricting and a recision of the 1964 Voters Rights Act of self determination were discussed calmly. A large crowd attended as expected, but not for the anticipated reasons. A committee formed to petition the commission to put an ordinance on the Nov. 5 ballot made up nearly half of the public assembly. Their purpose was to force a vote in November to see if Key West voters want to create a new city board to oversee complaints against police officers. While that committee did not make the deadline for inclusion in the agenda on Wednesday, commissioners agreed to put it on the Sept. 17 agenda. Ail six commissioners and Mayor Jimmy Weekely were present for the meeting. On the Mayor's resolution to request that the county ask the U.S. Department of Justice to eliminate its oversight authority over voting procedures in the county and its cities, little public opinion was offered, and none of the six commissioners said they would approve the issue. Weekely withdrew the resolution after Commissioner Tom Oosterhoudt said that he thought it was a "radical" idea, and Commissioner Jeremy Anthony said he thought it was senseless." Addressing the proposed "straw poll" referendum to decided how city commissioners and the mayor are elected, the public comments were 1 more forthcoming, but not much. The five or six people who spoke were all opposed to changing the "status quo" of single-member districts, and didn't feel the referendum was necessary. However, after making their opinions known to the public, a vote was taken and approved by a vote of six to one, with Carmen Turner casting the only dissenting vote. Resolutions passed unanimously were: 1) The approval of the street closing schedule for the upcoming poker run Sept. 20 and 21; 2) Asking the Florida Legislature to make excessive noise from a motorcycle exhaust system a moving violation; 3) Approval of a mural on the tool shed at 202 William St. at the Historic Seaport; and 4) Authorization of city staff to begin the purchasing process of certain Salt Pond properties owned by A.M. Adams and Joan Knight. To send your letter to the editor at the Key West Citizen: [Five hundred words, max.] Editor Tom Tuell 3420 Northside Drive Key West, Florida, 33040 (305) 292-7777 citizen@keysnews.com e-mail: info@keysnews.com 2) City Leaders Get a Second Chance at Public's Trust With Review Board Decision The following article is reprinted in its entirety. It was published as a friday editorial September 6, 2002 by "The Key West Citizen" and was written by Deborah Capraro - Assistant to the Editor: "I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives." -- Leo Tolstoi There is no denying the veracity of Tolstoi's statement regarding the previous stance taken by city officials on a Citizen Review Board of the Key West Police Department. For almost a year and in any forum available, we have heard most city officials and members of law enforcement vowing to oppose the idea to the bitter end. However, after having the "falsity of their conclusions" laid bare by the will of the people and a series of clearly unfavorable public events, it appears they have finally accepted that most "obvious truth" - independent oversight of the police force just may not be a bad idea. In a stunning turn of events Wednesday that can only be described as a complete about-face, the city commission, on the advice of the city attorney, agreed to put the question on the Sept. 17 agenda as an action item. This move would either allow the ordinance to become law if approved by the commission or pave the way for it to be taken to the people on the ballot this November. 2 Finally, a sincere, recognizable attempt at compromise. The main glitch for the commission in the ordinance as written is the issue of whether such a board should or could be endowed with subpoena power. While the "should" of it has been hotly debated since the idea's inception - with proponents seeing subpoena power as the teeth of the ordinance the "could" of it is currently being researched by both the city attorney and the Co~nittee for a Citizen's Review Board. It is the city's opinion that the inclusion of subpoena power in the ordinance may be illegal, thereby nullifying the entire effort. However, according to Sam Kaufman, co-chair of the couunittee, "No definitive case has yet been found in the State of Florida to support the city's assertion that subpoena power is illegal." Barring the discovery of such a precedent, the citizens of Key West may well have prevailed in their bid to be heard. The estimated annual cost of this measure, if passed, is another point upon which both sides disagree. The city manager has given a range of estimates over the course of these discussions ranging from $500,000 per year at the outset, to his now, considerably lower estimate of $250,000 per year. Conversely, as committee members continue working to provide a more realistic estimate based on a city of this size, they are confident that the cost will fall well below the city manager's recent conservative estimate. New lessons "have been taught to others" throughout this journey toward a more responsive government. Hopefully, these lessons will be "woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives" from this point forward: Your voice does count. You can make a difference. Perseverance definitely pays. Perhaps the most important lesson city officials should take from this experience is not to just pick up your marbles and go home. Restoring the public trust is a game worth hanging in there for. There are ways to play together without everyone leaving empty-handed and believe it or not, you came out of this one with an important victory - a second chance to make a first impression. To contact the author of th±s article send e-mail to: Deborah Capraro -- dcapraro@keysnews.com To send your letter to the editor at the Key West Citizen: [Five hundred words, max.] Editor Tom Tuell 3420 Northside Drive Key West, Florida, 33040 (305} 292-7777 citizen@keysnews.com e-mail: info@keysnews.com 3) Julio Eats Crow: Police Review Board Committee Gets Enough Verified Signatures To Put Question To Binding Referendum The following article is reprinted in its entirety. It was published as a page one commentary, on September 6, 2002 by "Key West The Newspaper" and was written by Dennis Reeves Cooper, Editor and Publisher: 3 City Commission Moving Quickly To Allow Voters To Decide in November The Committee for a Citizens Review Board served City Manager Julio Avael a huge helping of crow this week after Supervisor of elections Harry Sawyer announced that the committee had collected the required number of verified signatures to put the question of a citizens police oversight board to binding referendum. And, on Wednesday night, the City Commission took the first step to place the question on the November ballot. For weeks, Avael has been deriding the efforts of committee members, predicting that they would never get the required number of signatures because, he said, "there is absolutely no interest in creating such a board." So, in addition to eating his crow, he now has to eat his words. At the meeting on Wednesday, City Attorney Bob Tischenkel explained to the Commissioners the provisions in the City Charter that allows citizens to make law. Under the charter that allows citizens to make law. Under the charter, a group of citizens may draft a proposed ordinance and get 10 percent of the 13,320 registered voters in Key West 1332 - to sign a petition in support of the new proposed law. The proposed ordinance may then be presented to the City Commission. At that point, the Commission has two option: (1) pass it into law without changes or (2) place the question on the ballot and allow the people to decide. Tischenkel then told the Commissioners that Supervisor of Elections Sawyer had agreed to extend the deadline to get an item on the November ballot until after the Commission meeting on September 17. Commissioner Harry Bethel then placed the Citizen Review Board question on the agenda for that meeting - and recommended an unusual strategy. "I believe this question should go to the people," he said. "Although we have the option of voting to approve this proposed new ordinance on first reading at our next meeting, that would, in essence, keep the decision concerning a police oversight board from the people. I recommend that we agree to vote it down on September 17 - then vote to place the question on the November ballot." Commissioners Jeremy Anthony and Ed Scales supported that strategy, but Mayor Jimmy Weekely expressed concern about the potential cost of a citizens review board. Oosterhoudt said he has some reservations about the board having subpoena power. And Carmen didn't seem to have a clue about what was going on. Commissioner Merili McCoy was mum throughout the discussion, In response to questions about possible changes to the proposed ordinance, Tischenkel told the Co~nissioners, "You can't change it; under the Charter, you have to work with the question the voters saw when they signed the petition. You can vote it into law as is, or you can send it to binding referendum." Here is the question the voters saw when they signed the petition: "Shall an independent Citizens Review Board with subpoena power be created and adequately funded/staffed to review/investigate complaints involving police officers, even if other inquiries are underway, and forward findings/recommendations to city management, the State Attorney, other law enforcement agencies and/or Grand Juries? Four members shall be City Commission appointees, nominated 4 by community organizations; three additional members shall be selected by the original four members from applications from the general public." This question is supported by a six-page proposed ordinance developed from citizens police oversight models from other cities, information provided by the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, and Bill Smith, a Florida-based police oversight consultant. The ordinance outlines the duties and powers of the proposed board, criteria for appointment to the board, investigative procedures, as well as administrative details. "We are gratified that the City Commission appears to be moving so quickly on this issue," said Attorney Sam Kaufman, who co-chairs the Committee For a Citizens Review Board with Peggy Ward-Grant, a prominent activist in the black community. "This has been a real grassroots effort," said Ward-Grant. "Our committee members worked hard for three months to obtain the required number of signatures. Our critics told us it couldn't be done. I guess they were wrong." If Julio is concerned about the establishment of a strong citizens police oversight board he probably should be. It is a direct reflection on the job of police oversight he has been doing - or not doing - himself. Since Police Chief Buz Dillon reports to the City Manager, Julio has been, or should have been performing the citizens oversight function. But as the almost-daily scandals continue to emerge from Dillon's police department, it has become painfully obvious that Julio has not been doing his job. The buck stops at the top - and if Julio can't or won't oversee the police department, the citizens have taken the first step to do that for him. Since March, five officers have been arrested or forced to resign on charges ranging from brutality to falsification of information on arrest documents. Officer Michael Beerbower has been arrested twice during that period - both times for punching a handcuffed suspect in the face. Who is responsible for putting Beerbower back on the street after he beat up the first guy? Dillon and Avael, that's who. And who should shoulder the blame when the second guy Beerbower beat up sues the City into the ground? Dillon and Avael. Last March, Lt. A1 Flowers was forced to resign after he was caught ordering a subordinate to charge a suspect with a felony he didn't commit - a procedure we now know is standard practice within the Key West Police Department. But both Dillon and Avael had known about Flowers' rough policing style for years. In fact, right up to the end, Dillon was saying publicly that he wished he had a dozen officers like A1 Flowers. He apparently does - and he has taken no action to change that situation. City Commissioners who are now concerned that the citizens seem to be crarmming police oversight down their throats should not blame the citizens. They should blame Julio and Buz. And they should blame themselves for sitting by and allowing the situation to deteriorate to the present level. News tips and letters to the editor are welcome: Editor/ Publisher Dennis Reeves Cooper, Ph.D. $ 422 Flemming Street P.O. Box 567, Key West, Florida, 33041 (305} 292-2108 e-mail: office@kwtn.com 4) Cop Charged With 2001 Battery Agrees To Deal The following article is reprinted in its entirety. It was published as a front page article September 5, 2002 by "The Key West Citizen" and was written by Tom Walker: Key West Police Officer Eric Biskup, charged criminally for battering a tourist with his police baton during a 2001 street brawl, has opted to avoid trial. On July 30, Biskup agreed to enter pretrial intervention and accept a departmental suspension, Monroe County prosecutor Catherine Vogel said Wednesday. As part of his agreement, Biskup agreed to a 20-day suspension from the police department and will pay $400 for costs of the investigation and $108 in court costs. He had been convicted by a jury of the misdemeanor allegation, Biskup could have faced up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Biskup became the fourth officer charged after an extensive probe. It became public knowledge in February that the State Attorney's Office was investigating allegations of misconduct and brutality by some members of the Key West police force. A fifth officer, Lt. A1 Flowers, avoided official charges but resigned on March 1 and relinquished his law enforcement credentials after being accused of misconduct during an October 1998 arrest. Investigators claim Biskup struck a man with a collapsible police baton, called an ASP, after a July 29, 2001, confrontation with another man outside Sloppy Joe's Bar at the corner of Duval and Greene streets. Biskup acknowledged he resorted to using the baton after the man turned on him and "got that bowed up look." However, while other officers claimed Biskup ordered the arrests of four people for affray, they reportedly "did not see any of the defendants fighting," according to investigators. Two former police officers were charged with two felony counts each of falsifying arrest affidavits in connection with the same incident. Patrick Saunders, 27, now a state fire marshal, and Geoffry Harris, 24, a deputy with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, agreed on June 26 to accept pretrial intervention to avoid prosecution. Terms of their intervention program - a form of diversion program typically offered to first-time offenders required Saunders and Harris to demonstrate successful completion of a police report writing course and reimburse the state for investigative costs or complete 20 hours of community service. Biskup also received a one-day suspension after being involved in a July 2001 police shooting on Front Street, but his suspension was rescinded by Chief Buz Dillon in February based upon a recommendation by City Manager Julio Avael, who called the police department's shooting policy "ambiguous." Meanwhile, Officer Michael Beerbower was charged again Tuesday with 6 battery for allegedly striking a handcuffed man in the face last month. Based on the arrest affidavit, Beerbower was working at a Duval Street Bar at 1:14 a.m. when he arrested Benjamin Whitfield, 26, of Key West on a trespassing charge. Whitfield was handcuffed behind his back and placed against Beerbower's car. "An exchange of words between victim/Whitfield and defendant (Beerbower) occurred, at which point defendant walked Whitfield, still handcuffed behind his back, west on Charles street and approximately 10 to 15 feet south on Telegraph Lane. Defendant did then intentionally strike victim/Whitfield on the left side of the face, with a hand," the affidavit says. It was the fourth criminal charge in three months for Beerbower, who on May 1 agreed to enter into an intervention program and accept a one-month departmental suspension, after being charged with three misdemeanor counts of battery for striking two prisoners several times in the face after a vehicle and foot chase through Old Town Key West in July 2000. To contact the author of this article send e-mail to: Tom Walker - twalker@keysnews.com To send your letter to the editor at the Key West Citizen: [Five hundred words, max.] Editor Tom Tuell 3420 Northside Drive Key West, Florida, 33040 (305) 292-7777 citizen@keysnews.com e-mail: info@keysnews.com To unsubscribe from this.group, send an email to: legalise_freedom-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 11:18 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Timoney Talked Up for LA Chief http://wWW-~atimes~c~m/news/~ca~/!a-me~tim~ney16se~16~st~r7?c~l=~a%2Dhead!ines%2Dca~if~rnia Outsider Talked Up for Chief Search: John Timoney, who helped cut New York crime, is LAPD 'candidate du jour.' By TINA DAUNT TIMES STAFF WRITER September 16 2002 As the Los Angeles Police Commission works to narrow the list of police chief candidates this week, John Timoney, an outside contender who attracted little notice at first, has caught the fancy of a number of city officials. Ever since the former Philadelphia police commissioner arrived in Los Angeles a week ago to interview for the city's top cop job, City Hall politicos have been talking about the Irish-immigrant officer, who spent most of his career in the NYPD. Some are impressed by his style, others by his record at two of the nation's largest police agencies. Still others say they like that he has gone about his quest for the job with little fanfare. There's no guarantee that Timoney, 54, will make the cut when the commission meets to deliberate Tuesday and attempts to narrow the field to three. But for now, the affable policeman has turned heads among city decision-makers, who say they have found his candor and down-to-earth style refreshing. One sign of the impression Timoney has made: There have been numerous failed attempts in private conversations throughout City Hall to imitate his Irish-New York accent, which Timoney's friends call the "Bronx brogue." "He's the candidate du jour," said one ranking city official. "It's the flavor they like today." "What I'm hearing is that they like the Irish guy from New York," said political consultant Rick Taylor. City officials knew little about Timoney when they began their search to replace former Chief Bernard C. Parks. There are 13 finalists for the chiefs position-all but five of them are either current or former members of the LAPD. At different times in the process, city officials have been enamored of a number of the candidates. Early on, Portland Police Chief Mark Kreeker, a former LAPD deputy chief, seemed to be a favorite. Then, when Bill Bratton, former commissioner of the New York Police Department, announced that he was seeking the job, the buzz around City Hall was that Bratton's credentials would make him hard to beat. Among LAPD insiders, speculation has centered on Deputy Chief David Kalish, a favorite of some city leaders who believe he would bring new direction to the LAPD without the risk of hiring a chief from outside the department. In recent days, however, much of the focus has shifted to Timoney, who was the second in command under Bratton. He took over the Philadelphia Police Department in 1998 but stepped down shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to work as a private consultant for a New York City security firm. "He's got a pretty outgoing personality and wins people over," said one City Hall insider. "But anything could happen. Honestly, I think it's totally wide open." In one of his few interviews about his decision to apply for the LAPD job, Timoney said he wants the chance to overhaul the LAPD. "1 see it as a great challenge," he said. "And I find challenges invigorating." Officials who have met with Timoney said that he appears to understand how to motivate rank-and-file police officers, while at the same time seeming sensitive to civil liberties issues. 9~i 6/02 Page 2 of 2 Also, his experience in running large law enforcement organizations has impressed some lawmakers. He helped Bratton cut crime in New York City, and he is credited with cleaning up the Philadelphia Police Department. What Timoney does not have, however, is specific knowledge of Los Angeles, either geographically or politically. In fact, he has been to the city only twice in his life. Timoney said he recognizes that some people in Los Angeles want an insider, but he said that he is "a quick study." He notes that he was new to Philadelphia when he took over as head of the police department there. "It's not like I'm a history teacher applying to be a brain surgeon," he said. "I've worked in two big city police departments. I've worked as a consultant for police departments around the world. The issues are the same." Timoney's supporters say he would easily learn Los Angeles and relate to the city's diverse immigrant communities. Timoney and his family immigrated to the United States from Ireland when he was 13. After his father died of cancer, he helped support his family in New York City. In 1969, he joined the NYPD and worked his way up. In Philadelphia, he pushed for a measure similar to Los Angeles' "Special Order 40," which prohibits police from inquiring about the immigration status of people who are either victims or perpetrators of crimes. Mayor James Hahn's chief of staff, Tim McOsker, received positive feedback about Timoney on his fact-finding missions to Philadelphia and New York City-contributing to the buzz at City Hall. But Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook cautioned that McOsker has picked up little negative feedback on any of the candidates. "What has been reinforced for Tim in these discussions and for the mayor and the Police Commission is, we have a good list of people," Middlebrook said. "Each of these candidates is going to bring a basketful of experience and pros and cons with him. The mayor has to weigh all of those things." Timoney said he is pleased that city officials are giving him a serious look. "1 want to be the LAPD chief," he said. Attempting a surfer's accent, he added: "It would be totally awesome, dude." Times staff writer Beth Shuster contributed to this report. 9/16/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 9:28 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] NASSAU Co NY Warns of Service Cuts if Police Unions Refuse to Yield Suozzi Warns of Cuts in Services if Police Unions Refuse to Yield By BRUCE LAMBERT NYTimes i [ARDEN CITY, N.Y., Sept. 15 -- The next major battlefront in Nassau County's fiscal crisis is shaping up as a cost-cutting clash that pits the police unions against popular services like buses and parks and programs for teenagers and the elderly. The county executive, Thomas R. Suozzi, is warning the unions that if they continue to refuse to yield tens of millions of dollars in contract givebacks, he will be forced to slash funds for other services, including day care, drug and alcohol treatment programs and museums. "It's an either/or situation," Mr. Suozzi said on Thursday in a preview of his first proposed budget for 2003, and a revision of the four-year fiscal recovery plan he issued in the spring. He will submit the two documents to the County Legislature on Tuesday. Though the targets for cuts are dear to many constituents and legislators, Mr. Suozzi said he did not single them out to gain political leverage against the unions. Instead, he said, they are among the few areas of discretionary spending that can be reduced, unlike mandatory services like public health, welfare and sewage disposal. "These are really good services," Mr. Suozzi said of the threatened programs.. "But if we doh't get the labor concessions from the cops that we're looking for, we're going to list the specific programs we have to cut." Among the county executive's demands is that the police accept a three-year pay freeze, arguing that Nassau cannot afford raises on top of last year's average pay of $100,000 per officer, including overtime. The chief union spokesman, Gary DelaRaba, president of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association, did not return calls for comment. But the battle lines are already set. The union is pressing a lawsuit for a new contract, an arbitration over staffing and charges of unfair labor practices against the county. It plans to begin collecting $1 a day from each of its roughly 2,500 members to build a $1 million-a-year media campaign treasury. In its latest broadside, the union published a 14-page pamphlet with a cover photo of the county executive. The text begins: "Like a cowboy fresh off a cattle drive, Mr. Suozzi rode into town hooting and hollering. A-stomping and a-whipping, screaming and yelling, threatening and intimidating. Trying to bully and scare everyone half to death." Of Mr. Suozzi's budget, Mr. DelaRaba wrote in the pamphlet: "His four-year plan is faulty because it is based on assumptions that are unattainable regarding concessions by the county work force." 9/17/02 Page 2 of 3 On the other side of the issue, alarm has spread among the groups whose services are threatened with cuts. "Folks were stunned at the level of cutbacks that was discussed" at a briefing last week, said Jack O'Connell, executive director of the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, an association of nonprofit programs. In many cases, he said, the cuts would virtually eliminate services. While the groups are sympathetic to the county's fiscal crisis, Mr. O'Connell said: "1 think people in the room were unwilling to say that we should be sort of pitted against the police, or that we should be fighting for police cuts or layoffs. We don't want to be part of divide-and-conquer." But, he added: "The police need to become part of the solution, and so far they haven't been. It's time for the police to step up to plate and do what we did in 1999" in taking cuts. He noted that a poll earlier this year by proponents of a county income tax showed that Nassau residents ranked several social service needs as higher priorities than the police. Besides approval from the Legislature, Mr. Suozzi's 2003 budget and four-year plan also need to be reviewed by the Nassau Interim Finance Agency. The agency is an oversight board the state imposed when it granted bailout aid to Nassau after fiscal mismanagement under a Republican county administration. Mr. Suozzi, Nassau's first Democratic executive in three decades, took over Jan. 1. Although many details are still being fine-tuned, the broad outlines of the approximately $2 billion budget and fiscal plan are already known. The budget will levy a 19.4 percent increase in the county portion of the property tax, which accounts for about a fifth of the typical property tax bill. Although Mr. Suozzi has vowed not to raise property taxes for the rest of his four-year-term, he is considering a change for the next term that would index them to rise at the rate of inflation. He is also considering extending the sales tax to home heating oil, which is now exempt, and raising the sales tax by a fourth of a percent. The combined state and county sales tax is now 8.5 percent. In a seeming contradiction, Mr. Suozzi's budget message will bear both bad news and good news. "It's going to be a pretty bleak picture we're going to present," Mr. Suozzi said. "Everything just got a lot worse." Besides the deficits he inherited, new problems have cropped up. The sluggish economy is leading to a shortfall in sales tax revenue. Declining investments in the state pension fund caused a quadrupling of the county's annual pension bill. And the costs of Medicaid and employee health insurance are soaring. Those factors, and a conservative assumption that the economy will not rebound anytime soon, could add more than $100 million to the annual budget gap in future years, the county budget office says. Yet the near-term outlook -- next year's budget -- is quite positive. "For 2003, we think we're in very, very good shape," Mr. Suozzi said.. The reason is additional savings from staff reductions. The county originally planned to eliminate 430 jobs this year, but the cuts are now projected to reach 950. Jobs are being cut through voluntary early retirements, normal attrition, consolidations and firings but, so far, no layoffs. Once the 2003 budget is settled, the debate will intensify over Mr. Suozzi's demand for union 9/17/02 Page 3 of 3 givebacks versus his threatened cuts in other programs. "Nobody wants it -- these are the least popular cuts," said the Legislature's presiding officer, Judith A. Jacobs, a Democrat. "The unions, especially the P.B.A., have to work it out." While Mr. Suozzi's original fiscal plan called for $65 million in union concessions, so far he has not been able wrest any agreements. "That's a big zero in the savings column," said Edward Ward, a spokesman for the Legislature's Republican minority leader, Peter J. Schmitt. "Labor is the elephant in the middle of the room" that everyone has been avoiding, he said. Pausing to politically update the expression, he added: "Now it's the donkey in the middle of the room." 9/17/02 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 10:22 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Invaluable Resources for Police Accountability / Oversight Dear NACOLE Folks, 1. Be sure you're receiving the Police Assessment Resource Center's (PARC) monthly e-publication, "Best Practices Review," a great resource & training tool for anyone working on police accountability issues (and no cost). Consider distributing it to your Board/Commission members, political leaders, media folks and all interested members of the public who contact your office for information (including students). Contact PARC at 213-623-5757 or www. parc. info 2. The Vera Institute of Justice has just posted a 23 page paper, "Civilian Oversight of Policing: Lessons from the Literature" to its website. Go to www.vera.org Click on their policing projects / publications and print this paper. Sue Quinn for NACOLE NACOLE.org 9/17/02 Marian Karr From: Malvina Monteiro [mmonteiro@ci.cambridge.ma.us] Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 10:42 AM To: Sue Quinn Subject: Boston Police Shoots Again Officer shoots carjack suspect Tensions rise in Roxbury after gunfire on busy street By Francie Latour, Globe Staff, and Jenny Jiang, Globe Correspondent, 9/17/2002 A Boston police officer yesterday evening exchanged gunfire with an unidentified carjacking suspect fleeing through the bustling streets of Roxbury, severely wounding the man as dozens of neighborhood residents and commuters looked on, according to police and eyewitnesses. City police have fatally shot four people this year, inflaming tensions in some city neighborhoods. Just minutes after yesterday's gun violence, a heated antipolice protest broke out at the scene. Police last night said the man fired at the officer first. Medical workers arriving at the scene found him clutching a gun, said police, and investigators recovered spent shell casings from around his wounded body. The man's medical condition was not released last night, though officials said he underwent surgery at 11 p.m. at Boston Medical Center and family members at the hospital said his condition was grave. The officer, identified by two law enforcement sources as Homicide Sergeant Detective Daniel Keeler, was not injured. He received counseling for stress late yesterday and was placed on leave. The chase began at about 6 p.m. when Keeler, an experienced homicide and gang detective, recognized the man as he drove through Roxbury, according to a Police Department statement. The man hit another car, and Keeler began following him. The man soon abandoned his car, and Keeler began pursuing him on foot. Reached last night, Mayor Thomas M. Menino said he had spoken with Police Commissioner Paul F. Evans and preliminary indications are that the shooting was justified. Menino said, ''It appears that at this time the officer was returning fire. They recovered a gun at the scene.'' Menino said Evans told him that Keeler had interrupted a carjacking and the suspect opened fire. One witness said Keeler called out for the man to stop, warning bystanders that the man had previously shot three people. The man ran around a parked car, attempting to get in, when Keeler opened fire, the witnesses said. The man crumpled to the ground, bleeding from his head and neck, they said. He was rushed to Boston Medical Center by ambulance. Though the shooting occurred in Suffolk County, Middlesex prosecutors were called in so Suffolk prosecutors, who frequently work with Boston police, would not face a conflict of interest, police officials said. Emily LaGrassa, spokeswoman for the Middlesex district attorney's office, said,''We are handling the investigation at the request of authorities.'' Boston police have fatally shot eight people in the past 22 months. City leaders have pressured the department to revise its gun use policy. Evans recently proposed a policy banning police from shooting at moving vehicles, 1 though it has yet to be enacted. Yesterday's shooting occurred at about 6 p.m., as mothers were walking with children and neighbors socialized at the corner of Crawford Street and Humboldt Avenue, where two four-story brick apartment buildings are surrounded by bodegas, a hair salon, a laundromat, and the Amazing Grace Tabernacle Church. Dozens of people were walking or standing along the streets at the time. No one else was hit by bullets. '~He [the officer] was shooting like crazy,'' said Jorge Rayas, a witness. ''Boston police don't think about our children? This is not about being black, white, Latino, or anything. This is about logic.'' But it was indeed race that took center stage following the shooting, as about 60 angry residents gathered in the streets to listen to fiery speeches from men who identified themselves as leaders of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense. ''We are not animals. Do not treat us like animals,'' said Klare Allen of Roxbury, who was listening to the speakers. '~The same laws that go for Cambridge, that go for other places, don't apply here.'' Ail of the eyewitnesses interviewed said that the officer fired several shots and that the shots hit the man in the head and neck. Several witnesses said the police officer fired a shot in the air and yelled a warning before opening fire. But others said they heard no warnings. None mentioned that the suspect fired first. ''What I saw was a guy trying to get away,TM said one man at the scene who refused to be identified. ''The kid ran around the car a couple of times. The kid looked like he was trying to get in the door. That's when I heard about seven shots. The cop was telling everyone to stay down.'' Another witness, also declining to use his name, said: ''The cop unloaded his clip on the guy. The guy opened the door and he fell right in front of the door. Everything the cop shot at the kid was a head shot.'' Most of those interviewed said that they could not see a gun in the victim's hand and that only the officer fired shots. ''He [the officer] fired a warning shot. Nobody shot back. He did all the shooting. Only the officer did the shooting,'' said a Crawford Street resident of 23 years who declined to be identified. But one woman, declining to use her name, said she saw the officer tell the victim to put his hands up and put the weapon down. She wasn't sure that what the victim put down was a gun. The officer, she said, kept screaming to everybody that the victim shot three other people. Boston police last night had no record of any other shootings in the city. An angry swarm of residents formed minutes after the shooting, with several denouncing the police over a loudspeaker as officers looked on. Arguments broke out within the group as well, with tempers flaring. Police cordoned off the intersection of Crawford Street and Humboldt Avenue. A gray Volkswagen sat at the.center of the scene. ~'The officer was fired upon with deadly force and was certainly justified in returning force ... to the average person that makes common sense,~ Evans said during a press conference at police headquarters. The proposal by Evans to prohibit police officers from firing at moving vehicles has been assailed by critics. Police union officials assert that it would hamper officers~ ability to protect themselves and have called on Evans to resign. He has refused. 2 Evans announced the policy after Eveline Barros-Cepeda, 25, was killed by police bullets on the morning of Sept. 8 as she sat in the back seat of a car that officers were pursuing for running a red light. The driver allegedly struck a police officer standing near the car's path, prompting another officer to fire five shots into the car. On July 2, police killed a severely mentally ill Dorchester woman, LaVeta Jackson, after she allegedly lunged at them with a knife. She had already slashed her two young children to death before officers confronted her. And in May, a 39-year-old unarmed suspect died after two police officers shot him several times after he allegedly rammed a stolen car into their cruiser in Roxbury. >From 1995 to November 2000, Boston officers shot and killed six people. Over the past decade, the department has averaged one fatal shooting annually. The department has repeatedly defended itself after police shootings by pointing out that, from 1990 to 2000, it had the lowest average number of fatal police shootings among 33 of the nation's largest urban police departments. But the anger against the department was palpable on the streets of Roxbury last evening. A man named Jamarhl - he refused to use his last name, saying that he would be framed somehow by police - took to a microphone minutes after the shooting. He identified himself as chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense. As tense police officers looked on, he told a crowd of about 60 that police shootings ''never happen in South Boston or Milton'' and that police intentionally harass black youth. Then he directed his ire at a black officer on the scene, telling him, ''These white boys, they don't like you.'' Police let the demonstration unfold. No one was arrested. Word of the shooting spread quickly through the community. Eddie Jenkins, a Jamaica Plain lawyer running for Suffolk district attorney, was campaigning several blocks from the shooting scene. ''The public is losing confidence,'' Jenkins said. ''I feel as a resident, especially a person who lives in an area not far away from where these shootings are occurring, that something has to be done soon.'' Jenkins added that the solution had to give ''police the ability to protect themselves if a car is used as a dangerous weapon.'' Father Filipe Teixeria, an antiviolence activist in the Cape Verdean community, said, ''The trust between police and the community has been broken. It took me years and years to get these young people to see that the police are here to help.'' ''Now I have to go back to zero,'' he said. Globe correspondent Jana Benscoter, and Farah Stockman, Sarah Schweitzer, Corey Dade, and Raja Mishra of the Globe Staff contributed to this report, which was written by Mishra. Marian Karr From: Malvina Monteiro [mmonteiro@ci.cambridge.ma.us] Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 9:59 AM To: Sue Quinn Subject: Boston - Police union votes no confidence in Commissioner Police union votes no confidence in Evans By Douglas Belkin and Michael Rosenwald, Globe Staff, 9/19/2002 For the first time in its history, the union for Boston police patrolmen yesterday voted no confidence in the Police Department's commander, and delegates formally called for Police Commissioner Paul Evans to resign from the post he has held since 1994. The vote yesterday follows by one week Evans's announcement of a proposed policy change that would prohibit members of the department from opening fire at a moving car, even if the car is threatening an officer. ''Commissioner Evans now heads an organization so rife with dissent that he leads without the consent, confidence, or backing of those under his command,'' said Thomas Nee, president of the 1,500-member patrolmen's union. ''He can no longer be an effective leader of the Boston Police Department.'' Evans announced the policy change, expected to take effect as soon as next month, after a controversial police shooting on Sept. 8, when an officer fatally shot a passenger in a fleeing car that had allegedly struck his partner. After the unanimous vote by 54 union delegates, Nee said Evans's proposed policy change dangerously handcuffs officers at a time of enormous strain, when officers are responding to terrorist threats and a rash of summer street violence. ''This mandatory prohibition is contrary to Massachusetts state law as well as the rule of common sense,'' Nee said. ''Evans offers us retreat as the only option for police officers under attack from a 2,500-pound weapon. Given the times we work in and live in, that is unacceptable.'' The union, founded in 1968, has no record of a no-confidence vote against a commissioner, a union official said. About two hours before the union announced its vote, members of the department said Evans broadcast an e-mail in which he said that while he understood that the proposed change was controversial, he was doing it for officer safety. ''It's about not putting yourself in harm's way,'' Evans said during an interview yesterday. ''First and foremost, protect yourself. Go home to your family. That's what this is about.'' Boston is not the first city to prohibit firing at moving vehicles, Evans said. Similar proposals have been implemented in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Washington, and St. Louis. ''At some point, and I hope in the not-too-distant future, we will have an intelligent, professional discussion on this topic,'' Evans said. ''We have a lot of very smart officers, and they readily recognize the value of this rule,'' Evans said. ''We're asking them to think about their own safety. We'll get the other guys later.'' The patrolmen's association plans a vote by its entire membership within the 1 next three weeks, Nee said. At least part of the union's anger at Evans stems from the timing of his announcement. Yesterday, in front of the union's Roxbury headquarters, Nee was flanked by stern-faced delegates. Nee declared that Evans ''sold his officers down the river'' when he released the order to the media a day after the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Eveline Barros-Cepeda. Nee said Evans gave the public the impression that the officer who shot Barros-Cepeda, Officer Thomas Taylor Jr., should not have fired his weapon. Evans has said the policy change has been in the works for months and was not in direct response to the shooting. The shooting of Barros-Cepeda - the fourth fatal shooting by an officer this year, and the eighth in 22 months - has sparked widespread community criticism. Nee refused to discuss the details of the Barros-Cepeda shooting, saying it was only fair to wait until the investigation was complete. This story ran on page Bi of the Boston Globe on 9/19/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 11:05 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA Mayor Sees Profound Problems at http://www.lat!mes.com/news/!ocal/la-me-ch!efl 9sepl 9.story [LA MAyor] Hahn Sees Profound Problems at LAPD By BETH SHUSTER LA TIMES STAFF WRITER September 19 2002 As he nears a decision on a new chief for the Los Angeles Police Department, Mayor James K. Hahn says the LAPD faces serious challenges and needs a new leader who can overcome a "resistance to reform" that goes "very deep in the organization." In an interview Wednesday, and in conversations with friends and associates, Hahn makes clear his view of the department as a seriously troubled institution. "1 think the culture that has been typical of LAPD, that resists outside influence and resists reform, is very deep in the organization, and I need a chief who can change that," Hahn said. "1 think this resistance to reform that has characterized the department over the past 10 years has to go away. "We have to have a chief who will demonstrate very clearly to the commanders ... down to the officers in patrol cars that reform is not an impediment to policing but that it is absolutely necessary." The LAPD, as Hahn and his aides note, is the city department the mayor knows best, having watched it closely over his two decades in public office Now, with the Police Commission expected today to give him a list of three finalists, aides say the mayor approaches this pivotal decision with a sense of confidence. "1 think he has a complex view of that department that you get with someone who has 20 years experience," said George Kieffer, an attorney who has advised the mayor and others. "1 would not say he has a simple view of the LAPD--he views it not only as a reformer but [as] someone who sees the needs of the rank and file." As city attorney for 16 years, Hahn saw firsthand the problems in the department, from bad cops to poor record-keeping. He created a special unit of attorneys to manage Police Department litigation, and later, he was closely involved in negotiations with the federal government over proposed reforms in the LAPD. He dealt with the fallout from the Rampart corruption scandal and then, as mayor, he clashed over changes in the department with then-chief Bernard C. Parks, whom Hahn ultimately rejected for a second term. During these years, Hahn developed a sense of the LAPD as an agency that saw itself as separate from City Hall, autonomous and isolated, according to friends and associates of the mayor. This is the department's fundamental flaw, in his view. In contrast with past LAPD chiefs, Hahn strongly believes in the civilian oversight provided by the five-member Police Commission, appointed by the mayor. Commission President Rick Caruso, as well as other commissioners, said they were told when they were appointed that the LAPD needed strong leadership, not stewardship. "It's not only new leadership at the chief's position," Caruso said, "but changing a philosophy of how we do business." 9/19/02 Page 2 of 3 Much of the discussion about the next chief has focused on whether an LAPD insider or an outsider would be best suited for the job. Some argue that only someone knowledgeable about the department and the city can reform the LAPD, while others say only an outsider can bring a fresh way of doing business. But Hahn has refused to discuss that question, repeatedly saying that his focus is on finding the best person to reform the department. The list of candidates that the Police Commission is preparing for Hahn includes both insider and outside candidates, according to sources familiar with the discussion. In a final flurry of activity Wednesday, the city's headhunter agency made a round of calls to some of the candidates to ask for additional background information and photographs. Candidates who were contacted included LAPD Deputy Chief David Kalish, LAPD Cmdrs. George Gascon and James McDonnell, and former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton. Other names widely discussed in City Hall as top contenders were former Philadelphia Commissioner John Timoney and LAPD Cmdr. Sharon Papa. The Police Commission has been whittling down a list that currently consists of 13 candidates. Under the city charter, the commission forwards a list of three finalists to the mayor, who then picks the chief. If he does not approve of any of the finalists, the mayor, who appoints the members of the commission, can request another list. The decision on the next chief of police is a weighty political one for Hahn: He faces a secession vote in November brought by supporters of separate cities in Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. And, he faces reelection in 2005. Friends and associates and others who have watched Hahn work with the department say the politics of the issue are not lost on the mayor, the son of a beloved former county supervisor who grew up steeped in the world of local politics. "1 think Hahn is someone who is aware of the serious problems in the department and would like his legacy to be positive reform," said Erwin Chemerinsky, a USC law professor. As he discussed the reforms he would like to see at the LAPD, Hahn mentioned community policing, making midlevel officers accountable for reducing crime in their divisions and precincts, and a leader who is not afraid to borrow good ideas from other departments, if necessary. "I've seen what worked and didn't work over 20 years," Hahn said. "~ have some pretty strong opinions myself about how policing can be effective in a community." He said he does not intend to be shy about communicating those ideas to the new chief. "I'm not going to micromanage the department, but I want to be a real partner with the police chief," Hahn said. Hahn also believes the department needs a leader who will work closely with all the constituencies of the LAPD, including community groups, the Police Commission and the union. The next chief must understand that all of these, in the mayor's view, have an important role in the LAPD. "1 think the failure of the last three chiefs--[Daryl] Gates, [Willie] Williams and Parks--was their inability to work with all of these constituencies," Chemerinsky said. "The key is to find someone who has a vision for the Police Department and who has the personal skills to work with the constituency groups." Put another way, advisors, friends and associates say the mayor wants the LAPD to gain the confidence of the public, particularly in those communities that feel isolated from the department. Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, a former police commissioner, said he believes that Hahn's work on the consent decree with the federal Justice Department while he was city attorney gave him deeper insight into the changes needed in the department. "1 think the consent decree process with the federal government really gave him a depth that he couldn't have had up to that point," Greenebaum said. "It was very, very good preparation for him for becoming the mayor and for dealing with this particular issue." When he became mayor a year ago, Hahn said his concerns about the department grew. He saw a department reluctant and slow to move in the direction he wanted, which was oufiined in the federal consent decree. While Parks created a group to oversee those reforms, Hahn believed it was mostly grudging acceptance of those mandated changes. 9/19/O2 Page 3 of 3 Today, Hahn says he sees a younger, more diverse police force. He wants a leader who can boost morale, recruit new officers and retain others. '1 think the new chief will find that most of the officers will be willing partners," Hahn said. "We want to restore the luster to the badge." Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this report. 9/19/02 Marian Karr From: Malvina Monte[ro [mmonteiro@ci.cambridge.ma.us] Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 9:16 AM To: Sue Quinn Subject: Jury Pool- Racial Divide Over Memories of Louima Case September 20, 2002 In Jury Pool, a Racial Divide Over Memories of Louima Case By WILLIAM GLABERSON middle-age black man from Nassau County sat in the jury box in Brooklyn federal court one day this week and answered questions from a judge about his memory of news reports describing the assault of ~JDner Louima and the prosecution of former police officers for it. He remembered a lot, it turned out. The prospective juror described the assault in the bathroom of a Brooklyn police station five years ago. He correctly said officers had given varying accounts about which of them was in the bathroom with Justin A. Volpe, the white officer who pleaded guilty to attacking Mr. Louima, a black Haitian inlmigrant. "Somebody's lying," he said. Earlier, in the same seat, a white man who works as a cook said he remembered so little about the case that he could hardly speak intelligently about it. "I had a busy year," he said. The two men were among dozens of New Yorkers who were questioned this week by Judge Reena Raggi, who has gathered a pool of prospective jurors for the fourth trial of a white former officer, Charles Schwarz, who is charged with assisting in the assault. The contrast between the memories of many of the black New Yorkers who were summoned and those of many of the white potential jurors displayed a racial divide in perceptions about the case. Many of the blacks described Mr. Louima's ordeal as they would a cultural touchstone, like the case of the Scottsboro Boys or the Birmingham church bombing. A black hotel worker remembered reading about the case in Jet or Ebony magazine and knew, without hesitation, that Mr. Louima had been sodomized with a broken broomstick. For some of the whites, the Louima case was a half-forgotten news story. A middle-age white woman was so confused that she mistakenly referred to Mr. Louima as Abdul. Final jury selection is scheduled for this morning. Barring a last-minute plea bargain, testimony is to begin Monday. Long after the superheated atmosphere of demonstrations and accusations that once surrounded the case, the differences in attitudes may help define what the Louima case has come to mean to New Yorkers. Those differences may also explain the calculations of lawyers on both sides as they prepare to exercise their challenges to potential jurors this morning. For the lawyers, race is always just beneath the surface in the case. When the jury was selected for Mr. Schwarz's last trial, in June, lawyers on each side accused the other of injecting race into the process. Mr. Schwarz's two earlier convictions had been overturned by an appeals court in February. In the end, the third jury, which included two black men, convicted Mr. Schwarz of one count of perjury but deadlocked on the three other charges: an additional perjury count and two civil rights charges; Mr. Schwarz will be retried on those charges next week. The jury foreman from the most recent trial later charged that the bigotry of a white juror had caused the deadlock. He described her as a holdout and suggested she had favored Mr. Schwarz because she had concluded he was of German ancestry. 1 There were few signs of such attitudes during Judge Raggi's questioning this week. There were some whites who remembered a good deal about the case and some blacks whose memories were cloudy. But even some of the lawyers remarked on the pattern among some of the blacks who were summoned. A black sixth-grade teacher displayed a firm grasp of the central allegations of the prosecutors: "Mr. Volpe," she said, "was the person who did everything to the man and then Mr. Schwarz was an accessory." But a young white man said he had never heard of Mr. Schwarz, although he recalled that a teacher had discussed the case in current events class when he was in high school. Judge Raggi has ordered that all identifying information about the potential jurors be kept secret, so few details of each person's life emerged during the public questioning. But even those fragments occasionally provided a hint of the racial currents that could shape jurors' attitudes. One black man with a hint of an African accent was excused after he said an experience of being falsely arrested himself would make him too frightened to serve in a case involving the police. When Judge Raggi asked the black man from Nassau County who had recalled so much about the case whether he could put everything he knew out of his mind if he were selected, his answer gave her pause. "Being a human being," he said, "I have to say honestly, no, I cannot put everything out of my mind." But when she persisted, he said he could decide the case on the evidence alone. He will be among the 50 potential jurors who are to return to court this morning for the final selection. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company I Permissions I Privacy Policy Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, September 20, 2002 10:19 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] No LAPD Insider Makes List of 3 FinaLists for Chief http;//www !~times~om/news/!ocal/l~-me-ch!ef2Osep20, story No LAPD Insiders Make List of Three Finalists for Chief Police: Mayor Hahn is given a choice between New York, Boston and Oxnard candidates. Many in department express disappointment. By TINA DAUNT and MASSIE RITSCH LA TIMES STAFF WRITERS September 20 2002 The Los Angeles Police Commission on passed over all contenders from the LAPD and chose three outsiders Thursday as its top candidates to become the city's next police chief--former New York Police Commissioner VWlliam Bratton, Oxnard Police Chief Ar[ Lopez and former Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney. Commission President Rick Caruso, who led the panel in its five-month nationwide search, said he and his colleagues opted for outsiders because Los Angeles "is a city at the crossroads, at a historic turning point." The three finalists are "proven leaders, each willing to listen and to lead," he said. "They understand the challenges ahead of us and have been tested and recognized for their distinguished record in police work." The list was forwarded to Mayor James K. Hahn, who will make the final choice, subject to council confirmation. He called the selections "outstanding," and said he was "confident that the next chief is on this list." Hahn played a strong role in the selection process, dispatching his top aides to sleuth out the backgrounds of outside contenders. He will begin interviewing candidates on Monday. The mayor has known Lopez for years and has met Bratton, but not Timoney. Hahn has stressed in recent interviews that he believes the Los Angles Police Department is a deeply troubled institution in need of a strong leader who can overcome a culture stubbornly resistant to change. The department is plagued by Iow morale, rising crime and a history of controversies ranging from the Rodney G. King beating to the Rampart scandal. But while there is wide consensus among city leaders on the need for department reform, there has been much debate over whether an insider or outsider would be best for the job. The commission delivered a blow to the department by rejecting all inside candidates. Lopez is the only finalist with any connection to the LAPD, having served as deputy chief. One of the inside candidates, LAPD Assistant Chief David Gascon, said he was "devastated" by the news. 9/20/02 Page 2 of 4 111 guess if I had one wish, it would be that people would start to recognize the significant contributions and outstanding work that have been done by a lot of people in the LAPD," said Gascon, a 25-year department veteran. "They need to be appreciated and supported." A citizens committee appointed by the Police Commission had advised the panel that an insider would likely have a smoother time reforming the department of 9,020 officers. "1 must say I was very surprised that no insider was selected," said Ann Reiss Lane, who was on the committee. "To others in the department now, that the commission went outside must be discouraging." Mitzi Grasso, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said she fielded numerous phone calls from union members disappointed by the omission of department insiders. Nonetheless, she credited the commission for its diligence. "1 think they were looking at innovative ways to bring a breath of fresh air to the LAPD," she said. The mayor said the selection of three outsiders should not be seen as a slight to those in the department. "1 think the commission looked very seriously at all the candidates and felt there were outstanding men and women in the department that we hope will stay with the department and work with the next chief," Hahn said. "1 don't think it's a slap at the LAPD." Police Commissioner David S. Cunningham III said the "million-dollar question" for commissioners was whether to limit themselves exclusively to candidates from the LAPD or look nationally. "Originally my view had been that I wanted an insider. But in looking at the resumes and the presentations ... I tried to do it based on the facts," he said. 'Tm really hoping that the men and women of the LAPD understand that we still think those deputy chiefs and commanders that came before us were each incredible. I want them to continue to stay part of the LAPD. We need them." Civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who also served on the citizen's committee, said she was more concerned about the three finalists' qualifications and the records of the departments they led. "There are some pretty serious questions," she said. "None of these cities has shown any particularly good solutions." Bratton's tenure as NYPD commissioner from 1994 to 1996 gained him national acclaim. It was marked by historic declines in homicides and other serious felonies, as well as by complaints from civil libertarians over the department's crackdown on Iow-level crimes. He also was the head of the Boston Police Department and the New York City Transit Police. Bratton resigned as New York City police commissioner in April 1996 to take a job as head of the New York City division of Boston-based First Security Services Corp. The Irish-born Timoney, 54, was second in command under Bratton in New York and took over the Philadelphia Police Department in 1998. He stepped down shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to work as a consultant for a New York City private security firm. Oxnard Chief Lopez, meanwhile, held a number of jobs during his tenure in the LAPD. He was in charge of the Hollenbeck Division, headed the department's training efforts and oversaw the Hollywood vice squad. He also served as the Watts field commander during the 1992 riots. The new chief will replace Bernard C. Parks, who resigned after being denied a second five-year term by Hahn and the Police Commission. The commission choose the three finalists from a list that included six members of the LAPD brass and seven outside candidates. After watching Hahn praise him on television, an exuberant Lopez said from his Oxnard office that he wasn't surprised he is a finalist, partly because he has known Hahn for more than two decades and they've always worked well together. Lopez said he promised the Police Commission that he would find a way to "build a bridge" between the powerful Los Angeles police union and police and city administrators. 9/20/02 Page 3 of 4 Lopez said his long history with the LAPD--working his way up to deputy chief--and his knowledge of the agency's distinct culture worked to his advantage. Brat[on was in Caracas, Venezuela, advising the police department there on its law enforcement strategies when he heard the news. "I'm very pleased and excited," Bratton said in a telephone interview. "1 want to work with the mayor; he has a good team. They really understand what the problems are in the LAPD. They fully embrace community policing, which is refreshing." Brat[on also said that he believes that he has an advantage because he has spent more than a year working with the outside monitoring team tracking reforms in the LAPD. "1 know what the problems are," Bratton said. "I'm in a good position to deliver in a very short period of time." For his part, Timoney expressed pleasure with the selection process. "Some of us were worried that maybe this wouldn't be an open process, that they only wanted insiders," Timoney said in an interview. "But that's been put to rest. I'm looking forward to opportunity to moving to the final phase. I've never met the mayor before. I'm looking forward to that." If he gets the job, Timoney said his first order of business will be "to win over the troops ....With a good plan, a good vision and a good message, I can do that." LAPD insiders passed over included Gascon, Deputy Chief David Kalish, Assistant Chief Margaret York and Cmdrs. George Gascon, James McDonnell and Sharon Papa. The others of the 13 who had been up for consideration were former Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker, now chief of the Portland Police Bureau in Oregon; Sacramento Police Chief Art Venegas, Cambridge, Mass., Chief Ronnie Watson and Santa Ana Chief Paul M Walters. Some candidates who failed to make the final cut expressed their disappointment but said they looked forward to working with Hahn's choice. "All three have vast experience in law enforcement, and all three have positive reputations," said Kalish. "Any one of them would do a fine job. Because he won't be an insider, it will be important for those of us in leadership positions to get behind the new chief and inspire support from the rank and file." "The selection, I think, has been a fair process," said George Gascon. "1 think we have both the moral and legal obligation to support whoever the chief is." The commission began interviewing the 13 top candidates for the position two weeks ago, and on Tuesday was briefed by members of Hahn's staff who spoke with people close to the outside candidates. The mayor said he plans to interview the candidates with the assistance of Council President Alex Padilla and Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, chair of the Public Safety Committee. "Under the charter the selection I make is still subject to approval of the council," said Hahn, "so I think key individuals on the council who have a lot to say about that--I thought it was appropriate to have them begin interviews with me to set the tone that the mayor and council and Police Department need to work together in a strong partnership to keep our community safe." Councilman Eric Garcetti said the commission sent a positive signal with its choices. "It'S clear that there's fresh air coming into Los Angeles one way or another. Definitely with three outside candidates-- although one has LAPD experience--it seems like there was a clear decision made to air out the LAPD a little bit and bring in some experience from the outside." Hahn and commissioners emphasized the need for a chief who can manage a diverse city--one that has experienced racial tensions between the community and its police force. Minority leaders expressed cautious optimism on Thursday. "The issue is not the race of the candidates. The question is whether they have a demonstrated ability to recognize and address the policing needs of the African American community as well as the city of Los Angeles as a whole," said Kimberly West-Faulcon, Western Regional counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Commissioner Cunningham echoed that. 9/20/02 Page 4 of 4 "We wanted to look for cultural competency," Cunningham said. "Cultural competence means understanding the diversity in this city. Certainly, looking at the backgrounds of each of the individuals we reviewed, that was very much an issue for Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack said he is impressed by Bratton.. "1 think there are many parallels between New York and Los Angeles--extremely diversified cities and both having police departments that have gone through some major scandals and problems. He seemingly handled that very well and seemingly is sensitive to some of the issues that are important to the African American community and the minority community." Hahn did not set a deadline for making a selection but said he hoped to complete his evaluation within a month. "The candidates here have certainly proven that they can manage a police department, have been in position to prepare them for being the next police chief," Hahn said. "1 don't think there is any particular advantage or disadvantage to being an outsider." He said the next chief should have a plan to reduce crime and improve officer morale and recruitment, as well as implement reforms of the department and improve police-community relations. "1 will select a candidate who best embodies these qualities and makes Los Angeles the safest big city in America," Hahn said. Hahn said he wants to develop a good personal relationship with the person who becomes the next chief so personal chemistry with candidates will be a factor in his decision. "It's absolutely imperative that the mayor have a strong relationship with the chief of police," Hahn said, adding he will play a role in coming up with a public safety plan for the city. Times staff writers Patrick McGreevy, Lee Romney, Andrew Blankstein, Eric Malnic, Matea Gold, Daryl Kelley and Jill Leovy contributed to this story. 9/20/02 Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2002 2:37 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LAPolice Chief Candidate Timoney Made Career of Cleaning Up Police Messes http:flwww.!atimes,comlnewsl!ocall!a-me-timoney22sep22 story Timoney Has Made a Career of Clean ng Up Police Messes By STEPHEN BRAUN LA TIMES STAFF WRITER September 22 2002 PHILADELPHIA -- John F. Timoney is miserable. He has a retired cop's dream job-a quarter-million-dollar salary and a 35th-floor Manhattan office overlooking the pulsing streets where his exploits as a patrol officer and administrator made him a New York Police Department legend. And he is a celebrity in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, where he served as police commissioner for four years, acclaimed for shaking up a hidebound department and personally collaring crime suspects while speeding around town on his racing bicycle. But John Timoney is lost without the daily blood-churning stress of running a big-city police force, just another forlorn civilian in a suit since he resigned from his Philadelphia post a year ago to manage a private-sector New York security firm. "1 miss the phone calls at 3 o'clock in the morning," he admitted in an interview last week. "'Commissioner, we've got a problem-we shot the wrong guy.' I miss being part of the action." Timoney, 54, has made a career of taking on messes that police executives dread. One of three finalists for Los Angeles' next police chief selected last week by the city's Police Commission, Timoney straddles clashing extremes in American law enforcement. He is an ardent advocate of coalition building and civilian participation in policing who thinks and reacts like an old-line beat cop. Timoney's agility at melding those impulses has won plaudits from tough-justice advocates and reformers alike, but a stubborn streak and candor bordering on recklessness have repeatedly dimmed his brilliant career. In New York, Timoney rose in a sweeping trajectory that took him from South Bronx patrolman in the 1970s to the top deputy's post in the 1990s under Commissioner William Bratton, now a rival for the LAPD job. A clenched-faced athlete whose dense brogue betrays his roots as an Irish immigrant, Timoney became the starched uniform to Bratton's pinstripes. He implemented and cheer-led Bratton's computer-based reforms, unleashing New York beat cops to reverse years of spiraling crime. Then, chosen as Philadelphia's police commissioner by Mayor Ed Rendell, Timoney was both tireless advocate and scourge for that city's crisis-weary force. Driven, impulsive, brutally frank, Timoney was revered for reducing property crime in Philadelphia. He won admirers among minority and political leaders and nimbly kept the peace with a minimum of arrests and street violence when protests threatened the Republican National Convention in 2000. "Commissioner Timoney is the real deal," said Philadelphia Councilman Michael Nutter, who represents a heavily black electoral district in West Philadelphia. "He understands the delicate nature of politics, the needs of ethnic communities and how to size up a situation and, in the end, do the right thing." Timoney has also been his own worst enemy at times. He quit the NYPD after he was passed over for the top job, an exit hastened when he publicly disparaged then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as a "screw-up." He served two mayors in Philadelphia but, after four years in the limelight, the marathoner suddenly hit a wall. Timoney's police were unable to make significant reductions in the sparring with a powerful police union and a skeptical press. He resigned last year for undisclosed "personal reasons," months after Philadelphia Mayor John Street told him to transfer a department homicide supervisor who had been given a 20-day suspension for crashing an unmarked police car after a night of drinking. His muted departure did not chip away at Timoney's stature in Philadelphia, where he still lives in a rented apartment with 9/23/02 Page 2 of 4 his wife, Noreen. They have two grown children. A year after leaving his commissioner's post to manage the security firm on New York City's East 42nd Street run by Beau DieU, a former NYPD sergeant who once worked under him, the restless Timoney is still acclaimed by Philadelphians. At dawn, from the banks of the Schuylkill River, gawkers yell "Ye, commissioner!" as Timoney rows by in his two-man scull, said his rowing padner, Mark O'Connor. The jutting-jawed Timoney is still such a public presence in town that a privately commissioned political poll recently found that his name recognition rivals that of most political figures in the city, including Street's. Throughout his career, Timoney has prospered by projecting the image of a tough but fair cop willing to join his street officers on the dirtiest assignments--a "cop's cop," as one of his New York literary circle friends, author Tom Wolfe, has called him. He is also a street intellect, a self-taught bookworm who set up a reading club for New York cops and lectured on Dostoevski's portrait of the criminal mind. Every June 14, he recites passages from James Joyce's "Ulysses" for "BIoomsday," the annual reenactment of the Irish author's seminal work. For years, Timoney has shown up for roll calls at stationhouses on lonely Christmases and other holidays. "It's the way he's always done it," said John Gallagher, a former Harlem cop who now works for the Justice Department in New Mexico. "He'd show up in Harlem at midnight on Christmas Eve and he'd tell us, '1 know you gotta be out there, but the city's with you and so am I.' You don't know what that means to a street officer." Timoney seemed to be everywhere at once in Philadelphia, on the nightly news, scooting around the city with a squad of bike police. His final act as commissioner last New Year's Eve, he recalls with a snort, was arresting a gun-wielding suspect charged with attempted murder. There is an element of calculation in his identification with officers on the lowest rung, Timoney acknowledges, "but I'm serious about it. I firmly believe I shouldn't ask them to do something I don't want to do myself." Police training experts and academics who have long observed Timoney say his ability to personify the street cop while spearheading reforms would be key attributes in Los Angeles. "He lives and breathes the way street officers think," said Jack Greene, dean of Northeastern University's College of Criminal Justice, who has analyzed both the Philadelphia and Los Angeles police reform efforts. "Given the police culture in L.A., there's a real need for that." "But he also knows how to build coalitions with disparate interest groups," Greene said. "New York, where he came up, is about as complex as that gets, and Philadelphia gave him the opportunity to put what he learned into practice." Los Angeles officials have privately described their keen interest in Timoney as stemming from his reputation as a nationally recognized law enforcement official. They are impressed by his reputation as a public servant who is affable and approachable, willing to listen to differing views and then implement far-reaching changes. Mayor James K. Hahn's chief of staff, Tim McOsker, flew to Philadelphia recently to meet with officials and activists who had worked with Timoney. McOsker came away from the trip impressed by raves from city leaders and community groups, according to several people he later briefed. "Commissioner Timoney had great rapport with Philadelphia's ethnic communities," said Frank Keel, a spokesman for Mayor Street. "He did a great job in bridging the Police Department with the African American community, the Latino community. He was tireless, he showed up at every community forum you could imagine, and he had the good sense to promote top-quality minority officers." But if Timoney was able to deftly knit alliances, he was less successful in winning over his home base. Street cops give him only lukewarm respect affer his four-year stewardship. While several Philadelphia officers and other department insiders interviewed recently said they had found some of Timoney's reforms helpful, they also expressed resentment of what they saw as his heavy-handed toughening of the department's Internal Affairs investigations of police misconduct. Others said they had grown disillusioned with Timoney's image as a "glory hound who traveled in the black-tie set." "The rank and file felt he was becoming too big for his britches," said Ellen Ceisler, an independent civilian oversight official who has tangled with Timoney at times, but also sees him as "just what the LAPD needs." In South Philadelphia, near a baseball field where a scoreboard bears the face and name of Daniel Faulkner, a lionized 9/23/02 Page 3 of 4 cop killed in a notorious 1981 shootout with black activist Mumia Abu Jamal, a balding police sergeant shrugged at the mention of his former boss. "He did some good things, yeah," said the sergeant, who declined to give his name. "But not all of them worked. And he loved that spotlight, more than he loved us, I'll say that." Grudging respect, Timoney said, is about the best a successful police executive can expect from below while contending with the treacherous cross-currents of public life. "You should respect a top cop, but not idolize him," Timoney said. He said he often told officers "that your job is to go out and lock up the bad guys, and my job is to keep you out of trouble. Sometimes it's going to tick you off, but that's the way it's gotta be." Disillusionment spread, Timoney contends, as a result of his bitter four-year war with the Fraternal Order of Police, a formidable police union that represents almost every city officer up to the highest ranks. The union successfully used a statewide arbitration system to blunt Timoney's attempts to discipline officers as he saw fit. Soon after arriving as commissioner in 1998, Timoney met with union leaders in a series of private meetings aimed at compromises to improve police education and streamline the handling of disciplinary cases. But Timoney soon bridled at vitriolic union magazine "cheap shots" that promised to send him "packing north of 95"--a reference to the highway to New York. "He projects a great image to the community and he's got a lot of good ideas, but he's weak on follow-through," said Richard Costello, a Philadelphia police captain who is stepping down as union president. Timoney is now blunt about his tangles with the union. "What I was trying to do was to break up the union into separate unions," he said, adding: "Of course they're going to resent that." The commissioner moved quickly in Philadelphia to shore up an ineffective Internal Affairs unit. He promoted the use of anonymous undercover officers to sniff out misconduct in the city's station houses and ordered investigators to tape their interviews. He banned cops from using blackjacks, a weapon prized by street officers since the days of the late Frank Rizzo, the department's legendary tough-guy commissioner who later served as mayor. But Timoney did not always welcome the efforts of others to help clean up his department, said Ceisler. Timoney counters that his efforts to satisfy a court-mandated federal consent decree showed his willingness to open up his department to outsiders, satisfying both a district court judge and impressing then-Atty. Gen. Janet Reno's Justice Department regulators. "It'll be the same," he added, in contending with the wide-reaching consent decree that governs many of the LAPD's operations. "The thing is to get out of the consent decree by fixing what's broken, reporting to the judge in objective fashion and reducing the lawsuits and the settlement of those lawsuits." His efforts at straightening his own house appeared to be working until Timoney was caught up in a mini-scandal in March 1998 over a decision he had made early in his tenure. Timoney had suspended a homicide captain, James J. Brady, for 20 days for driving drunk--a fireable offense that had allegedly been covered up by another police official. According to Keel, Mayor Street, when he learned of the matter, was "not pleased by what he saw as a slap on the wrist. After strong dialogue, Timoney stepped forward and did the right thing," transferring Brady out of homicide. Brady later resigned. Timoney explained that his initial decision to merely suspend Brady came during a period early in his tenure when he was confronted by a huge backlog of disciplinary cases. He and his deputies had to sift through "boxes and boxes" of 500 cases. "1 didn't know Brady and had no reason to protect him," Timoney said. Ceisler countered that many of the leftover files were "minor cases for officers who had missed court. This was totally different because it involved the most serious kind of case against a high-ranking officer." After he was confronted by Street, Timoney changed his mind. He insists the two men agreed in private and the mayor continued to back him up despite press reports that Street had lost confidence in him. "When I made the decision I didn't think it was a bad decision, and on reflection, I probably should have just fired the guy," Timoney now says. 9/23/02 Page 4 of 4 "1 don't believe it damaged Timoney's credibility at City Hall," Keel said. "The general consensus was that he'd erred on the side of protecting his fellow officer.... At his core, John Timoney's just a cop. For this city, he was a great one." Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story. 9/23/02 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2002 2:41 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Plea Deal in NYPD Louima Torture Case http:~[~`~ati~¢~c~m~¢~/nat~n~r~d~wire{s~7ap~p~9~:t~rture~9~¢p~2(~31,4`4~J)`st~ry?~!!--~s%2Da~% 2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines Plea Deal in NYPD Torture Case By TOM HAYS Associated Press Writer September 22 2002, 5:00 AM PDT NEW YORK -- A former police officer was sentenced to five years in prison Saturday night in a last-minute deal that avoided a fourth trial on charges he lied about the torture of a Haitian immigrant in a precinct bathroom. U.S. District Judge Reena Raggi sentenced Charles Schwarz to five years in prison ~- the maximum penalty for perjury. In exchange, prosecutors dropped outstanding civil rights charges and a second perjury count. At sentencing, Raggi scolded Schwarz for lying about "a senseless and brutal attack." "No free society can tolerate such conduct from a police officer," she said. Schwarz, who is to surrender Dec. 4, said nothing in response. Outside court, he told reporters: "1 want to thank my supporters and my attorneys." He declined to answer questions. Schwarz, 36, was scheduled to stand trial for a fourth time beginning Monday for his part in the attack on Abner Louima inside the bathroom of a Brooklyn police precinct. The deal came the day attorneys met to seat a jury, and more than five years after Louima was assaulted. 'Tm glad it's finally over," Louima told reporters outside court. "Now I can move on with my life ... now it's time to start the healing process." Prosecutors had alleged that Schwarz held Louima down while fellow police Officer Justin Volpe sodomized the man with a broken broomstick; Louima was hospitalized for 2 1/2 months with severe internal injuries. Schwarz denied ever being inside the bathroom at the 70th Precinct. Volpe pleaded guilty, and is serving a 30-year sentence. Schwarz' lead attorney, Ronald Fischetti, noted that the agreement contained no admission of wrongdoing beyond the perjury. Under the terms, Schwarz could earn a 13-month reduction in his sentence if he, his wife and his attorneys comply with an agreement not to comment on the case until Schwarz leaves prison, his attorneys said. Along with credit for good time, Schwarz' attorneys estimated that he could serve less than three years. The attack by the white officers prompted citywide protests. The city and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association agreed to pay Louima an $8.75 million settlement in his civil suit last year, the most ever paid to a New York City police brutality victim. In the first two trials, Schwarz was convicted of violating Louima's rights and of conspiring to cover up the crime. The convictions were overturned by a federal appeals court that ordered the third trial. In July, Schwarz was convicted of perjury for claiming on the witness stand that he was not the second officer in the bathroom, although the jury deadlocked on the more serious charge that he violated Louima's civil rights. Schwarz, who has already spent nearly three years in prison, was released on $1 million bail in March after a federal appeals court overturned his conviction of violating Louima's civil rights. Copyright 2002 Associated Press 9/23/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 11:31 AM To: Update@NACOLEorg Subject: [NACOLE Update] Akron Weighs Police Auditor Plan, Impressed by San Jose Posted on Mon, Sep. 23, 2002 [ Akron weighs police auditor plan City officials check out popular system used in San Jose, Calif., to review complaints made by citizens By Julie Wallace Akron Beacon Journal staff writer 9 23 02 One after another, Akron officials have made their way west -- popping into San Jose, Calif., to peruse a police auditor system that has become the one to emulate around the country. City Council members visited. So did Police Chief Michael Matulavich and one of his top assistants. Eventually, members of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7 might make their way out there if only to do some fact-finding. And despite the union's continued objections, oversight of the Police Department no longer seems to be an if but rather a when. "My mind's been made up for quite some time, and we've been trying to give everybody else time to catch up," said Council President Marco Sommerville, D-3. "The time is now, not later." As more and more key players climb on board, Sommerville expects legislation to be prepared and introduced before year's end. "I'm going to be meeting with (Mayor Don) Plusquellic, and this is one of the things on the top of my list," he said. "I'm going to figure out a way to get this thing moving." Initially, the council proposed creating a panel of citizens to review complaints made against police officers and other city workers. That option was set aside, however, after some City Council members visited San Jose and saw how well that city's auditor system worked. There, one person -- Auditor Teresa Guerrero-Daley -- serves as a troubleshooter for the department. She tracks trends and makes recommendations on how to repair them, and she keeps track of complaints as they work their way through the system. The investigative function -- checking out a complaint to determine its validity -- remains within the Police Department as does meting out any discipline that might be warranted. Matulavich is the most recent city official to make the trek. He andPolice Capt. Paul Calvaruso spent a few days in San Jose last month. Matulavich said it was hard not to be impressed by the program, which frequently is visited by other cities looking to add the oversight component. He and Calvaruso spent more than two hours with Guerrero-Daley. Staffing, she told him, is critical: She advises cities considering such a system to provide money for at least three employees. In San Jose, which has 917,000 residents, there are six people in the auditor's 9/23/02 Page 2 of 3 office. More than oversight Matulavich said he liked the community outreach portion of the auditor's job -- Guerrero-Daley and her staff hold community meetings and place complaint forms at places like the library. Paul Hlynsky, president of the Akron FOP, said none of the union representatives has visited San Jose, but a fact-finding mission might be in order. Regardless, he said such a trip would not erase the fact that the union contract prevails over anything the city might try to create -- a contract that is in place until December 2003. "It still has to be negotiated no matter how much steam it picks up," Hlynsky said. "The worst mistake they can make is just enacting it. If they do that, we'll do whatever we have to do." Sam Walker, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, has spent 12 years studying police oversight. He also helped out when Omaha decided to establish its own system, modeled after San Jose's. There, a national search was conducted to find the auditor. The job went to a former public defender. Walker said he was surprised when he started his research to discover that more than 100 cities already had some type of oversight -- either a review board, as in San Francisco and Milwaukee, or an auditor. "1 think at this point, we've settled the debate of whether there should be oversight. We're now debating what kind," Walker said. "And I have a very strong sense that the auditor model is more likely to be effective in the long run. "A review board that just focuses on individual complaints tends to make individual officers the scapegoat when often it is a management problem that allows these problems to exist. "And, especially for cities the size of Akron, I think it's simply much more cost-effective," he said. Board plan fades Matulavich said more than once that he didn't like the idea of the review board, and the mayor agreed with him. Plusquellic has since said the auditor idea could work if the right person was found to fill the job. Matulavich doesn't necessarily agree with some City Council members that there is a perception that the department isn't doing a good job policing its own. But if that perception does exist, he believes the auditor could be an effective tool at combating it. "I'm hoping this is not just a feel-good. I don't want to endorse something that only on the surface looks good," Matulavich said. "1 want something in place that is going to make the Police Department a better police department." Sommerville said he expects to feel some heat from his constituents for endorsing the auditor plan over the review board because his supporters favored the board. 9/23/02 Page 3 of 3 But he's seen both in action, he said, and this is the model best suited for Akron. "When you go out and look at the model, and you talk to the community, how can anybody be against it?" Sommerville said. "1 was leaning toward the review board, but after looking at them both, the auditor is more professional, and I'm confident this is the best way to do it." Julie Wallace can be reached at 330-996-3542 or jwallace@thebea~onjoumal, com 9/23/02 Marian Karr From: Hector. W.Soto@phila.gov Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 11:35 AM To: update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] NYTimes.com Article: 5 Altering Years for a Police Department This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by hector.w.soto@phila.gov. 5 Altering Years for a Police Department September 23, 2002 By ELISSA GOOTMAN More than five years have passed since Abner Louima became a household name in New York City, a chilling symbol of what could go wrong in a Police Department praised for making the city a safer, cleaner place. Those years have been dotted with transformative events for the department. There was the case of Amadou Diallo, the unarmed black man shot on his doorstep by police officers who thought he was pulling out a gun. There were protests, as critics lumped the two cases together, and there were policy changes, as the department responded by setting up panels and committees that ensured input from black neighborhoods, and tried with modest success to recruit more black and Hispanic officers. There was a change in leadership at City Hall, with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg winning praise from many of his predecessor's critics. And then there was Sept. 11, which took the lives of officers and cast a glow of heroism on the survivors. "It is not the same Police Department that it was five years ago," said Thomas A. Reppetto, president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, a criminal justice research group. "Up to August 1997, I think the police were generally riding a wave of public approval. After August 1997, there were a lot of questions raised. A lot of people were very upset." And changes, in turn, have been made, some of them in direct response to the Louima case and others stemming from events that overtook it. In May 2001, the department's police academy graduating class was made up of more minorities than whites. And this summer, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the major police union, elevated an African-American officer to its five-member governing board. More significantly, allegations of police misconduct to the Civilian Complaint Review Board have declined in recent years. Last year, 4,260 complaints were filed, a figure 11 percent lower than the number of complaints received in 1997: 4,768. And there have been other changes, like the creation of a Board of Visitors, through which teachers, lawyers and 1 other community members review the department's recruitment and training practices. "It's a gradual change that's happened," said Richard E. Green, a co~unity leader in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and a member of the Board of Visitors. "They're taking a very proactive approach, putting checks and balances in place to ensure that it doesn't happen or when it does happen, there is a quick remedy." Deputy Commissioner Michael P. O'Looney, the department's chief spokesman, agreed, saying that while the Louima case was a "terrible aberration," the overall context has changed. "There are reforms in place today to try to ensure that kind of abuse never happens again," he said. "If problems arise, we are prepared to deal with them in the appropriate manner." And while the Police Department under the watch of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani never overcame the perception that its leaders were more concerned with locking up criminals than protecting civil liberties, Mayor Bloomberg and his police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, have earned applause for their outreach efforts. "The public posture regarding police accountability and race relations has certainly changed," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "The public statements are less hostile, less defensive." Still, some critics remain skeptical, viewing the creation of new boards and panels as window-dressing and the gains in minority representation as marginal at best. And some of the underlying problems that plagued the department in 1997, like officers' siramering resentment over low pay, remain. "It appears that they try to weed out the problem officers before hiring them," said Detective Jacqueline E. Parris, president of the Guardians Association, a fraternal organization of black police officers, "As far as the morale within the department, that has not changed." And Ms. Lieberman, referring to another oft-cited problem, said that although police officers testified in trials related to the Louima case, "unfortunately, the blue wall of silence remains virtually impenetrable." No one suggests that the problem has simply disappeared. Indeed, within the same precinct where Mr. Louima was tortured, another officer was arrested just weeks ago when videotapes showed him striking a handcuffed man in the head with a police radio. That officer, Charles Dorcent, whom police officials identified as being of Haitian descent, was transferred into the precinct as part of the effort to demonstrate diversity in the police ranks in the wake of the Louima incident. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/Og/23/nyregion/23POLI.html?ex-lO33790649&ei l&en- 922dT12c469382ae Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company 2 Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://ga~na.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update_nacole.org Marian Karr From: Hector. W.Soto@phila.gov Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 4:20 PM To: update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Fwd: NYTimes.com Article: News Analysis: Louima Case Closed, Not Resolved News Analysis: Louima Case Closed, Not Resolved September 23, 2002 By WILLIAM GLABERSON The Abner Louima case ended on Saturday night without resolving one of the biggest questions of the five-year legal ordeal: the identity of the second officer in the Brooklyn police station bathroom where Officer Justin A. Volpe redefined police brutality on an August morning in 1997. The sentencing agreement that will send another former officer, Charles Schwarz, to prison, for a maximum of five years for perjury, included no admission that Mr. Schwarz was, as prosecutors long charged, the officer who restrained Mr. Louima while Mr. Volpe sodomized him with a broken broomstick. But it also prohibits Mr. Schwarz from continuing to proclaim his innocence publicly. The Leuima case always carried with it unrealistic hopes that it could expose the truth about racism in New York, police brutality and the law enforcement brotherhood that critics say fosters a blue wall of silence. To some extent it succeeded: Mr. Volpe is serving a 30-year prison sentence. But the Saturday night deal was also a reminder of how the haze of lies and faulty memories surrounding the events in the case benefited some officers who were pursued by prosecutors and how ill-equipped the legal system is to answer questions for history. Explaining the deal yesterday, the chief prosecutor, Alan Vinegrad, acknowledged that after the exhausting legal battle, prosecutors had worried about the chance that Mr. Schwarz's fourth trial, which had been scheduled to begin today, could have ended in an acquittal or a hung jury. "There were risks of not getting the verdict that we wanted," he said in an interview. So Mr. Vinegrad accepted the deal, although he did not get what he had long sought: an admission from Mr. Schwarz that he had participated in the attack. Mr. Schwarz's chief lawyer, Ronald P. Fischetti, failed in the goal he had set of proving that Mr. Schwarz is innocent. He settled for the conclusion that the prosecution never proved that Mr. Schwarz was guilty of taking part in the attack. So after five years of courtroom warfare, the deal represented a draw on what became the most important question of the case after Mr. Volpe pleaded guilty: Was Mr. Schwarz the second officer in the bathroom? ! The law requires that prosecutors prove their cases beyond a reasonable doubt. An anonymous juror from one of Mr. Schwarz's previous trials told Pacifica Radio this year that some officers used that lofty concept to sabotage the investigation. In the interview, the juror said that the officers wanted "to throw smoke and dust in the eyes of the investigators, plant enough reasonable doubt in the record so a jury wouldn't be able to find anybody other than Volpe guilty of anything," None of the officers who were charged in the case ever acknowledged that. But Mr. Schwarz's plea agreement showed how the reasonable doubt requirement can be a wedge against prosecutors. After they won reversals of two prior convictions of Mr. Schwarz, his defense lawyers succeeded in getting a deadlock at his trial in July. They persuaded at least one juror that Mr. Schwarz was not guilty on three charges, including the two civil rights charges that would have been part of the trial that was scheduled to begin this morning. In preparation for the new trial, the biggest weapon Mr. Fischetti had in negotiating with the proseoutors was their fear that he might be able to win over just one juror. Both he and Mr. Vinegrad agreed in interviews yesterday that if the new trial had led to yet another hung jury, the government would not have mounted another prosecution of Mr. Schwarz. "We would not have tried him a fifth time," Mr. Vinegrad said, "because at a certain point the criminal justice system has to recognize that the system has played itself out." That meant Mr. Fiechetti did not have to try for acquittal by 12 jurors. "What I needed to do in this trial," Mr. Fieohetti said yesterday, "was convince one person out of 12 that there was a reasonable doubt, and that would end the prosecution of Charles Schwarz." Such stances are often, part of negotiations, and in Mr. Schwarz's case there were many issues that could be used as anu~unition in the psychological maneuvering. Yesterday, Mr. Vinegrad and Mr. Fischetti differed, for example, on what sentence Mr. Schwarz might have faced on the single perjury count had there been no agreement and had the prosecution failed to convict on the other three charges. Mr. Vinegrad contended that he might have gotten far less than the five-year sentence. That would make the deal a victory for prosecutors. Mr. Fischetti asserted that Mr. Schwarz would have received five years, which was the maximum. Under the deal, he said, Mr. Schwarz may be free after less than three years. That would suggest that he had outbargained Mr. Vinegrad. Each side acknowledged the risks of a new trial. For the defense, the possibility of a conviction on all counts would have subjected Mr. Schwarz to a sentence of 15 years. For the prosecution, the possibility of ending up without a conviction would have been an embarrassment and an invitation to supporters of Mr. Schwarz to harshly criticize the federal prosecutors' office in Brooklyn. 2 But in the end, the pivotal issue might have been Mr. Fischetti's assertion that all he needed to do was persuade one juror that there was a reasonable doubt. As the case has drawn on through the years, that may have become an easier task. Two other police officers who had been convicted of obstruction of justice along with Mr. Schwarz, Thomas Wiese and Thomas Bruder, also had their convictions overturned in February. The appeals court flatly said that the evidence supported a finding that they had misled investigators but that, contrary to what the prosecution had charged, they had not specifically intended to mislead a federal grand jury. Some lawyers say reasonable doubt can be created not just from testimony, but also from the atmosphere surrounding a trial. In Mr. Schwarz's case, some headlines had incorrectly asserted that Mr. Wiese and Mr. Bruder had been "cleared." Lawyers say it is unlikely that the two former officers will face any new charges. That prediction has amplified the perception among Mr. Schwarz's supporters that the prosecution's larger case to find other officers culpable in the Louima investigation has collapsed. Mr. Fischetti always played his hand aggressively in fostering public doubts about the case. But the prosecutors also knew that Mr. Fischetti and a colleague, Diarmuid White, had in fact won an appeals decision overturning Mr. Schwarz's two earlier convictions and that the defense had fought the case to a mistrial in July. Prosecutors did have many reasons to be encouraged about the strength of their case. The foreman of the jury that deadlocked in July said publicly, for example, that the holdout juror had been biased and suggested she was irrational. But nothing could guarantee that another single juror would not reject the government's case. In the negotiations, Mr. Fischetti had little to trade because Mr. Schwarz has publicly said he would never admit any part in the assault itself. The unusual solution was an agreement that Mr. Schwarz would not be able to continue to proclaim publicly that he is innocent. The agreement forbids him, his wife and his lawyers to make any statements "relating in any way to the sexual or other assaults of Abner Louima." The prosecutors, too, are bound not to debate the question of Mr. Schwarz's guilt. That unorthodox curb on speech, Mr. Vinegrad said, was intended to "put an end to the continuing debate about whether or not Mr. Schwarz was in the bathroom." It is not clear whether a legal document can do that. But the fact that the prosecutors wanted so badly to quiet the debate may suggest how much they think it helped Mr. Fischetti foster the idea that there was reasonable doubt about whether Mr. Schwarz was the second officer in the bathroom. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/OJ/23/nyregion/23LOUI.html?ex=lO33790056&ei=l &en=cbbf65c5db88b101 3 HOW TO ADVERTISE For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales~nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help~nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update nacole.org 4 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 10:54 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] St. Louis: Civilian Review Needed; Should Focus on Policies Not Complaints Civilian review needed St Louis Post Dispatch Editorial on Tuesday, September 24, 2002. POLICE SHOOTINGS WHETHER a police shooting occurs during an attempted carjacking in St. Louis or as part of a Keystone Kops operation in Kinloch, it should be thoroughly investigated by an independent civilian review board. No such boards exist in the St. Louis area, but the frequency of such shootings is reason to create them. The shooting in Kinloch was a shocking example of poor police procedures. It involved Officer Walter Wilson, former chief of police in Kinloch. He accidentally shot a motorist in the shoulder during a traffic stop earlier this month. The shooting occurred when Mr. Wilson, gun drawn, reached through the window of the stopped vehicle to remove the key from the ignition. After the shooting, Mr. Wilson chased the suspect 25 mires, firing shots at him at the end of the pursuit. Mr. Wilson said he initially had stopped the car because he suspected drugs; no drugs were found. Kinloch has placed Mr. Wilson on administrative leave, pending investigation. Kinloch residents would be better served if St. Louis County took over law enforcement there. That is clear from the stories of shoddy practices reported by the Post-Dispatch's Heather Ratcliffe. Not that the shift would prevent police shootings. The county has had its share, and, like St. Louis, it needs to set up an independent civilian review board to look into such incidents. Last month, St. Louis experienced two fatal police shootings. In one, an officer shot a 17-year-old boy who fled down an alley. The officer said shots had been fired in his direction, but no evidence has been found to substantiate the claim. In the latest incident, an off-duty police detective shot a man who apparently tried to carjack a vehicle near the Chase Park Plaza with a woman and baby inside. Police Chief Joe Mokwa says the shooting was justified, and there is every reason to think it was, based on the police account, But final judgments should await a thorough investigation. That's one advantage of civilian review boards. They need not be set up to find blame. Some of the most effective review boards focus on ways to improve police training and procedures. In the case of the carjacking, for example, the suspect appeared to be mentally unstable. A board might ask whether the department had adequately trained officers on ways to apprehend unarmed, unstable people short of killing them. That's needed because officers haven't always used sound judgment when firing at suspects, especially those who have been unarmed and shot in the back. A community wishing to head off needless and potentially volatile 9/24/02 Page 2 of 3 mistrust of police should welcome unbiased inquiries in which all citizens would have more confidence. That's why more communities -- many with the encouragement of the Justice Department -- are turning to various forms of civilian review systems. They are not perfect, but they send a message to the powerless among us that the goal of police work in this community is justice as well as law and order. Civilian review should focus on policies, not complaints St Louis Post Dispatch, Tuesday, September 24, 2002. By Samuel Walker CIVILIAN REVIEW Across the country, communities are still struggling with the problem of police accountability. St. Louis is no exception. Here and in other cities the problem is two-fold: police conduct plus community confidence and trust in the police department. In policing, the perception is as important as the reality. One response is citizen oversight of the police. An open and accessible citizen complaint procedure is recognized as an essential ingredient of professional and accountable policing. It not only helps correct police misconduct but gives citizens confidence that their concerns are being addressed. The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department has included reforms of the complaint procedure in the consent decrees it has negotiated with Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, the New Jersey State Police and other law enforcement agencies. The real question is: What kind of citizen oversight should St. Louis adopt? There are some important choices. Traditional civilian review boards focus rather narrowly on individual citizen complaints. They receive and investigate complaints; and, if they sustain a complaint, they forward the finding to the police chief for appropriate action. Some civilian review boards, such as the San Francisco Office of Citizen Complaints, do a very good job. But other agencies, such as the Offices of Municipal Investigations in both Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, have not done good jobs and have been heavily criticized as a result. An effective alternative is the auditor model of citizen oversight. The auditor model focuses not on individual complaints, but on the larger complaint process and the entire police department. The goal is not to punish individual officers but to help improve police procedures and prevent future misconduct. Successful auditor model oversight agencies are found in San Jose, Calif., Portland, Ore., Boise, Idaho and Los Angeles County. The most important function that auditor models is a process known as policy review The oversight agency takes individual complaints and examines the underlying cause. In many cases, the problem is that the police department does not have a policy on that kind of situation (for example, handling the mentally ill). Or the policy may be out of date and inadequate. In these cases, the oversight agency recommends a new policy for the department. The police chief is usually required to respond in writing about whether or not he will adopt the recommendation. This process opens a public dialogue about police policies and procedures, the public is better informed about police procedures, and the department becomes engaged in a process of responsiveness and accountability. Auditor model oversight agencies also review the citizen complaint process, identify problems and make recommendations for changes. In San Jose, for example, the independent police auditor found that the police department was not properly recording all complaints (keeping many "off the books"). ALSO, many complaints were not classified properly (serious use of force complaints were classified as minor complaints). The auditor identified these problems and recommended changes that were eventually adopted. The most active auditor agency is the special counsel to the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department, which has the authority to examine any and every aspect of the department. It has made a number of recommendations for change. Two important results include a decline in lawsuits against the agency and a sharp reduction in citizens bitten by dogs in the canine unit. 9/24/02 Page 3 of 3 The reports by the auditors in San Jose and Los Angeles County, moreover, provide detailed information about police performance and policy changes that help to build public confidence in both the police and the system of oversight. For all of these reasons, the auditor model of citizen oversight is a good choice for St. Louis. For additional information about citizen oversight agencies: www.policeaccountability.org. Go to "Citizen Oversight," and then "Links." Samuel Walker is professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is the author of "Police Accountability: The Role of Citizen Oversight" and many articles on the subject. Published in the Editorial section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Tuesday, September 24, 2002. Copyright (C)2002, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Professor Samuel Walker Department of Criminal Justice University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha, NE 68182-0149 402-554-3590 (o) 402-554-2326 (fax) 402-556-4674 (h) 9/24/02 Marian Karr From: battard@ci, berkeley.ca.us Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 2:07 PM To: Suelqq@aol.com Subject: NYTimes.com Article: In Jury Pool, a Racial Divide Over Memories of Louima Case This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by battard@ci.berkeley.ca.us. Interesting perspective battard@ci.berkeley.ca.us In Jury Pool, a Racial Divide Over Memories of Louima Case September 20, 2002 By WILLIAM GLABERSON A middle-age black man from Nassau County sat in the jury box in Brooklyn federal court one day this week and answered questions from a judge about his memory of news reports describing the assault of Abner Louima and the prosecution of former police officers for it. He remembered a lot, it turned out. The prospective juror described the assault in the bathroom of a Brooklyn police station five years ago. He correctly said officers had given varying accounts about which of them was in the bathroom with Justin A. Volpe, the white officer who pleaded guilty to attacking Mr. Louima, a black Haitian inunigrant. "Somebody's lying," he said. Earlier, in the same seat, a white man who works as a cook said he remembered so little about the case that he could hardly speak intelligently about it. "I had a busy year," he said. The two men were among dozens of New Yorkers who were questioned this week by Judge Reena Raggi, who has gathered a pool of prospective jurors for the fourth trial of a white former officer, Charles Schwarz, who is charged with assisting in the assault. The contrast between the memories of many of the black New Yorkers who were summoned and those of many of the white potential jurors displayed a racial divide in perceptions about the case. Many of the blacks described Mr. Louima's ordeal as they would a cultural touchstone, like the case of the Scottsboro Boys or the Birmingham church bombing. A black hotel worker remembered reading about the case in Jet or Ebony magazine and knew, without hesitation, that Mr, Louima had been sodomized with a broken broomstick. For some of the whites, the Louima case was a half-forgotten news story. A middle-age white woman was so confused that she mistakenly referred to Mr. Louima as Abdul. Final jury selection is scheduled for this morning. 1 Barring a last-minute plea bargain, testimony is to begin Monday. Long after the superheated atmosphere of demonstrations and accusations that once surrounded the case, the differences in attitudes may help define what the Louima case has come to mean to New Yorkers. Those differences may also explain the calculations of lawyers on both sides as they prepare to exercise their challenges to potential jurors this morning. For the lawyers, race is always just beneath the surface in the case. When the jury was selected for Mr. Schwarz's last trial, in June, lawyers on each side accused the other of injecting race into the process. Mr. Schwarz's two earlier convictions had been overturned by an appeals court in February. In the end, the third jury, which included two black men, convicted Mr. Schwarz of one count of perjury but deadlocked on the three other charges: an additional perjury count and two civil rights charges; Mr. Schwarz will be retried on those charges next week. The jury foreman from the most recent trial later charged that the bigotry of a white juror had caused the deadlock. He described her as a holdout and suggested she had favored Mr. Schwarz because she had concluded he was of German ancestry. There were few signs of such attitudes during Judge Raggi's questioning this week. There were some whites who remembered a good deal about the case and some blacks whose memories were cloudy. But even some of the lawyers remarked on the pattern among some of the blacks who were summoned. A black sixth-grade teacher displayed a firm grasp of the central allegations of the prosecutors: "Mr. Volpe," she said, "was the person who did everything to the man and then Mr. Schwarz was an accessory." But a young white man said he had never heard of Mr. Schwarz, although he recalled that a teacher had discussed the case in current events class when he was in high school. Judge Raggi has ordered that all identifying information about the potential jurors be kept secret, so few details of each person's life emerged during the public questioning. But even those fragments occasionally provided a hint of the racial currents that could shape jurors' attitudes. One black man with a hint of an African accent was excused after he said an experience of being falsely arrested himself would make him too frightened to serve in a case involving the police. When Judge Raggi asked the black man from Nassau County who had recalled so much about the case whether he could put everything he knew out of his mind if he were selected, his answer gave her pause. "Being a human being," he said, "I have to say honestly, no, I cannot put everything out of my mind." But when she persisted, he said he could decide the case on the evidence alone. He will be among the 50 potential jurors who are to return to court this morning for the final selection. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/O9/20/nyregion/20LOUI.html?ex=lO33894414&ei=l&en= 0a8273e22ff045f0 2 HOW TO ADVERTISE For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company Marian Karr From: Malvina Monteiro [mmonteiro@ci.cambridge.ma.us] Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 11:33 AM To: Sue Quinn Subject: BOSTON: US probe into police shootings urged By Michael S. Rosenwald, Globe Staff, 9/25/2002 Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner and a group of activists met with US Attorney Michael A. Sullivan yesterday and urged him to open a federal civil rights investigation into a recent string of fatal police shootings in the city. ''I thought it was a frank and honest discussion,'' Turner said outside the Moakley Federal Courthouse. During the 90-minute meeting, Turner added, he strongly encouraged Sullivan to use his office to ''satisfy the public that we have an objective body to look into these incidents.'' In a statement issued after the meeting, Sullivan, the state's top federal prosecutor, did not indicate whether he believes an investigation is warranted, but promised to issue a response to the group by Friday. According to Sullivan's statement, ''the purpose of today's meeting was to provide a forum for their concerns to be raised and presented.'' Moreover, ''The information provided by the participants at the meeting is presently being reviewed. The US attorney's office has made no decision on how it will proceed at this time,'' according to the statement. At issue are eight fatal shootings by Boston police and one by a Boston Municipal Police officer within the last 22 months - a statistic that has aggravated tensions between police and the minority community and placed Commissioner Paul F. Evans on the hot seat. In the most recent fatal shooting, a young unarmed Dorchester woman in the back seat of a car was killed three weeks ago when an officer fired several times at the fleeing vehicle, striking her. A day later, Evans said he wants to restrict officers from shooting at moving vehicles unless there are other i~ainent threats - a move that led the patrol officers' union to call for Evans's resignation. Turner was joined in yesterday's meeting by minister Don Muhammad; Sadiki Kambon, director of the Black Community Information Center; Leonard Alkins, president of the Boston NAACP; and Jamarhl Crawford, chairman of the New Black Panther Party. In addition to asking for a federal civil rights investigation, the group asked Sullivan to investigate whether the officers who fired had received proper training in the use of lethal force. ''We believe that if you look at each case individually, it's clear that officers did not follow proper procedures,'' Turner said. The cases are under investigation by the Suffolk County district attorney's office, standard procedure for police shootings. Turner and Kambon said they support Evans's controversial proposal to curb officers from firing at moving vehicles. Michael Rosenwald can be reached at mrosenwald@globe.com. This story ran on page B2 of the Boston Globe on 9/25/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. 2 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 12:31 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Boston: Black Leaders Back Police Commissioner Group of Hub black leaders voice support for top cop by Jessica Heslam Boston Herald Friday, September 20, 2002 A strong showing of black community leaders yesterday came out in support of Boston Police Commissioner Paul F. Evans, a day after delegates for the patrolman's union took a unanimous "no confidence" vote. At least a dozen religious leaders gathered at the Roxbury corner where Sgt. Detective Daniel Keeler shot murder suspect John K. Powell Monday evening after Powel[ opened fired on him."We believe that at this time most of the various shootings and police responses do not arise from police misconduct, but rather from the misbehavior of a small segment of youth and young adults in the black community," said the Rev. Eugene Rivers. Rivers and three others read a lengthy statement applauding Evans' proposal to ban cops from shooting at moving vehicles. The proposal was anounced after the police shot 25-year- old Eveline Barres-Cepeda to death on Sept. 8 as she sat in the backseat of a fleeing car. The commissioner's proposed ban has angered the Boston Police Patrolman's Union, which has called on Evans to resign. The Boston Police Superior Officers Federation, which represents sergeants, lieutenants and captains, also has "serious concerns" with the proposal. The federation called Evans' plan "a hasty and poorly conceived response to an unfor[unate incident?Calling Evans a friend and ally of the black community, the contigent of community leaders called upon witnesses of crimes to come forward to police. They said that while Evans has been at the helm, the black community has received hundreds of thousands of dollars for community policing as well as youth recreation and cultural programs."The black community has to close ranks behind Evans. What's the alternative?" Rivers said.Jeanette Boone, volunteer coordinator for Operation Homefront, a group that helps troubled youths, has worked with Evans for years."He should not resign. He does have support," Boone said.The Rev. Dwayne Frazier of the Revival Time Flame of Fire Ministries said he too supports Evans."We support the Police Department and what they do. We want them to get home safely," Frazier said.The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce has also thrown its support behind Evans. Earlier yesterday, other activists said the police commissioner has lost the trust of the community. City Councilor Chuck Turner said Evans rejected his request for a civilian review board. On Tuesday, Turner said he and others plan to meet with U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and ask him to investigate recent police shootings."ldeally, we want change in police procedures," said Turner, who supports Evans' proposed car shooting ban. Sadiki Kambon, director of the Black Community Information Center, said the community may consider a boycott of downtown merchants and a campaign to discourage black organizations from bringing "conventions and dollars" to Boston."We are at a crossroad here with a Charles Stuart like atmosphere and unless we are given justice, then the situation will only continue to deteriorate," Kambon said. Black leaders back police commissioner: Union sticks to demand for resignation by Marie Szaniszlo Boston Herald Saturday, September 21, 2002 Two days after the Boston Police Patrolman's Association called for his resignation over a dispute about the use of deadly force, a second group of influential black leaders came to Commissioner Paul Evans' defense yesterday, urging the union to support the reforms he has proposed, and more.' 'We really do appreciate the difficulty of the job police officers face every day," the Rev. Raymond Hammond said at a press conference in Roxbury. "But we also want to be sure that innocent bystanders and civilians aren't hurt, and that we don't undermine the trust that's been built over the years between the police and the community."Marlena Richardson, president of the Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association. said the group suppods Evans and his proposal to bar officers from shooting at vehicles and urges the department to go even further, by improving training, adding foot patrols and expediting investigations into police shootings. In an interview after yesterday's press conference, Evans said he had heard "loud and clear" the demand for a more timely accounting to the public, but he opposed a separate proposal for an all-civilian review board to prebe police shootings because there is already a civilian board to which people may appeal if they disagree with the findings of the Internal Affairs Department. Earlier this week, another group of community leaders condemned the police union's call for Evans' resignation, calling it "inflammatory and divisive," particularly at a time when police are tPjing to respond to a recent rise in violence. The Boston Chamber of Commerce also issued a statement in support of Evans, who has repeatedly said he will not step down. The Rev. Eugene Rivers, speaking for a contingent of black leaders at a news conference Thursday, said Boston has "the most progressive police force in the United States," and pointed to various programs he said have made the city safer. He also said police were not responsible for a spike in police shootings, dudng which officers have shot and killed eight people in the last 22 months."We believe that at this time most of the various shootings and police responses do not arise from police misconduCt, but rather from the misbehavior of a small segment of youth and young adults in the black community," Rivers said. Evans angered officers when he proposed banning police officers from shooting at moving vehicles after an officer shot at a fleeing car on Sept. 8 and killed a passenger, Eveline Barres-Cepeda, 25.Police union officials said the directive would put their lives at risk. On Wednesday, the BPPA called for Evans to resign and issued a vote of no confidence. And their position was unchanged yesterday."No one feels worse about these shootings than the officers, but the most discouraging part is that the sole responsibility is being placed on them," said BPPA President Tom Nee. "We deserve a right to defend ourselves."Evans said he had begun reviewing the policy months ago, precisely because he is concerned about officers' safety. "I'm not second-guessing the cop," he said. 'Tm second-guessing the policy." 9/25/02 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 12:31 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Key West: Citizen Review Bd to be on Nov. ballot Citizen Review Board to be on November ballot BY PETER DELUCA keysnews.com The Key West City Commission addressed several important issues Tuesday night, but none more divisive than the forced referendum issue concerning the establishment of a Citizen Review Board to oversee the Key West Police Department and its officers' behavior. Several weeks ago a civilian coalition fom~ed a committee to collect enough signatures from registered city voters, through petition, to force the issue of the formation of a review board to be put on the November ballot. The committee needed about 1,400 signatures to make the petition valid, and that number was collected, certified, and passed on to the commission which; according to the city charter, was required to approve it, put it on the ballot, and allow voters to decide if it should become law. A major stumbling block for the commissioners and Mayor Jimmy Weekley was the demand that the proposed new city department have subpoena powers. Attorney Sam Kauffman, speaking for the petition committee, was not clear whether there exists in Florida any similarly designed review board that does have subpoena powers. Another major concern to the commission was the outline of the meeting structure of the proposed new board. If approved by the voters, the Citizen Review Board would be able to hold nearly secret meetings, seemingly in violation of Sunshine laws. According to Kauffman, the cloistered meeting would be held only to prevent sensitive information from leaking out to the public. Mayor Weekley pointed out to the commissioners that their hands were tied, they had no alternative except to pass the resolution, and once it passed, it had to be put on the ballot. Worried about the constitutionality of the board's subpoena powers, the commissioners distanced themselves from the issue, and Mayor Weekley said he "was going to do everything I can to let people know that he did not support the referendum." Commissioner Merili McCoy was "disappointed that the board will not be made up of elected officials." The proposed composition of the board, and how it would be chosen, is not completely established, but in general it would be made up of citizens who are not law enforcement professionals. pdeluca~keysnews.com 9/25/02 Page 1 of 8 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 12:31 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Two More LA Police Chief Candidate Profiles: Art Lopez & Wm Bratton Lopez Builds Bridges Between Police and Communities L Chief: The easygoing head of Oxnard's force, a former Los Angeles deputy, says the city needs the reconciliation he can bring. .~. Photos Art Lopez (ANNE CUSACK / LAT) Meeting with the Public (ANNE CUSACK / LAT) Related Stories Timoney Has Made a Career of Cleaning Up Police Messes September 22, 2002 Icomplete coverage of the selection process for the top spot at the LAPD Times Headlines Firefighters Battle Calif. Wildfire Lopez Builds Bridges Between Police and Communities Davis to Sign Bill Allowing Paid Famil~ly Leave 'New' Simon Effort Looks Lot Like Old 9/25/02 Page 2 of 8 Secession Theme Striking No Chords more > By DARYL KELLEY, TIMES STAFF WRITER Second of three candidate profiles As he makes his pitch to head the Los Angeles Police Department, Art Lopez argues against history: He contends that his affability, his willingness to listen to civilians and his record of reaching out to those who distrust the police qualify him best to take over an organization long renowned for its insularity and independence. It's time to change that, Lopez says. And making allies, even of potential enemies, is the forte of the 52-year-old Oxnard police chief, who last week surprised even himself by making the short list of finalists for police chief in Los Angeles. Lopez says he knows how to get along with people, and how to listen to his superiors. And he thinks those characteristics might work for him when he interviews this morning with Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn. "When I was hired in Oxnard, the city manager said he chose me because he felt most comfortable with me," Lopez said. "1 think that's what Mayor Hahn is going to look for too. I'm going to listen to my civilian bosses. I'm not going to try to steal the limelight from anybody. We'll share in the success." On Thursday, the five-member civilian Los Angeles Police Commission, all mayoral appointees, recommended that Hahn consider Lopez for police chief, along with higher-profile finalists William Bratton and John Timoney, former police commissioners in New York City and Philadelphia. "1 was the dark horse guy," Lopez said in an interview Saturday. "1 came in under the radar for a long time, while the candidates within the [LAPD] were killing each other off." The new chief will replace Bernard Parks, whom Hahn earlier this year denied a second five:year term. And if Parks represents a style of chief with whom Hahn was uncomfortable, Lopez offers a clear alternative. Where Parks was forceful, Lopez is easygoing. Where Parks battled with some members of the city's civilian leadership, Lopez promises a gentler approach.. And where Parks used to boast of his record for forcing out bad cops--at the LAPD, he once famously proclaimed, officials "discipline too many and fire too few"--Lopez in his four years as Oxnard's chief has not fired a single officer for misconduct. In addition to Oxnard officers, Lopez includes community activists, some LAPD officers and even some police critics among his supporters. Skeptics include some Iongtime LAPD leaders, who question his depth, and former Mayor Richard Riordan, who passed over Lopez in favor of Parks. The Iow-key Lopez, a calm and orderly executive with a knack for turning hostile community meetings around, said he is not troubled by criticism nor by his rivals' credentials. Lopez added that he planned to arrive for his interview with Hahn today ready to make his case for how to turn around the department. 9/25/02 Page 3 of 8 "Imagine," said Lopez, who worked 26 years as a Los Angeles cop before moving to Oxnard four years ago, "the reward of being part of the fix of the LAPD.." One key goal, he said, is putting the department in touch with Los Angeles' ethnically diverse communities. The Rampart scandal, he said, revealed not only the crimes some officers will commit to jail youth gang members, but also how little trust at least one poor Latino neighborhood, Pice Union, had in its police. "There had been a total disconnect between the Police Department and that community," Lopez said. "It's so important for the next police chief to rebuild those bridges. And that's what I do best." Lopez said his steady ascent through the ranks of the LAPD--starting as a patrolman in 1971 and eventually including the command of Hollenbeck Station and Central Bureau before ending as a deputy chief shortly before he left for Oxnard in 1998--prepares him to run the demoralized department of 9,000 officers. But others say Lopez is a good guy whose ambitions overreach his abilities--a lesser light, especially compared with Bratton and Timoney. William Rathburn, former deputy chief of the LAPD, said Lopez's four years atop the 200-officer Oxnard department do not qualify him to run the far larger and more complicated LAPD. Oxnard's entire police department is smaller than a single LAPD station, of which there are 18, in addition to a host of special units. LAPD pioneered SWAT teams--which include negotiators and marksmen--and it fields canine and mounted operations, as well as gang enforcement, narcotics and other specialized groups of officers. As the nation's third-largest police force, the LAPD also labors under complex administrative requirements, including the presence of a federal judge and monitor who oversee a consent decree adopted under Riordan and despite Riordan's reservations. "Art is a nice guy," Rathburn said. "[But] I don't think Art has the capabilities that are required for the job.... You could be a success in Oxnard but not a success in Los Angeles. It requires a different mentality, the ability to recognize problems, very strong leadership characteristics." Lopez was not even the strongest candidate available from current or former LAPD deputy chiefs, Rathburn said. Riordan, who selected Parks as chief in 1997, when Lopez was also a candidate, said LAPD insiders tell him a vote for Lopez would be a vote for the status quo. Riordan cautioned against selecting Lopez if the reason is to please Latino residents, who make up the largest racial or ethnic share of the city's population. If selected, Lopez would be city's first Latino police chief. "Art's a good guy, and a very competent guy," Riordan said. "But if [Hahn] wants to get reelected, he needs a really good police chief, and forget the political correctness. That'll get worn thin. If I had to bet, I'd pick Timoney." Lopez said his selection would be a boost to Latinos, but that his ethnicity should not be a principal consideration when picking a chief. "There is a lot of pride about this," Lopez said Friday, shortly after a reporter from a third Spanish-language television station interviewed him "Believe me, we're going to have a lot of support out there from the Latino community. And it may be important for some of the people because I'd become an instant role model. But I agree with Mayor Hahn that they should be seeking the most qualified individual." Supporters say that's Lopez. "What this city needs is a chief of police who is not another politician or would-be politician," said Ron Frankle, a former LAPD deputy chief who mentored Lopez before retiring in 1996. "They need a good, solid, affable general manager, and he fits that description very well." Ventura County's two top law enforcement officers said Lopez is a worthy finalist. "1 told Mayor Hahn that they can't do any better than Art Lopez," said Ventura Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury. He said Lopez had introduced new crime-fighting ideas to the suburban county. Lopez, for instance, brought two LAPD experts on 9/25/02 Page 4 of 8 the Rampart scandal to Ventura to share its lessons. Venture County Sheriff Bob Brooks, who met regularly with Lopez on a police chiefs' panel, said Lopez also distinguished himself by establishing four community advisory boards for different parts of Oxnard and a "chiefs council" of racial and ethnic leaders, with which he meets regularly to feel the pulse of the working-class city of 182,000 residents. Those relations were tested during Lopez's tenure by a string of police shootings that touched off fear and anger in the community. Over eight months, Oxnard police shot and killed five men, most of them mentally ill. The last was the fatal shooting of a distraught, knife-wielding 23-year-old artist killed while cowering in his own bedroom closet after his mother called police to take him to a hospital for treatment. All of the shootings were ruled justified by county prosecutors, but Lopez ordered more training for his officers on how to calm emotionally disturbed suspects. So far, 24 officers have undergone weeklong training classes, and every officer in the Oxnard department has received an eight-hour course, Lopez said. Oxnard also is using a new crisis intervention team and, in the last year, officers have shot just one crime suspect, and he survived. Los Angeles attorney Samuel Paz, who specializes in police brutality cases, dealt with Lopez in two questionable Los Angeles police shootings in the 1990s, and represents the mother of the artist Oxnard police killed last year. Paz said Lopez should have acted more quickly in response to the Oxnard shootings. But in general, he said, Lopez has been responsive to residents and has enacted reforms that will save lives in Oxnard. Paz recalled a San Pedro case a few years ago in which it appeared that a young man had been shot in the back by Los Angeles police. Lopez rolled out to the scene to calm the community, he said. "The public was very upset with the LAPD," Paz said. "Lopez was very caring in addressing their concerns, but he also protected the integrity of the department. He comes across as being a sincere person who demands respect, not based on his size or a scowl, but because he expresses himself in a very articulate way that doesn't set people off." Community leaders say Lopez has brought that same personal connection to his work in Oxnard. "He's responded whenever we've come forward with complaints," said Hank Lacayo, board president of El Concilio del Condado de Venture, the county's biggest Latino advocacy group. "1 see a difference in the demeanor of the Oxnard P.D. There are more attempts to reach out." Lopez came to an Oxnard department with a history of excessive force complaints. Within days, he sat down with Sgt. Steven Moore, then president of the officers' union, to emphasize discipline. "He's been strict but fair," Moore said. "He's handed out some discipline, but I don't know anybody who has found it unjust." Although police disciplinary records at Oxnard are not public, Moore said Lopez has not fired any officers, though he has handed down at least one 30-day suspension. That record would make Lopez a light touch by recent LAPD standards, but officers in Oxnard view him as at least as tough as his predecessor there. Lopez said he left the LAPD for Oxnard in 1998 with no intention of returning. But if he does, Lopez's journey would bring him home to a city he never really left. The son of two Lockheed employees--his dad was a plastics fabricator and his mom a parts sorter--Lopez was raised in a bilingual middle-class home in Monterey Park, a third-generation Mexican-American. He's married and has two college- age daughters--a law school student at USC and a master's degree candidate at Pepperdine. He lives in an Oxnard condo weekdays, and commutes home to Porter Ranch in the San Fernando Valley on weekends, so he's always kept a foothold in Los Angeles. He says that's not because he was planning a return to the LAPD as chief--he figured Parks would be there for at least 10 years--but because he truly likes the city. "Now I want to be back in the worst way," Lopez said. "Everything I am today is the result of my experience with the Los Angeles Police Department I still bleed blue. I never really left the LAPD." 9/25/02 Page 5 of 8 Times staff writer Beth Shuster contributed to this story. h ttp://www, la tim es. co m/n ews/Iocal/la-m e-b ratto n24 se p24001446(0,786364), s to ry ?coil= la %2 D h ea d lin es %2 D californ ia LAST OF THREE CANDIDATE PROFILES Bratton Exhibits Results --and a Taste for Limelight LAPD: Finalist for chief has strong qualifications. But his independence and hunger for publicity hurt him when he led the New York department. By TINA DAUNT TIMES STAFF WRITER September 24 2002 The day after former New York Police Commissioner William Bratton announced that he wanted to be chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, he sent Los Angeles city leaders a copy of his autobiography and a packet of press clippings as thick as the Westside phonebook. The stack included a profile from the New Yorker declaring him the "CEO Cop," and a New York Times editorial lauding Bratton as an energetic leader who made a difference. Through the strength of his resume-and his own forceful public relations campaign--Bratton was determined to make the cut for the LAPD job. As a result, few at Los Angeles City Hall expressed surprise last week when the Police Commission named Bratton one of three finalists for the job, along with Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez and John Timoney, former commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department and a onetime deputy to Bratton in New York. During his NYPD tenure from 1994 through 1996, Bratton's management reorganizations and crime-fighting tactics helped force a national reexamination of the role of police in combating crime. But Bratton, 54, also is a man who keeps his own clippings. His determination to tout his accomplishments was deeply resented by his boss, Mayo~: Rudolph W. Giuliani. Eventually, the mayor had enough and forced the commissioner through a public ethics examination that eventually persuaded Bratton to resign. Today, Bratton brings the same blend of self-promotion and accomplishment to the final round of the debate over who is best suited to run the LAPD "I'm extremely aware of what the problems are in the LAPD," Bratton said in an interview. "1 can go in there very quickly and turn it around. I really do believe I'm the right person at the right time for the LAPD and for Los Angeles." Bratton is a veteran of three major police agencies, having led the New York City Transit Police and the Boston Police Department before taking over the NYPD in 1994. But it is his two years at the helm of the NYPD that form the basis of his candidacy today. While Bratton served as commissioner of the NYPD, crime in New York City declined so sharply that the trend helped 9/25/02 Page 6 of 8 refocus the study of crime and punishment. To this day, experts argue over what was responsible, but the numbers were stark and the effect on life in New York palpable. Starting just before Bratton took over and accelerating during his tenure, crimes of all sorts fell. Serious felonies--murder, rape, robbery and the like-dropped 33%. The murder rate was cut in half. Other cities, including Los Angeles, saw declines as well, but none on the order of New York's. Up to that point, many academic experts on crime tended to attribute to police little influence on criminal behavior. They preferred instead to examine factors such as economic conditions, demographics, drug use and incarceration rates. After New York's experience, many had difficulty excluding policing strategies as at least one significant contributor. For Bratton, there were other benefits. He was, for instance, featured on the cover of Time magazine. "He is a strategic thinker with a proven track record," said Iongtime New York City journalist Richard Esposito. "If he gets the job, he will be very, very good for Los Angeles ... But you have to realize that publicity is Bill Bratton's Viagra." Giuliani strongly urged Bratton to take a lower profile. Civil rights advocates complained that the NYPD had become too aggressive. Even some law enforcement experts who were convinced that police deserved some credit for the radical reduction in dangerous activity warned that Bratton tended to claim too much credit-that there were larger national forces at work beyond the New York experience. Others gave the department credit for knocking down crime rates, but warned that the progress had come with other social costs. "Bill Bratton is a showboat," said Stephen Yagman, a lawyer who frequently has sued the LAPD and who lived in New York when Bratton was police commissioner. "And there is no question in my mind that the crackdown on crime was based on a racial profiling component. They were targeting minorities in poor communities." Twenty-seven months after pinning on the NYPD badge, Bratton was out the door. He immediately went to work as a consultant, earning more than a half-million dollars a year, traveling the globe, giving advice to police agencies on how to cut crime. One of those agencies was the LAPD, where Bratton served as part of the monitoring team overseeing the department's compliance with a consent decree under the supervision of a federal judge. When it became clear that Mayor James K. Hahn was inclined to deny LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks a second five-year term, Bratton dropped his position on that team in favor of seeking to become the department's next chief. Never lacking in confidence, Bratton had barely submitted his application before he and his wife, Court TV anchor Rikki Klieman, began searching for a house-in Brentwood. (Klieman is Bratton's fourth wife.) 'Tve been successful everywhere I've worked in policing," Bratton said. 'Tve traveled all over the world. But I realize, as a consultant, you can only cajole. You cannot create change." City officials have greeted Bratton's candidacy with mixed views. While pleased that the post has attracted such an undeniably national figure as Bratton, some of Hahn's aides are concerned about the former commissioner's track record in New York. The mayor's advisors say Hahn might accept Bratton's penchant for publicity, as long as he can reform the department and make Los Angeles the safest big city in the United States. "Jim Hahn has made it clear that he wants a chief who is going to be a partner and who is going to understand that he works for the mayor," said a Iongtime Los Angeles political consultant, Rick Taylor. "The stronger you are as an independent law enforcement leader, the less likely you are to get the job." Bratton, who is scheduled to meet with Hahn today, has pledged to be part of a team, with the mayor and his staff. He insists that he knows that Hahn is the boss-and goes so far as to say that he agrees with Hahn about everything. "There isn't a thing the mayor has said that I haven't agreed with," Bratton said. 'Tm a team player, and I always have been." Bratton grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Boston, and set out early to become a cop. He volunteered to serve as a military officer in Vietnam, and when he returned from the war in 1970, he joined the Boston Police Department. As a young officer there, he won a medal of valor for an incident that highlighted his developing gift for gab: He persuaded a bank robber to surrender a hostage being held at gunpoint. Bratton worked his way up in Boston, and in 1990 he was offered the job as head of the transit police in New York City.. Those were troubled times in New York, a city haunted by the case of a young woman jogger attacked and left for dead in Central Park by a gang of men. "Their 'wilding' attacks came to epitomize how unsafe New York had become," Bratton said. 9/25/02 Page 7 of 8 In charge of policing New York's vast subway system--where crimes from cheating the token system to attacking riders were frighteningly common--Bratton equipped his officers with better gear and directed them to ignore nothing. He would go out with them on patrol, even in the middle of the night, and he launched a campaign to focus on Iow-level offenses. Token-jumpers, he argued, were committing a small offense, but they established a tone of lawlessness for the subway system and went on to commit bigger crimes. Stop the small offenses, he said, and bigger crimes will decline as well. Within months, those efforts appeared to pay off, as assaults dropped nearly to nothing on the New York subway. His success was noticed in New York and in his hometown of Boston, where he was offered the job as head of Boston's police department. Bratton accepted the Boston offer and left New York. He was back in his hometown only a few months before Giuliani called, asking him to return back to New York as head of the NYPD. From Day 1, Bratton framed his job in military terms. In a swearing-in speech that consciously borrowed the wartime rhetoric of Winston Churchill, he vowed: "We will fight for every house in the city. We will fight for every street. We will fight for every borough. And we will win." Later, Bratton wrote in his book: "The turnaround had begun. Like Babe Ruth pointing his bat to the bleacher indicating where his next home run would land, I was confidently predicting the future." The rhetoric may have played well with New Yorkers, but it concerned Giuliani and his aides, who were worried that Bratton, from the outset, was claiming too high a profile. They were also concerned about Bratton's frequent appearances on the evening news, whether he was publicly dressing down officers accused of corruption or explaining the logic behind COMPSTAT, the new, computerized crime-fighting system that he helped devise, which made local police commanders accountable for identifying and reducing crime in their precincts. Using computerized maps to pinpoint crimes by type, hour and frequency of occurrence, Bratton and his staff were able to identify patterns and direct police efforts. Bratton would also meet weekly with area captains to review crime statistics and devise strategies to combat hot spots. Those meetings, to which reporters occasionally were invited, came to symbolize the NYPD's new determination and accountability. As Bratton trumpeted his efforts, he ran afoul of a mayor whose reputation also depended on credit for fighting crime. Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor elected in part on a platform to combat New York street crime, generally forbade his department heads to speak to the media unless it had been cleared through the mayor's press office. There was a steady stream of directives from Giuliani's office to Bratton, requesting that he tone down or eliminate his extended meetings with reporters. But the warnings were rarely heeded. The situation worsened in January 1996, when he--not Giuliani-made the cover of Time magazine for a story on New York's "miracle" reduction in crime. Making matters worse, Bratton offered to revive an old tradition of having police parades in the city. The date he floated for a possible event happened to be his birthday, and the mayor's office killed the plan, saying it would be too costly. W~th tensions already high, Giuliani then raised public concerns when Random House announced that it was giving the police chief a $300,000 advance to write "Turnaround." The mayor was not happy with this news, especially because Bratton had not cleared the book deal with him beforehand. Throwing down the gauntlet, he asked the city's corporation counsel to investigate whether the book deal represented a conflict of interest. By this time, Bratton's term as police commissioner was up for mayoral renewal, and Giuliani said he would not even consider the matter until the investigation was concluded. Bratton, reading the writing on the wall, resigned his post. The two men never buried the hatchet. Giuliani almost never comments on his former police commissioner, but aides have privately questioned Bra[Ion's behavior in office. "The problem is that Bill Bratton couldn't live within any limits," said a source familiar with the personalities and inner workings of the Giuliani administration. "He had to have everything his way. He loved media attention." 9/25/02 Page 8 of 8 For his part, Bratton openly criticized the NYPD and Giuliani's leadership when tensions between police and minorities erupted after Bratton had left. In 1999, when four officers shot and killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African street peddler, Bratton said New York police needed to improve their relations with various minority communities. He did continue to praise Giuliani for spearheading the city's crusade against crime, saying in a 2000 interview: "The mayor deserves credit, because if the crime rate had gone up, he'd be taking the heat." Yet Bratton also compared Giuliani with Richard Nixon and added of the New York mayor: "The problem with his personality is excess. He kicks you while you're down, and it's worked by and large, because he's intimidated the hell out of this town." in interviews now, Bratton says he'd like to put his differences with Giuliani behind him and move West. After more than a year of working with the independent monitoring team tracking the LAPD's compliance with its consent decree, Bratton knows whom to call. He has spent weeks networking behind the scenes with Los Angeles leaders and law enforcement experts. Bratton believes the LAPD is in the same state in which he found the NYPD in 1994: Officers, fearful of controversy, are trying to find ways to stay out of trouble instead of policing the city; Bratton says they need leadership. 'Tm somebody who likes dealing with crisis," he said. 'Tm like a player who likes four or five batting machines pitching bails at me at the same time." (BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX) In-Depth Looks at the Short List for Next Chief On Thursday, the Los Angeles Police Commission concluded a five-month search for the next chief of the LAPD by sending Mayor James K. Hahn the names of three finalists: William Bratton, former commissioner of the New York Police Department; John Timoney, former commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department; and Art Lopez, a veteran of the LAPD who serves as chief of the Oxnard Police Department. 9/25/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 12:32 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] OpEd: LAPD Needs Steady--Not Heavy-Hand at Helm COMMENTARY We Need a Steady-- Not Heavy-Hand at the LAPD's Helm ;~ Excessive-force issue is critical in evaluating candidates. By EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON, Earl Ofari Hutchinson is the author of "The Crisis in Black and Black" (Middle Passage Press, 1998). E-mail: ehutchi344@aol .com. The Los Angeles Police Commission's three finalists for LAPD chief-John Timoney, William Bratton and Art Lopez--are widely hailed for raising officer morale, sharply reducing crime and boosting the image of departments they've headed. Yet there are also troubling questions about what they did or didn't do to reduce the overuse of excessive force by officers in their departments. In Philadelphia, Timoney drew intense fire from black leaders and political activists after the videotaped beating of a black suspect by a swarm of officers and the manhandling of demonstrators at the Republican convention in 2000. In New York, Bratton drew fire from black leaders and civil libertarians for the big jump in excessive-force complaints that stemmed from street stops and shakedowns of young black and Latino men, many of whom were not arrested or even accused of any criminal wrongdoing. In Oxnard, Lopez drew fire from black and Latino leaders after the questionable shootings by police of five civilians, some of whom were mentally ill. How a police chief handles excessive force by officers strikes at the heart of real police reform. A decade ago in Los Angeles, the Christopher Commission investigating the Rodney King beating case recognized that excessive force was the single biggest problem that poisoned relations between the police and minority communities and was a spark in the deadly racial turmoil. The panel identified hundreds of officers who were the targets of citizen complaints of excessive force or the use of improper tactics in dealing with suspects. Even more damaging, the commission named dozens of officers who had multiple charges of excessive force against them. it tactfully labeled them "potential problem officers." The commission blasted the department for doing nothing to control or discipline the officers and for not holding their supervisors accountable for their actions. It recommended firmer discipline procedures to weed out problem officers and better screening procedures to prevent troublesome applicants from ever wearing an LAPD uniform. That didn't happen. A decade after the Christopher report, the city was stunned again by allegations that some officers in the Rampart Division beat, kicked and shot suspects, planted evidence and gave perjured testimony and that supervisors did little or nothin9 to punish them. Further, it took years and much pressure from the Police Commission and the Justice Department to get the LAPD to drop its resistance to a computerized monitoring system to better track civilian complaints against officers, mostly involving excessive-force violations. Without ironclad procedures to swiftly and severely discipline abusive officers, it is impossible to fully restore public confidence in the LAPD. What it still comes down to is that the punishment of officer misconduct rests in the hands of the chief. And there is nothing that can be done to compel him to take action against an abusive officer. 9/25/02 Page 2 of 2 In the past, city officials have absolved themselves of any responsibility for officers who brutalize suspects by giving the LAPD free rein to investigate itself. This blind faith in the department to initiate wide-ranging reforms is fraught with pitfalls. The Los Angeles Police Department is no different from any other government agency or corporation accused of wrongdoing. Its reflexive reaction is self-protective. The officers who use excessive force and are not punished are not just a danger to the department but to the community, feeding the belief of much of the public that officials cover up officer misconduct. Mayor James Hahn and the L.A. City Council would be well-advised to think long and hard about what a police chief can and should do to reduce or eliminate the use of excessive force as a flashpoint issue in police-minority community relations. This is a crucial litmus test they must not ignore in picking the next chief. 9/25/02 Marian Karr From: Hector. W.Soto@ph[[a.gov Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 1:28 PM To: update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] NYTimes.com Article: Civilian Board on Po[ice Misconduct Defends Itself on Claim That It Is Soft This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by hector.w.soto@phila.gov. Civilian Board on Police Misconduct Defends Itself on Claim That It Is Soft September 25, 2002 By KEVIN FLYNN Officials of the Civilian Complaint Review Board defended the agency yesterday against allegations by a former employee who told a legislative hearing that the panel is ineffective, tolerates racial discrimination and is biased toward the police. In two hours of testimony at a City Council hearing, the chairman and the executive director of the review board tried to bat back the accusations by the former board investigator, William Aquino, who said he had been pressured to adjust his reports to favor police officers. The 13-member board employs an investigative staff of more than 100 to review citizen complaints of police misconduct, like excessive use of force. Complaints that the board determines to be accurate are forwarded to the Police Department for possible disciplinary action. Mistakes do happen, board officials acknowledged at yesterday's hearing of the Council's Public Safety Co~nittee. But the review board's processes and personnel are fair and thorough, they said. "Racial bias and unethical behavior are an anathema to our ideals," Hector Gonzalez, the board's chairman, told the committee. Mr. Aquino, who spent four years as an investigator, resigned on June 4, a day after sending Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg a lengthy letter assessing the agency. Yesterday, in his second appearance before a Council committee, Mr. Aquino reiterated his view that the board often unfairly sided with the police version of events, demonstrated weakness in its dealings with police executives and retaliated against investigators who balked at adjusting their reports. Those who spoke out received critical performance evaluations and found their path to promotions blocked, he said. "People have told me they are afraid to come forward," Mr. Aquino said. Mr. Aquino described how in one incident agency officials failed to push the Police Department to turn over a tape recording that he said would have provided crucial evidence 1 in an excessive force case against an officer. Mr. Aquine said he was advised to try to do without it. He said he ignored that advice. Board officials said Mr. Aquino viewed incidents in which he might have been overruled by supervisors as evidence of favoritism and dishonesty, not just honest disagreements. "An issue," Mr. Gonzalez said, "that might seem clear-cut to an investigator a couple of years out of college reading administrative case law for the first time can appear more complicated to board members who together have over 280 years of experience litigating, teaching and enforcing the law." Board officials said that in 2001, the last full year for which statistics are available, they reversed the reco~nendations on discipline made by their staff investigators only 9 percent of the time. Critics of the review board have generally acknowledged that its operations have shown improvement in recent years. Police officials have said that the quality of investigations has improved with an increase in city financing that allowed the board to expand its investigative staff. In 1996, for example, only 35 percent of the officers who the panel concluded had committed misconduct were later disciplined by the department. By 2000, that number had grown to 76 percent, the officials said. But the board's progress in diversifying its investigative staff has been less striking, the officials acknowledged. As of Sept. 1, the officials said, about 66 percent of the investigators were white, with 18 percent black, 10 percent Hispanic and 6 percent Asian. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/O9/25/nyregion/25CCRB.html?ex 1033960427&ei~l&en= 9836alb5875e0f82 HOW TO ADVERTISE For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.c0m. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update_nacole.org Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 11:42 AM To: Update@NACOLEorg Subject: [NACOLE Update] NY Police Want Eased Restrictions on Political Investigations SURVEILLANCE NYTimes 9 26 02 Police Ask to Change the Rules and Ease Restrictions on Political Investigations By KEVIN FLYNN and JACOB H. FRIES [] Ihe New. York Police Department yesterday asked a judge in Federal District Court to lift restrictions that curtail police monitoring of political activity, contending that the restrictions now significantly threaten to hamper its counterterrorism efforts. The restrictions, contained in a consent decree signed by the city in 1985, limit the ability of the police to investigate political activities by individuals or groups unless investigators have specific information that a crime will be committed or is being planned. But in papers filed in Manhattan yesterday afternoon, lawyers for the police argued that circumstances had changed significantly since the agreement was reached, particularly since the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The papers stated that the restrictions, which restrain the police from activities such as videotaping political demonstrations, now "limit the ability of the NY.P.D. to combat terrorism." Police officials described the consent decree, known as the Handschu agreement, as the product of an era when some citizens might have worried about the potential privacy invasions by government, but when few worried about attacks from foreign terrorists. Today, police officials said, the same restrictions are unreasonably prohibiting them from using surveillance and undercover officers to monitor terrorist cells that may never engage in overt criminal acts until they suddenly unleash an attack. "We live in a more dangerous, constantly changing world, one with challenges and threats that were never envisioned when the Handschu guidelines were written," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said. The city's request drew opposition from some civil libertarians and Arab-Americans who characterized it as a possibly unconstitutional attempt to infringe on civil rights. "To the extent the city seeks to open the door to police surveillance of political activity without any evidence of illegal conduct," said Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, "this move is deeply troubling and we would oppose it. While the NY.P.D., of course, should be investigating potential criminal and terrorist activity, it has no legitimate reason to spy on lawful political activity." A lawyer for the original plaintiffs in the Handschu case, Jethro M. Eisenstein, said that what police officials were describing as an effort to modify the consent decree actually seemed like an effort to undo it. 9/26/02 Page 2 of 2 "The Handschu guidelines in no way handcuff the investigation of terrorism," he said. "They were carefully crafted by a bunch of people who thought a lot about the ability of the country to defend itself." Police officials said they were the only law enforcement agency in the country saddled with restrictions of this sort. In January 2001, a federal appeals court in Illinois eased the terms of a similar consent decree that had limited the ability of the Chicago Police Department to investigate political activity in that city. The three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that the decree "renders the police helpless to do anything to protect the public" against terrorism. New York City's papers to amend the consent decree were filed with Judge Charles S. Haight Jr., the same judge who presided over the original settlement. They were accompanied by an affidavit from David Cohen, the department's deputy commissioner for intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency's former deputy director for operations. In his affidavit, Mr. Cohen argued that terrorists used the freedoms of open societies to shield themselves from discovery by investigators, and that the city could no longer afford to abide by guidelines that "place daunting obstacles in our way." Submitted with the affidavit were chapters from the Al Qaeda training manual, which Mr. Cohen described as a guide "for terrorists worldwide." But several Arab-Americans suggested that the city was trying to turn back time to when law enforcement's ability to intrude illegally into the lives of individuals was unchecked. "We've been down this road before," said Hussein Ibish, a spokesman for the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, based in Washington. 'Tm not speculating that granting these powers can lead to abuses. It's a matter of recent history." The Handschu agreement grew from a civil suit filed in 1971 on behalf of groups including the Black Panther Party and the Computer People for Peace who asserted that police intelligence gathering had infringed on their constitutional rights. The suit ultimately led to the consent decree, completed in 1985, which said that the police could only investigate political activity after gaining the approval of a three-person panel, consisting of two police executives and a civilian appointed by the mayor, who were to ensure they were acting in accord with the guidelines. Among the guidelines is a ban on using undercover agents to infiltrate groups unless the activity is approved by the panel, known as the Handschu Authority. Investigators are also blocked from sharing information about political groups with other law enforcement agencies. Under the city's proposal, those restrictions would be dropped. But the authority, which currently meets once every two months, would continue to exist to hear complaints from those who felt police investigators had abused their authority. In cases where the panel finds that the guidelines have been violated, it can forward a recommendation for discipline to the police commissioner. 9/26/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 12:11 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org; padkrask@ACS.EKU.EDU Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA Area: Suit in 1999 SWAT Slaying Leads to Apology September 26, 2002 LA Area: Suit in 1999 SWAT Slaying Leads to Apology ~ Settlement: The family of a man killed by El Monte police during a drug probe will get $3 million. Deal includes department reforms. By JOSE CARDENAS, TIMES STAFF WRITER The city of El Monte agreed Wednesday to pay $3 million to the family of a 65-year-old man who was fatally shot in the back after officers stormed his bedroom during a namotics investigation. The city also agreed to comply with 15 conditions--including apologizing to the man's wife and a series of reforms for its Police Department. The wrongful-death settlement at Compton Superior Court appears to climax a case that began three years ago when the El Monte Police Department's SWAT team went to the Compton house of Marlo Paz looking for evidence in a wide- ranging narcotics investigation. The investigators came to the Paz house armed with a search warrant because one of their suspects was known to have received mail there. In the chaos of the drug operation that night, Paz was shot. The settlement was announced by attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. at his offices in Los Angeles. He was joined by eight members of the Paz family, including the dead man's widow, Maria Paz. "Paz means peace and my father was truly a man of peace," said Maria Detain, one of his children. "The Paz family will begin the healing process." Cochran said two of the conditions-the apology and changes to make sure that police officers treat relatives of shooting victims sensitively after such incidents-were keys to preventing the case from going to trial. "We think this is a unique settlement," Cochran said. "This family has been relentless ... in trying to change the way this department does its work." He acknowledged El Monte officials for agreeing to the conditions. "This is unprecedented," he said. "We have to give credit to the lawyers on the other side, the City Council of El Monte." El Monte settled primarily to avoid additional litigation costs for a case whose outcome was too uncertain, said Eugene Ramirez, the special attorney who represented the city. As for the concessions, some are established policies already or practices that now will become part of the Police Department's written record, according to city officials. The department's policies are "constantly being reviewed and updated ... for the protection of our community members," said Clarke Moseley, El Monte's city attorney. Regarding the apology, the city did not deny that the officers were involved in "a series of actions" that resulted in the death of a person. "We don't view it as whether we were liable for his death," Moseley said. "The city of El Monte regrets the loss of any life. 9/26/02 Page 2 of 2 We did not have any difficulty in expressing our concern for the loss of a family member." City officials also noted that long before the civil suit was settled, the incident was investigated by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office and the U.S. Justice Department-both of which declined to file charges against the officers involved. By agreeing to the conditions in the civil suit, El Monte officials said, the city is showing progressive thinking. The shooting on Aug. 9, 1999, occurred during an investigation into suspected drug dealers Marcos Beltran Lizarraga and Paul Lizarraga. A few days before the Paz shooting, officers had searched a home in Chino connected to Marcos [~izarraga and found $75,000 in cash. Then they searched his home in Valinda and found 400 pounds of marijuana and three loaded assault rifles. The investigators, who believed that Lizarraga received mail at the Paz home, acquired a warrant and went to the Compton house. The officers burst into the house about 11 p.m., finding several members of the family at home, including the older Paz and his wife in their bedroom. Initially, the officers' explanation for the shooting varied-that they believed Paz was armed or that he was reaching for a weapon. The officers found $10,000 in cash and weapons. Despite the settlement, El Monte police officials still believe there was enough connection to the Paz home to suspect someone in the house was involved in narcotics. Officials said that mail sent to the Paz home for Lizarraga was found in Lizarraga's possession at the other houses searched. They point out that three weapons found in the Paz house were stolen. "We believe the family was involved to some extent," Moseley said. The family has denied involvement throughout the case. No family member was ever charged, and the money was returned to the family. According to the conditions, El Monte's mayor or chief of police must apologize within 10 days of the settlement. Other key conditions address some of the family's main concerns about the events that night. They include the training of officers on how to give commands in Spanish-members of the Paz family said they did not understand that police had entered their home and feared they were being robbed. Another condition says police may not "unreasonably" delay getting medical help for a person who has been shot. They call for better communications when El Monte police travel to other cities to conduct operations and for the officers to make reasonable efforts to find out who is in a house targeted for a high-risk warrant. One of the key conditions, though, is that the city "implement a policy ensuring the humane treatment of individuals and particularly family members who have witnessed and suffered the [loss] of a loved one as a result of a police officer's use of force." This condition was prompted, Cochran said, by the hours of interrogation the family of Marlo Paz was put through after some of them witnessed the patriarch's death. 9/26/02 Marian Karr From: Teresa Guerrere-Daley [teresa.guerrero-daley(~ci.sj.ca.us] Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 1:40 PM To: sueJqq@aol.com Hello, The following story from the FresnoBee {http://www.fresnobee.com) was sent to you by: Teresa Guerrero-Daley (teresa.guerrero-daley@ci.sj.ca.us). And Teresa Guerrero-Daley had this to say: FYI, I received a warm welcome and the Mayor, Chief, and City Manager are on board. I want to point out that the reporter misquoted me, I didn't say that police shooting would escalate unless they hire a police auditor, other than that, if was a good article So far this year, Fresno police have shot eight people, killing seven of them. Nationally known police watchdog Teresa Guerrero-Daley said Thursday night the police shootings will escalate unless the community supports the hiring of an independent police auditor. Guerrero-Daley arrived in Fresno as city leaders and the Fresno Police Officers Association debate whether the city needs an independent observer to investigate police shootings and citizens' complaints. The two sides plan to meet today, and Guerrero-Daley and Sacramento police auditor Dan Casimere have been invited to attend. Guerrero-Oaley, the San Jose police auditor who has helped cities across the nation establish similar positions, gave a sneak preview Thursday night of what she plans to tell her Fresno critics. "It's about police accountability, not about police persecution," she told an audience of about 85 at Fresno City Hall. In the crowd were families of people shot by Fresno police. "Of course we need an auditor, because things haven't changed," said Matilda Rangel, whose son, Raul, was killed New Year's Day 1985. Police said Rangel, 18, was killed by four police bullets and 31 shotgun pellets when he pointed a gun at an officer in a southeast Fresno alley. The shooting was ruled justified by the Fresno County District Attorney's Office. 1 Kenneth Rodriguez, whose sister, Lydia Rodriguez, was killed Sept. 1 by police gunfire, also supports an auditor position. Police said Lydia Rodriguez held a hatchet when she confronted an officer. But Kenneth Rodriguez said his sister didn't deserve to die. "Police still haven't told me why it happened. They are keeping it quiet," he said. The shooting remains under review. Easing fear about police shootings is precisely why an auditor is needed, said Guerrero-Daley, who was raised in Visalia. If the shooting is justified in the auditor's view, then the officer is vindicated. If the auditor uncovers problems, it could lead to policy changes or more training for officers. But for an auditor to work, he or she must have freedom from police or political pressure. The person also must have access to confidential police files and financial support for the operation. The Fresno police union has not taken an official stance of the proposed hiring of an auditor, but many members don't support it. An auditor position has strong support from Mayor Alan Autry and Police Chief Jerry Dyer, but not from Council President Henry Perea and Council Member Jerry Duncan. The five other council members have remained neutral until the proposal is put in writing, which could take months. "I have not seen a level of distrust of our police to support the hiring of a police auditor," Duncan said." I also don't want another layer of bureaucracy." But, based on statistics, Guerrero-Daley said, an auditor is needed. Since 1989, Fresno police officers have shot 102 people, 38 of them fatally. Of the 102 shootings, eight occurred this year, including the seven that resulted in deaths. Authorities say most of the shootings have occurred in the city's poor neighborhoods. Ail of the completed investigations by the Fresno County District Attorney's Office since 1989 have ruled the shootings legal. Eight shootings remain under review, including the shooting of Lydia Rodriguez. The reporter can be reached at plopez~fresnobee.com or 441-6259. This article is protected by copyright and should not be printed or distributed for anything except personal use. You can find this story on the web at: http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/4474134p-5494717c.html Marian Karr From: Jacqueline Thomason [jackiett@mJndspring,com] Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 2:07 AM To: Update@NACOLE,org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Oversight of cases with pending litigation Currently our oversight board investigates but does not hear cases when litigation is pending. I know that Berkeley does hear such cases. I would like to have information about + Boards that do hear cases when litigation is pending -- and how that is working + Cities in which this has been considered but not implemented and what reasons there were for not hearing such cases. Much thanks! Jackie Thomason jackiett@mindspring.com http://www.jackiet.blogspot.com http://www.congorhythms.org/ Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update nacole,org Page I of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Saturday, September 28, 2002 12:40 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org; JBuddSDCLU@aol.com Subject: [NACOLE Update] Calif Leg Analysts Office Report on Eval of Racial Prof Data Collection The California Legislative Analysts Office has released a report entitled "An Evaluation of Racial Profiling Data Collection & Training." The report is available at http://www, lao.ca.gov/2002/racial_profiling/8-02_racial_profilin g.pdf. 9/30/02 Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Saturday, September 28, 2002 10:16 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Can NY's Lessons Be Transferred to LA? http://Www ~atimes~c~m/neWs/~ca~/~a-me-nypd28sep28~626496~-st~ry?c~!~=~a%2Dhead!~nes%2Dcalif~rnia Can N.Y.'s Lessons Be Transferred to L.A.? Police: Two NYPD veterans up for the chief's job would find some similarities--and many differences. By JILL LEOVY and DOUG SMITH LA TIMES STAFF WRITERS September 28 2002 Two of the three candidates for the Los Angeles Police Department's top job are veterans of the New York City Police Department, and they are promoting their experience as an advantage. To many LAPD loyalists, however, the East Coast experience of John F. Timoney and William Bratton doesn't count for much. New York and Los Angeles present distinct policing challenges, they argue, and historically, the police departments differed in their approach to crime fighting, institutional structure and political oversight. New York has a much larger force to draw upon, and the NYPD is recording twice as many arrests per officer as the LAPD. In Los Angeles, officers patrol far more territory and, on average, make more arrests in serious crimes. In recent years the NYPD has been lauded for its success fighting crime simply by mobilizing large masses of officers. If Bratton or Timoney takes the helm in Los Angeles, said Greg Berg, a retired LAPD commander, "they will be very much surprised to find how few people they have." But a close look at both cities shows that some of those differences have been blurred, in part because police work has become more standardized, law enforcement experts say. For today's police officer, "the core job is portable," said Alan Deal of the California Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training. Police leaders across the country have increasingly favored simple, practical strategies for law enforcement that emphasize accountability and data collection and can be applied anywhere, said Berg. The prevailing view is, "If you are going to be a police leader, you have to know about the fundamentals," Berg said. "That's crime fighting, and leading police. Those are basic. "And if you can do it in New York, you can do it anywhere." At the same time, public controversies and political change in New York and Los Angeles have produced a kind of convergence between the two police departments. Former LAPD Chief Ed Davis, long a champion of the LAPD, said that a comparison of the two departments would produce a result closer to a draw than in the past. The cities that the departments represent reflect such contrasts and similarities. New York has larger numbers of almost every ethnic group, including Latinos. A larger proportion of Los Angeles residents are Latino, however--47% compared with 27% of New York residents. In Los Angeles, the non-Latino white population has declined to 30% of the total, according to the most recent U.S. census figures. But New York is not far behind at 35%. 9/30/02 Page 2 of 4 New York has a higher percentage of black residents-24% compared with Los Angeles' 11%. Both cities are about 10% Asian. Los Angeles' police force appears to be more ethnically diverse than New York's, and closer to parity with the city's population. The proportion of foreign-born populations of both cities is comparable, with Los Angeles' slightly higher. But immigrants from the Americas, particularly Central America, predominate in Los Angeles, while New York draws more from the Caribbean. Economically, according to the census, the two cities are nearly even. The median income in Los Angeles is $36,687, compared with New York's $38,293. And in both cities, just under one-fifth of residents live on incomes that fall below the poverty line. The most striking difference is how close together people live. New York is nearly 3 1/2 times as dense, with more than 200,000 people per square mile in some neighborhoods. Traditionally, criminologists have equated crowding with high crime rates, an axiom that has been challenged in New York in the 1990s, said Robert McCrie, chairman of the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "That's the assumption people have worked on," he said. "But it needn't be that way." New York's vast police force dwarfs Los Angeles'. The NYPD has 38,000 officers, compared with 9,025 in Los Angeles, and the NYPD patrols a much smaller-though more vertical--terrain. There are 209 residents per officer in New York, compared with 409 per officer in Los Angeles. There are more officers per square mile in New York-127 compared with 19 in Los Angeles. Dozens of New York City stations are within walking distance of one another; Los Angeles stations police areas from 4 1/2 to 65 square miles. Those differences bear directly on policing tactics. In New York, saturating an area with police officers to ward off crime through police presence is much easier. As one LAPD insider put it, when the NYPD has a problem, they can "trample" it. In Los Angeles, by contrast, the department's long-standing reputation for aggressive policing was in part a consequence of the relatively sparse LAPD presence. Lack of officers meant that, tactically, the LAPD had to create the impression of force. Today, LAPD commanders speak with amazement and envy of the ability of the NYPD to deploy hundreds of uniformed officers to a single neighborhood when the need arises. "They move complements of 1,000 officers into one area where they have a spike in crime," said LAPD Capt. Mike Downing of the Hollywood station. "We move a platoon of 25 officers in from Metro." In part because of its greater numbers, the NYPD was able to stage what McCrie calls a renaissance of policing in the 1990s. New York today is considered a relatively safe city. The latest figures show New York below Los Angeles in all categories of violent crime except robbery, which is about the same in both cities. The NYPD's philosophy, McCrie said, is to keep patrols relatively thin, while maintaining the capacity to quickly mobilize a huge police presence at large public gatherings or disturbances. To maintain such a massive force, New York buys its officers more cheaply, allowing the city to get more police officers for less cost. Starting salaries for an NYPD officer are 70% of an LAPD officer's. There is also a large gap at the top of the salary range, with LAPD officers earning considerably more. LAPD officers are slightly upper-middle-class: Their starting salaries are well above the local median household income. In contrast, the NYPD's salaries remain a little below, making the police force slightly lower-middle-class The LAPD has long thought of itself as an exceptionally lean, busy and efficient police force, one that relies more on the resourcefulness and skill of its officers than on raw numbers. LAPD officials to this day maintain that their officers are more hard-working than New York's. 9/30/02 Page 3 of 4 But recent statistics paint a different picture. The LAPD receives about 365 calls per officer yearly, while the NYPD gets about 311 per officer. But if Angelenos beat New Yorkers in terms of demands made on their police, statistics suggest that the NYPD is more responsive. An NYPD unit is more likely to be dispatched in response to calls, and the NYPD sends out 117 units per officer 2er year compared with the LAPD's 98. Given Los Angeles' vast distances and the relative sparseness of the force, LAPD officers end up relying on a triage approach to calls. On busy nights, they zoom among serious incidents at the expense of less urgent calls--"chasing the radio," in department parlance. As a result, keeping response times from soaring is a constant concern for LAPD commanders, and other police functions are eclipsed by the pressure to keep response times in check. Along with a greater workload, LAPD officials have long prided themselves on efficiency and high productivity. But FBI statistics from 2000 undermine that belief. Total NYPD arrests rose during the 1990s in response to changes in police tactics under former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, while LAPD arrest rates, due to a combination of factors, fell. As a result, NYPD officers in recent years have made arrests at nearly twice the rate of LAPD officers, jailing about 20 suspects per officer per year, while LAPD officers arrest 11 suspects per officer per year. But the LAPD catches the most serious offenders more often. In categories of murder, rape, assault, robbery, burglary and auto theft, Los Angeles officers make 2.6 arrests per officer per year, more than double the 1.2 made by NYPD officers. LAPD spokesman Lt. Horace Frank said the difference reflects deliberate policy. The LAPD and NYPD have approached quality-of-life crimes in different ways in recent years, with the LAPD emphasizing prevention over arrests. The 1990s saw other changes that served to smooth away the old municipal differences. For one thing, the Los Angeles police chief was placed more directly under the direction of the mayor, as has long been the case in New York City. Some saw it as an assertion of civilian control over the department. But it was anathema to some LAPD insiders who treasured the LAPD's traditional insulation from political influences. "When I was in the academy in the 1940s, it was drummed into us that we were a nonpolitical police department," Davis said. "You held your head high and you did what you thought was right, regardless of what people thought. It became part of the culture of LAPD." Recent changes have been to the department's detriment, Davis said. But others, such as Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, who will select the next chief, seek even greater civilian control over the LAPD. Perhaps the most profound difference is that whoever is picked to be chief in Los Angeles inherits a department subject to extraordinary control by the federal government. Faced with the threat of a lawsuit, the city in 2000 made a series of promises to reform the LAPD, including new measures such as data collection to measure potential racial profiling, and an officer tracking system to keep tabs on discipline. The promises are embodied in an agreement, called a consent decree, under which the LAPD's promises of change are overseen by a federal judge whose power extends into many areas traditionally the domain of law enforcement executives. Neither New York candidate has had to deal with such a situation, which represents a unique complication to whoever gets the job. 9/30/02 Page 4 of 4 The decree--an agreement between all parties to promote reform--mandates a variety of new safeguards, auditing and tracking functions within the LAPD bureaucracy. Implementation is costly in terms of dollars and personnel, and poses a host of tricky practical problems, including how to remain effective in fighting crime while remaining in compliance. But despite the particular complexities of the LAPD, the primary role of the new police chief--to fight crime and rally the troops-will remain central to the new chiefs job, said Berg, the former LAPD commander. Despite contrasting backdrops against which they ply their trade, police "still have to catch the bad guys," said LAPD Deputy Chief David Kalish, adding: "East Coast, West Coast-the business of cops and robbers is more similar than different." 9/30/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2002 9:48 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Boston Police Chief Evans Struggles With Responsibility to 2 Worlds Boston Police Chief Evans struggles with responsibility to two worlds New plan shows dilemma in protecting police, public By Michael S. Rosenwald and Francie Latour, Globe Staff, 9/29/2002 ~ nside a media room, television cameras rolled tape as the police commissioner of Boston entered. Outside, a racially charged shooting drew black leaders and police unions to opposing corners. Paul Evans had been here before, several times. Today, it was a Cape Verdean woman killed by an officer while riding in the back of a car. In the past, it was a noose left hanging for a black lieutenant; a black officer beaten by brothers in uniform; a minister's fatal heart attack during a botched drug raid. Each time, Evans had faced the cameras quickly, and plainly. This time would be no different. As he gathered some papers on a podium ledge and called the death of Eveline Barros-Cepeda a tragedy, Evans laid out a dramatic change in police procedure. The new rules would bar officers from firing at moving cars, even when the vehicles are used as deadly weapons. It was one of the most significant restrictions to the rules on deadly force in his tenure. To city leaders outraged by Barros-Cepeda's death, it was an overdue sign that Evans was serious about halting a surge in police shootings of civilians. But to rank-and-file officers, Evans's words and their timing - less than 48 hours into the investigation of the case - spelled betrayal, one of many in his nearly nine-year tenure. In the proposal, many heard condemnation, and a loud buckling to public opinion. For a former commander once honored with a union award, Evans's announcement earned him the first vote of no-confidence in nearly two decades. The episode captured the contradiction of Evans's leadership: In a town of mythic police solidarity, he has sought to create a department accountable not only to itself, but to the broadest possible constituency. It's a mandate that has earned him uncommon respect outside the department's walls but also hardened dissent among the very ranks he has held, and climbed, over 32 years. "1 think the bottom line is, based on my actions all the time, not necessarily on deadly force issues but on other issues, I think I make it very clear that I have a responsibility first and foremost to the city," Evans, 53, said in an interview. "And I think that's probably where the conflict begins." He is an ex-Marine and South Boston lifer who never left town, the plodder turned visionary, the unlikeliest of police reformers. Today, many regard Evans as one of the most progressive police managers in the country. But to earn that regard, he has had to shun the role that long defined being a chief: defending and insulating officers, at any cost, from a critical public. Now, with eight fatal police shootings in under two years, the issue of deadly force has dealt Evans the most serious challenge to his leadership. But those who know him say he is less likely than ever to abandon the course that has made him the first no-confidence commissioner since Joseph Jordan, who got the vote in 1984. 9/30/02 Page 2 of 3 "The leadership of the patrol men's union, they have a hard time coming to grips with the fact that Paul's job is to at the same time preserve public safety, but to demand accountability of the officers," said former Suffolk District Attorney Ralph C. Martin II. "And when he does things that are designed to do both, as it is in this case, he gets problems." If there was a doubt about whether Evans would risk alienating his flock, Evans doused it in 1994, when race and controversy baptized his six-week-old tenure. A day after drug unit officers busted down the wrong apartment door and handcuffed a retired minister who died of a heart attack, Evans responded by exposing the city, his officers, and himself to a massive lawsuit: Before a bank of cameras, he admitted the mistake and apologized to the minister's family. He rejected the role of protector again in 1999, when union opposition surged following the federal conviction of a police officer in the case of Michael Cox, a black undercover sergeant who was beaten by fellow officers and left for dead during a foot chase. No officers ever came forward to admit to the beating. Outraged by Officer Kenneth Conley's conviction for perjury, officials for the patrolmen's union handed Evans a list of questions that cast Conley as a martyr and Evans as a traitor. The union promised to publish the questions in their newsletter, with or without the commissioner's response. Evans answered them, then posed some of his own: "My questions for your leadership are: Do you believe that Michael Cox was beaten and then abandoned by Boston Police Officers, specifically by members of your union? If so, can you explain how this was possible? ... Do you believe the code of silence exists? If not, how do you explain the complete failure of a single officer to report on the beating of Sergeant Cox?" Asked if he would support a campaign to pardon Conley or push his case to the US Supreme Court, Evans replied with a single word: "No." It was a new nadir in the power struggle between union and manager. Along the way, there have been other raw skirmishes - over Evans's push to include civilians in lucrative details, to move officers out of desk jobs and back onto the street, and to set new standards of discipline {or officer misconduct. To William J. Bratton, Evans's predecessor and recruit classmate, the torrent of union criticism comes as no surprise. In any major city, an officer's reflex is to resist restrictions on the use of deadly force. But in Boston, a historic power struggle between police commissioners and unions often obscures the debate about how such policies should evolve. "The Boston police union has had a rocky relationship with every commissioner since its inception," said Bratton, the former police commissioner of New York City and a finalist for the top job in Los Angeles. "There is absolutely nothing new about this, Paul Evans, to his credit, has done everything in his power, and against great odds, to do two things: to professionalize the police department, and to try to improve race relations in what was once one of the most racially divided cities in America." But to his detractors, Evans's reputation as the most modern of police chiefs has come at the expense of those who have to protect the city every day. "1 don't think that people who do not work for him are in as good a position to evaluate his performance," said Thomas Drechsler, an attorey for the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association. The BPPA, which issued the vote of no-confidence earlier this month, is the only police department 9/30/02 Page 3 of 3 union that has refused to negotiate over the proposed changes in use of force. The other two unions, while critical, have agreed to enter into negotiations, according to the department's legal adviser, Mary Jo Harris. "The relationship between him and the rank and file is extremely poor," Drechsler said. "If he were the leader that he purports to be, there would be universal acclaim, even from the people that work for him. If he does not have that, it's going to be extremely difficult for him to be an effective leader." In the heady days of Boston miracles, when President Clinton came to town and long stretches without youth murders seemed routine, the bridges Evans set about building won him national acclaim. Now, those partnerships have pulled him in opposite directions, turning his trademark accomplishment into a treacherous balancing act. "1 think this latest stance around deadly force is really classic Paul Evans in that way," said David Kennedy, a Harvard criminologist who worked with Evans during the worst violence in the 1990s, but who has also been critical of some of Evans's policies. "He has quite properly said that the business of ensuring public safety requires a lot of partners," Kennedy said. "But what that means is that there are now many more claims on him and on police practice than there would normally be .... The classic way for a police chief to protect himself is to protect the rank and file at all costs. Paul has made it very clear that his loyalties are broader than that." Evans acknowledged the timing of his new policy was the biggest threat to his leadership because it created the impression that he was bowing to public pressure. "The bottom line is, my officers make split decisions," he said. "To have the commissioner questioning that immediately is something that I did not do, and the perception that was created that I did do that was unfortunate. And I can see where that would cause me serious problems with my office rs." But as with the Cox case, Evans said officers who honor their badge will not see his actions as a betrayal. The proposal, when it becomes policy, will likely reduce the number of police shootings, making the streets safer for officers as well as civilians, he argued. Asked if he was planning an exit strategy, Evans, who is working without a contract, sounded a tone that broke with his deadpan demeanor. It was a tone of defiance. "1'11 be honest with you," said Evans, who called the contract extension a mere formality. "If I was planning on going anywhere, those plans just went out the window because I don't walk away from a fight .... I'm not going to walk away from this, particularly when, in my gut, as I've said a million times, I can look any cop in the eye in this department and say, 'What I'm doing is in your best interest, and in your family's best interest.'" This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 9/29/2002. 9/30/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2002 9:53 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Oakland' s Roders Accuser Refines Testimony; Says He Wasn't Troubled ... I~1 _ __ I "Riders" accuser refines testimony Ex-Oakland cop says he wasn't troubled by wrongful arrests Jim Herron Zarno~a~ Chro~!cle Staff Writer ~ridaYl ~ptember 27, 2002 ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle, URL: t~tp:l!~.sfg~'t~,com/cgi-bin[~rtic!~,~gi?~-[chroni~!e~a[~O~210~!~7!MN~965~,DTL Oakland -- The star prosecution witness in the trial of three fired Oakland police officers known as the Riders admitted that he "didn't lose any sleep" over a suspect who was wrongly arrested because of a false police report. Keith Barf, a former rookie cop in Oakland who is testifying against the officer who trained him, said he was troubled that he felt he was forced to copy false police reports and sign them as his own. But under questioning from a defense lawyer, Batt admitted that it didn't trouble him "too much" that several people were arrested under false pretenses. '1 knew it was wrong," Barf said. "1 didn't lose any sleep over it.' Thursday's testimony came on his third day his cross-examination by attorneys for three police officers accused of a total of 26 criminal counts, including beating suspects and fabricating reports to justify false arrests. The former cops on trial are Clarence "Chuck" Mabanag, 37, Jude Siapno, 34, and Matthew Hornung, 30. Frank Vazquez, the alleged ringleader of the Riders, is believed to have fled to Mexico or Central America. Barf, 25, who now is a Pleasanton police officer, worked ~0 shifts for the Oakland Police Department in the [ summer of 2000 and was assigned to train with Mabanag. The day after Barf quit, he complained to police internal investigators about Mabanag and the other accused former officers. Defense attorneys have argued that Barf fabricated charges to cover up his own misconduct and his failure to perform adequately as rookie cop. Ed Fishman, Hornung's attorney, told jurors that there was a pattern of deception in Batt's behavior "1 think the fact that he did not feel guilty was very telling about the kind of person he was," Fishman said outside court. "1 think that Keith Barf is very willing to say something that isn't true." Fishman and Mabanag's attorney, Michael Rains, also suggested that Barf had turned on his former colleagues because of feelings of inadequacy. Barf, who endured teasing over his small stature from other cops, grew up in Sebastopol and wasn't tough enough handle the graveyard shift in West Oakland, the defense lawyers said. Fishman also tried to shift the blame for the false police reports to Barf, saying the rookie had lied to keep his job. "You signed a false police report knowing that a man would be criminally prosecuted for the information in that report," Fishman said. Barf replied that he was not sure if the man written up in that report was guilty. He said he was worried about the lies in the reports, but he also was afraid of the pr e ssure that he said veteran cops, including Mabanag, were putting on him. Fishman asked, "When Chuck Mabanag gave you that report, did you say to Chuck, 'Hey Chuck, this isn't true'?" Barf replied that he didn't need to point out to his training officer that the report was full of lies. He said Mabanag told him the report had to be written that way "to ensure a successful prosecution" of the case. Deputy District Attorney David Holiister said outside court that Barf is holding up well under tough cross-examination. "He's doing great," Hollister said. "Not just great for a young officer. But he is doing great compared to some veteran investigators I have worked with." Hollister also said the defense attorneys had not revealed any major discrepancies. "They're hitting on a lot of little collateral issues that are off to the side," Hollister said. "All this happened 2 1/2 years ago. There are going to be inconsistencies on the minor parts. That's to be expected in 9/30/02 Page 2 of 2 of pages of interviews .... I think the jury will see it's a cumulative case." E-mail Jim Zamora at jzamora~sfchronicle, com. 9/30/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.oom Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2002 10:13 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Film All Police Interrogations Film all police interrogations USA Today Tue Sep 24, 7:35 AM ET DeWayne Wickham Thirteen years ago, the brutal rape of a female jogger in New York's Central Park appeared to be an open-and-shut case. Hours after the near-lifeless body of a 28-year-old white woman was discovered, police extracted confessions from five black and Hispanic teenagers. The teens were said to have been members of a marauding gang that descended upon the park late in the day of April 19, 1989. They had gone there, newspapers later reported, for a night of "wilding" -- a term that describes the violent, chance encounters they allegedly had with people in the park. But now DNA evidence and the confession of a serial rapist raise serious questions about the guilt of the five men convicted and imprisoned for the crime. They also highlight the need for police departments in New York and elsewhere to videotape the interrogations of criminal suspects, as well as any confessions that may result. That didn't happen in the New York rape case. Now we are left to wonder whether cops, bent on solving a crime that shocked the nation, coerced the teens into confessing something they didn't do. This much we know for sure: The victim, who spent days in a coma, had no memory of what happened. Despite the fact that all of the teens were convicted of raping her, the only DNA found in the woman belonged to Matias Reyes, the serial rapist who confessed to the crime in a sworn statement dated Aug. 23 and said he acted alone. Aside from the teenagers' confessions, no other evidence linked them to the crime. Last month, lawyers for three of those who confessed to the rape asked New York's Supreme Court to overturn their convictions and order a new trial, sparking yet another national debate about the tactics cops use to wrangle confessions. Some of the statements taken from the teenagers by police, the lawyers claim in their motion, "were initially written by the detectives." While they offer no decisive proof of this charge, people are left to believe what they want, as the interrogations were not videotaped. Videotapes requested New York's police department, like many others, does not routinely videotape its interrogations of suspects in major felony cases. Last week, the New York Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly asking him to have officers do just that. "The videotaping of custodial interrogations would provide critically important information about the validity of subsequent confessions," wrote Donna Lieberman, the group's executive director. When I asked about the letter, a police spokesman would only say, "We'll take it under consideration." Only Alaska and Minnesota now require police to record interrogations of criminal suspects. While instituting this practice in New York now won't resolve the questions that surround the convictions in the Central Park rape case, it will make police interrogations more transparent and less subject to speculation about the conduct of the cops. What they say now Back in December, four men jailed for the 1986 rape and murder of a medical student in Chicago were exonerated after DNA tests cleared them. Two of these men, who were teenagers at the time of their arrest, confessed after interrogations during which one claims he was beaten and the other, just 14 at the time, said he was told he could go home if he admitted to the rape. Maybe that happened. Maybe it didn't. If Chicago police had videotaped the questioning of these youngsters, we'd have a better idea of what actually took place. Recording what happens as cops grill a suspect is not only a protection against the bad acts of rogue officers, but also a guard against false allegations of police misconduct by criminal suspects. To ensure both of these good outcomes, New York's police department -- and others across the nation that don't do so -- 9/30/02 Page 2 of 2 should videotape all interrogations. DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY, 9/30/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 11:54 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Civilian Oversight Observers Outline LAPD Issues http:~/www.~atimes~c~m~new~!~ca!~me-~nit~r~sep3~71~3~76 st~ry?c~!~=Ia%2Dhea~!ines%2Dca!if~rnia Observers Outline LAPD Issues Police: As the mayor prepares to name a new chief, the monitors say resistance to change is still a key problem. By TINA DAUNT LA TIMES STAFF WRITER September 30 2002 When Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn chooses the next chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, he will send that man into an agency beset by issues as straightforward as rising crime and as persistent as a disciplinary system that officers dismiss as capricious and unfair. In recent years, three civilian monitors have been sent to study the LAPD--Michael Cherkasky, who analyzes the department's compliance with a federal consent decree; Jeffrey Eglash, who serves as inspector general to the Police Commission; and Merrick Bobb, who has been tapped for special projects by the commission. All three have gained access to LAPD officers and records often denied to outsiders; as such, they have a more complete view than most civilians ever receive of the LAPD. In interviews and in recent reports, the three have detailed a web of issues confronting the LAPD that will greet the department's next chief. Their comments go well beyond Hahn's concerns-the mayor has identified crime, community policing, compliance with federally mandated reforms, morale, recruitment and retention as the department's principal issues-and suggest that pockets of resistance to change within the LAPD will confront the new chiefs efforts to turn around the department. All three department watchdogs identify similar problems: The gang units are in disarray at a time when violence is skyrocketing; efforts to identify and track problem officers are bogged down in bureaucratic indecision; and dozens of court-mandated reforms are being dismissed by some officers as frivolous and unnecessary. Those and other observations culled from the recent work of the civilian monitors lend credence to the conclusions of Hahn and his Police Commission that the LAPD is deeply troubled, not merely suffering from a temporary loss of leadership. They also underscore why Hahn and others have identified the selection of the next chief as the most important decision that Hahn will have made since taking office last year. "There is a culture of the department that needs to be addressed by the new chief," Eglash said. "We want to see a department that is more open, that works well with other parts of government, that is more responsive to civilian leadership and is community-oriented." But achieving reform will not be easy, Bobb said. "The LAPD, to a large degree, is a broken and demoralized organization," said Bobb, who was a lawyer for the Christopher Commission, which recommended widespread changes in the LAPD after the 1991 Rodney King beating. "The next chief needs to reverse the long-standing culture at the top of the LAPD that has kept senior management insular, aloof, arrogant and uninterested or belittling of what anyone outside the LAPD thinks or does." Department Grumbling Hahn has been less specific in his charge for his new chief, but the mayor, who served for 16 years as city attorney before being elected to the city's top office in 2001, has repeatedly said that he sees the need to implement the requirements of the federal consent decree and the need to fight crime as consistent goals. That is a notion that is privately disputed within some quarters of the LAPD where officers have grumbled that so much 10/1/02 Page 2 of 2 attention is placed on rooting out problems in the department that it distracts from the mission of reducing crime. "The mayor recognizes that we have to have leadership that does not see reform as independent but as a step toward improving public safety," said Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook, Hahn's spokesman. "They go hand in hand." Hahn spent the weekend weighing whether to give the job to former New York City Police Commissioner W~lliam Bratton, former Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney or Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez. Hahn said that in interviews last week the finalists outlined very different approaches to achieve his goals. He said all three are "outstanding" individuals-each possessing the skills necessary to address the department's problems. Cherkasky, Bobb and Eglash echo Hahn's concerns that the department needs to do a better job of fighting crime and improving morale. In interviews and in their reports, all three also place great emphasis on the need to change the culture of the department. Of the three department watchdogs, Bobb has been tracking the LAPD problems the longest. He was the deputy general counsel to a commission-headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher-that recommended sweeping reforms in 1991. Since then, Bobb has worked on a number of specific projects for the department, including conducting a study on the department's progress five years after the Christopher Commission released its recommendations. His work at the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department has helped create the field of civilian police monitoring, and Bobb now consults with agencies throughout the nation and even in some foreign countries. 'The Blue Curtain' Bobb said the next chief must help officers understand that fighting crime and providing "effective and respectful" policing go hand in hand. He also wants the department to "drop the blue curtain so that the LAPD becomes transparent and subject to better informed critique and evaluation." "The games of 'cat and mouse,' 'hide the ball,' and 'don't give out information unless as a last resort' must end," Bobb said. Eglash, who has in the past struggled to obtain access to information needed for his audits of the department, agreed that the department must become more open. Eglash has frequently criticized disciplinary findings and processes at the LAPD, concluding that the department has mishandled some recent cases. "We need a chief who is skilled in community relations and in labor relations-who can forge constructive relations with the league, the command staff, the Police Commission, other components of city government and the public," Eglash said. Cherkasky, who was appointed by a federal judge more than a year ago to track the LAPD's compliance with the federal consent decree, declined to comment on the challenges facing the new chief. Bratton was a member of Cherkasky's monitoring team until he announced that he was interested in becoming chief. However, Cherkasky has issued several reports detailing the department's challenges. In a recent study, Cherkasky found that the department was having difficulty identifying problem officers because it was missing "significant red flags" due to understaffing of internal affairs units and a serious backlog of uncompleted audits. He also said LAPD officials have failed to analyze data collected on pedestrian and motor vehicle stops to determine whether the LAPD engages in "racial profiling." Meantime, the department produced audits on excessive force and other topics that the monitor concluded were "seriously flawed." The area that may pose the deepest challenge for the new chief, however, emerges from Cherkasky's analysis of the LAPD's receptiveness to change. Even now, almost two years since the city entered into an agreement with the federal government to make sweeping changes in the ways the Police Department operates, some high-ranking members of the department continue to belittle that effort, Cherkasky recently concluded. While on one level that is personally insulting to Cherkasky, it also, he argues, reflects a deeper resistance to change and to civilian control of the city's police force--a resistance that he contends extends to the highest ranks. "It appears that greater commitment, accountability and leadership are required to achieve the reforms called for by the consent decree," Cherkasky wrote in a report issued last month. "This must begin with the command staff and filter down to supervisors and ultimately to the officers on the street." 10/1/02 Marian Karr From: Malvina Monteiro [mmonteiro@Spike,CI,Cambrid§e. MA, US] Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 4:29 PM To: Sue Quinn (E-mail) Subject: Police union is misguided - Boston OPINION By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist, 9/30/2002 The fight between Boston Police Commissioner Paul F. Evans and the city's patrolmen has been brewing for a long time. Seven years would be in the ballpark. It was in 1995 that Officer Michael Cox, working undercover, was severely beaten by a group of fellow officers. Though none of the offending officers has ever come forward and accepted responsibility, Evans has been steadfast in his public condemnation of both the incident and the coverup. Thus was born the belief that Evans is not reliably in the corner of rank-and-file cops - even though Cox, of course, is also one of their own. Evans is right to try to limit the use of deadly force on the street. Eight fatal shootings in 22 months is enough to unnerve a city, and the puzzlement over this trend has been far-reaching. But instead of joining the search for answers, the patrolmen's union has responded by stoking hysteria, partly by taking a ludicrous no-confidence vote against the city's most effective police commissioner in years. The shooting of Eveline Barros-Cepeda in a car earlier this month was a tragedy - and possibly a crime. But the way the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association has seized on it as an oppportunity to make mischief is misguided. The real issue is how to curb the rash of fatal police shootings. Everyone has an opinion on what is driving the surge. Cops say criminals returning to the city after completing their sentences has made the streets more dangerous and prompted more confrontations. Some residents say the police are overzealous. Those theories aren't mutually exclusive. But serious questions of public safety are being relegated to the back burner during the fight over whether Evans will stay or go, which could have tragic consequences. The union, of course, doesn't seriously expect to force Evans out. But it believes Evans is getting tired of the job, tired of working without a contract, and maybe a tad concerned about his legacy. It thinks it can give him one more reason to decide he doesn't need the grief anymore, and that within a year or so he'll pack it in. Evans has gotten strong support from expected quarters - the black ministers who have been his allies throughout his time as commissioner. Surprisingly, he has gotten only lukewarm backing thus far from another ally - Thomas M. Menino. The mayor has always been a staunch supporter of Evans, and presumably he still is. He has also fought his own intense battles against the BPPA. So far, though, he has bee~ reluctant to spend political capital in settling the rift between Evans and the union. Even union officials seem surprised by that. ''The mayor supports him and we'll eventually bear the brunt of that,'' BPPA President Tommy Nee said yesterday. ''We're realistic about that.'' Not surprisingly, the union is now downplaying the rift with Evans. Nee said yesterday that his fight isn't with Evans, but about the right of police to defend themselves. ''I'm not a yahoo on a horse,'' he insisted. ''I'm not fighting for the right to shoot at cars. But being able to defend yourself is a basic human right.'' Nee knows his union is the subject of heated criticism, especially from African-Americans who have long had a testy relationship with the BPPA. The union's record of racial sensitivity leaves much to be desired, as Nee acknowledges. ''We're not the people who were here before us,'' he declared yesterday, noting he has extended an olive branch to activist Sadiki Kambon and City Councilor Chuck Turner, both critics. ''I know the way it looks, but that's not the way it is.'' As concerns over crime continue to mount, the community and its police officers are united in anguish and anxiety. That's the issue that has to be dealt with, not the union's problems with Evans. The BPPA may well have a useful role to play, but not while it puts politics before police work. Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com. This story ran on page Bi of the Boston Globe on 9/30/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company. Marian Karr From: Liana Perez [LPerezl @ci.tucson.az. us] Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 4:47 PM To: Update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Documentation of Audits/Reviews I am interested in obtaining information from other Auditors or Review Boards about retention of documents pertaining to audits/reviews. As the Auditor I maintain any records {audit checklists, memos, letters etc) that I produce as part of my review in a file at my office. Our Board is currently developing an audit checklist and other forms that would serve as a record of their reviews and they have asked the Police Department to include these documents with the official investigative file of the Police Department. I would like to get a feel for what other agencies are doing with these documents/records. Thank you .... Liana Perez Independent Police Auditor City of Tucson (520) 791-5176 Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update_nacole.org from Peace to Governance POLTeE REFORM AND THE TNTERNATTONAL COMMUNZTV In November 2001, the Washing- frt31T1 ton Office on Latin America (WOLA) and the ~Tohns Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced ];nter- national Studies (5A]]5) con- vened a ground-breaking confer- ence to compare public security reform in Central and 5outh America and 5outh Africa. The conference explored emerging norms of "democratic policing," including the role of civil society, the international community and donor agencies in police reform processes. This 82 page confer- ence ropporteur's report was published by WOLA in August 2002. To order copies of this publication, please send this form along with a check payable to WOLA, to "Peace to Governance [~equest," Washington Office on Latin America, 1630 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 2000g. The book costs $].O.O0/copy, plus $].50 shipping and handling for the first copy and $0.75 for each additional copy. For credit card orders or bulk requests (tO or more copies), please carl WOLA at (202) 797-2171. Name Address No. copies Amount $ Enclosed __ Telephone Fax Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 9:52 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA Mayor Picks Bratton To Lead LAPD htr p://www, la tim e s. c o m/n e ws/I o ca !/!a-me-ch i ef3o ct03001446,0,2256803 ,story ? co!!= la %2 Dh e a d li n e s % 2 D c a!!forn !a Hahn Picks Bratton to Lead Police Force LAPD: The mayor's choice was in charge in New York when crime dropped substantially, but some objected to his high- profile style. By TINA DAUNT and GEOFFREY MOHAN TIMES STAFF WRITERS October 3 2002 William J. Bratton, the brash former boss of the New York City Police Department, was tapped Wednesday by Mayor James K. Hahn to lead the Los Angeles Police Department, city officials said. Hahn informed City Council members of his decision Wednesday afternoon and was expected to formally announce his choice this morning at the North Hollywood police station. Bratton gained nationwide fame during his two-year tenure as New York City police commissioner because he oversaw a steep drop in crime. His selection to head the LAPD provoked widespread praise from political leaders and the police rank and fi[e--and only muted disappointment from others. Hahn has characterized the selection of a police chief as the most important of his administration and has said the LAPD is a deeply troubled institution in need of strong leadership. His choice of an outsider disappointed many council members and LAPD officers who had supported Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez, the only Latino candidate and the only one on the list with LAPD experience. Others had considered former Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney, once a deputy to Bratton, a formidable blend of old-fashioned beat cop and progressive intellectual. Police Commission President Rick Caruso, who led the five-month search for police chief candidates, praised the choice, as well as what he described as Hahn's "very careful and methodical" deliberations. "He's been tested," Caruso said of Bratton. "He knows the players. He's an incredibly accomplished guy. We had three great choices, but I think Bill is the best of the best. We need that to make Los Angeles the safest big city in the country. ... I thought he could hit the ground running," added Caruso, who along with the mayor was impressed by Bratton's knowledge of the department. Bratton, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, could begin work as early as next week if a majority of council members approve the appointment, as expected. Councilman Jack Weiss, a Bratton backer, called the nod "a terrifically strong choice. Bill Bratton will come to Los Angeles and turn the LAPD around. It's an on-the-merits pick, and that's good news for the city." Capt. Jim Tatreau, who heads the department's Robbery-Homicide Division and is president of the Command Officers 10/3/02 Page 2 of 3 Assn., said Bratton is the right choice not only because of his considerable experience but also his proven record of reducing big-city crime. "While in New York, he demonstrated that he knew how to reduce crime on city streets, and we absolutely need that here," Tatreau said. "Crime reduction has not gotten the emphasis at all times that it should in this city, and Bratton will make it a top priority.... Los Angeles street cops are going to be excited to come to work for Bill Bratton." The president of the police union, Mitzi Grasso, agreed that officers will get behind Bratton. "This selection will not only create a better department but a safer city. We are looking forward to working with Chief Bratton. I left him a message on his voice mail saying, 'Hey, boss....'" Councilman Eric Garcetti was among those who pushed for Lopez. "There were all kinds of reasons we could have gone with other people, and some of us may have preferred other candidates, but this is the mayor's hour and we need to get behind his choice," Garcetti said. Bra[ton will inherit a department contending with Iow officer morale, a shortage of 1,000 officers, a rising crime rate and a slate of court-ordered reforms. Lopez, a former LAPD deputy chief, said he was disappointed and a little surprised, but not envious. "1 think it's going to be a really difficult situation for him," he said of Bratton. Timoney said he will not comment publicly until the decision is announced by Hahn. The mayor called Lopez about 1:40 p.m., but did not explain why he chose Bratton, the Oxnard chief said. "But I really think the fact that he had that big-city experience was probably the biggest selling point to the mayor," Lopez said. "1 just told him that I was disappointed but I thought he was doing what's right for the city of Los Angeles, and that I feel confident that Bill Bratton would do a good job for the city." Insiders said Hahn started leaning toward Bratton after his first interview last week, shortly after the Police Commission gave the mayor its list of finalists. But Hahn continued to meet with top advisors late into the night Tuesday, and reconvened them Wednesday morning. "1 gave the mayor my advice, and I know he talked to a lot of people," Caruso said. "As of last night, the mayor was still giving it a lot of thought." Those familiar with the selection process said the 54-year-old former NYPD commissioner demonstrated an "intimate knowledge" beth of the LAPD and Los Angeles, garnered during his year spent as a member of the team overseeing the Police Department's compliance with a federal consent decree. Bratton left that team after he decided he wanted the chief's job. He enjoyed the backing of public figures such as businessman-philanthropist Eli Broad. He also spent time with members of the Christopher Commission-which recommended widespread changes in the LAPD after the 1991 Rodney King beating-and met with current and former police commissioners, including Gerald Chaleff, who advised Bratton in his quest for the post. "He's been successful in improving every department that he has headed," said Chaleff, who is senior advisor to City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo. "His reforms have been maintained in each one of those departments. He will provide the Los Angeles Police Department with the leadership to improve the morale of the officers of the department and will assist the city in completing the tasks required in the consent decree." Aware that he brought with him an outsized reputation in a laid-back political city, Bratton reached out to community leaders during his campaign, and was the only candidate to approach the Los Angeles Urban League, said its president, John Mack. "That said something to me about his desire to work in partnership with the various segments of Los Angeles as he tries to get a handle on running that department," Mack said. "In my opinion he possesses the track record, the leadership that's going to be required to really turn the institutional culture of the LAPD around, to bring about the kind of lasting, long-term reform that needs to be brought about," he added. "He will have his hands full. It will not be an easy task." Bratton, who headed the NYPD from 1994 to 1996, is not shy about touting his own achievements, including a crackdown 10/3/02 Page 3 of 3 on crime--from the petty to the felonious-that provoked a reexamination of police methods nationwide. On his watch, serious felonies--murder, rape, robbery and the like--drepped by a third. The homicide rate was cut in half. Experts continue to argue over whether Bratton's tactics or economic and demographic changes were mainly responsible for the decline. Nonetheless, Bratton became a celebrity and penned an autobiography, "Turnaround." But his upstaging of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani proved his undoing, and he was forced from office after a public and bitter feud. As a result, Bratton worked hard to portray himself as a team player who will serve at the will of Hahn. "Obviously Jimmy was sufficiently comfortable that there is not going to be a one-act show in the Police Depadment," said Melanie Lomax, president of the Police Commission in 1991 and 1992. "1 think Bratton understands who his boss is, but he has enough of a commanding presence to win the respect of the rank and file." Bretton faces a daunting task, both within the ranks and on the streets. As the fourth chief in 10 years, he will take over a department wounded by the King beating a decade ago and stung by more recent corruption scandals. In addition, violent crime has risen in recent years after falling through much of the 1990s. Bratton will have to combat crime with a much smaller force spread out over a much larger territory than he did in New York. The NYPD has about 40,000 officers, compared with 9,025 in Los Angeles. During the last year of his tenure, former LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks was roundly criticized for failing to stem three successive years of increasing violent crime, particularly homicides. After hitting a 30-year Iow of 419 killings citywide in 1998, the homicide rate rose more than 40% through 2001, when the city logged 579 slayings, according to LAPD crime statistics. Most of the killings occurred in the urban core, where less than half of the city's 3.7 million people reside, but where three- fourths of the homicides occur. Dean Hansell, former vice president of the Police Commission, said he thought Bratton would be up to the task. "He really is one of the top cops in the United States," Hansell said. "He's a strategic thinker." Times staff writers Daryl Kelley, Massie Ritsch and Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report. 10/3/02 Marian Karr From: Vera Institute Webmaster [Webmaster@Vera.org] Sent: Thursday, October 03, 2002 2:51 PM To: Vera Institute Webmaster Subject: New Publications from the Vera Institute of Justice NEW PUBLICATIONS from the Vera Institute of Justice http://www.vera.org/newpublications October 3, 2002 DEMOCRATIC POLICING EXCHANGE Volume 1, No. 1. October 2002 How can citizens, computerized crime mapping, and civilian oversight mechanisms positively influence policing? These topics formed the substance of the first three global meetings on policing in democratic societies Vera convened for the Ford Foundation. This new newsletter keeps those conversations going among police officials, scholars, members of nongovernmental organizations, and other interested individuals around the world. A semi-annual newsletter on public safety and police accountability, Democratic Policing Exchange is produced by the Vera Institute of Justice for the Ford Foundation. In this issue: In Russia, How Citizen Surveys Can Shape Policing by Francis James CRISP Director Reviews Global Meeting in Brazil on Crime Mapping Claudio Beato interviewed by Chitra Bhanu Police and Overseers Gather in Los Angeles by Robin Campbell and Jennifer Trone Active Policing-Related Ford Grants Grants in Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. Recent Publications Upcoming Meetings and Conferences Download this publication in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format: http://www.vera.org/publication_pdf/184_341.pdf [SIZE: 127 KB/8 pages] ...................... DOWNLOAD NOTE ......................... You will need the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view Vera's publications. Acrobat 5.0 can be obtained at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html NEW PUBLICATIONS from the Vera Institute of Justice is published when new reports are released. To subscribe or unsubscribe, please use our online form at: http://www.vera.org/subscribe/subscribe.asp Using that form, you may also subscribe to quarterly updates about Vera's work on Crime and Victimization, Policing, The Judicial Process, Sentencing and Corrections, and Institutions for Youth, and on our international programs. ABOUT the Vera Institute of Justice ..................... A private nonprofit organization, Vera works closely with government to improve the services people rely on for safety and justice. The Institute develops innovative, affordable programs that often grow into self-sustaining organizations, studies social problems and current responses, and provides practical assistance to government officials in New York and around the world. To send us feedback about this update, write an e-mail to Vera's webmaster at <webmaster@vera.org>. Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 12:38 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Bratton Outlines Ambitious Goals for LAPD http://www.latimes.com/news/Ioca!/la-me-chief4oct04 story Bratton Lays Out Ambitious Set of Goals for LAPD Police: His priorities as chief are quicker hiring, satisfying the consent decree and wiping away any 'tarnish' on the department's image. By TINA DAUNT and MEGAN GARVEY LA TIMES STAFF WRITERS October 4 2002 William J. Bratton said Thursday that his top priorities as Los Angeles police chief will be to accelerate the pace of hiring, speed the LAPD's compliance with a federal consent decree and restore the "most famous badge in the world" to its former brilliance. "1 will not let you down," Bratton said in his first formal remarks since being chosen Wednesday by Mayor James K. Hahn to head the LAPD. "We will build on the legacy and the tradition and the skills," he said at a news conference at the North Hollywood police station. "And we will take that most famous shield, and whatever little tarnish exists ... it will be wiped clean." Throughout the day Bratton praised the professionalism of the department and said television shows of decades past such as "Dragnet" and "Adam-12" celebrated an organization that "set the standard for so many years." But he also criticized the department for failing to modernize, and said he would immediately begin to redeploy officers. For example, he said he will make graffiti a top priority for all officers and reconsider the way the department's specialized units, such as robbery-homicide, operate. Bratton, who headed the police departments in New York City and his hometown of Boston, charged through a fast-paced day that began with a press conference and continued with lunch at the police academy, media interviews, appearances at station house roll calls and meetings with community policing volunteers. Throughout the stops he exhibited the polished speaking style and comfort in front of the cameras that helped catapult him to fame in New York. In a meeting room at the North Hollywood station packed with more than 20 television cameras and dozens of photographers and reporters, Bratton laid out his goals for the department and a job he called "the premier law enforcement opportunity in America today." He also took the opportunity to address critics' charges that he openly lobbied for the job. "You better believe I campaigned," he said, his voice sharp. "You want me to come in here and not know a damn thing about the place? I did my homework." Asked to name the two biggest problems facing the LAPD, Bratton said increasing the ranks from the current 9,000 officers up to the 10,000 authorized and implementing reforms outlined in a federal consent decree. Los Angeles was forced last year to enter into the decree, overseen by a judge, after the U.S. Department of Justice concluded that the LAPD had for years been engaging in a "pattern or practice" of civil rights violations. Bratton, who spent a year on the team overseeing the department's compliance with the decree, said it had shown a 10/4/02 Page 2 of 3 pattern of resistance to implementing the reforms. "That will not occur when I am police chief. We will begin immediately," said Bratton, who could start work next week pending City Council approval. He also set out an ambitious goal of meeting the conditions of the consent decree ahead of schedule. Those reforms include establishing computerized systems to track issues such as problem officers and illegal racial profiling. A judge had ordered the department to comply fully by 2006. "The quicker we get that implemented the better for the officers and the public," Bratton said. Hahn, who informed Bratton Wednesday that he had the job, was at his side all day. At one point, the mayor stretched one arm around Bratton's shoulders in an embrace and said with a wide smile, "See why I like this guy so much?" Introducing Bratton at the news conference, the mayor said he believed the former New York commissioner could make Los Angeles "the safest big city in America," a challenge Bratton said he was confident he could meet. For his part, Bratton backed the mayor's attempt to defeat secession campaigns in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood. "1 can't even begin to imagine why [anyone] would want to secede from L.A. Seriously, one of the great cities of the world." The mayor, whose reserved public persona contrasts with Bratton's more flamboyant style, said in an interview with The Times that he was unconcerned about the possibility that Bratton will attract more attention than the man who hired him. Chatting in Hahn's office on Thursday afternoon, the two men laughed about their perceived differences. 'Tm actually taller than he is," Hahn joked. "Yes, he's a much bigger presence, I noticed that," Bratton responded. Hahn said it wouldn't bother him if Bratton turns up on the cover of Time magazine, as long as he gets the job done. "What is going to be great about working with Bill Bratton is we share the same goals," Hahn said. "If things go right there is plenty of credit to go around for everybody. If you are the chief of police in Los Angeles, that automatically means you are in the spotlight. It also means you have to deliver.. I know that, because it's what mayors are judged on too." Earlier, at the news conference, Bratton deflected a question about how well he will get along with Hahn in light of his clashes with then-New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani when Bratton headed the NYPD from 1994-96. He said he'd laid it all out in his autobiography and given a copy to Hahn. Hahn later apologetically conceded he hadn't finished the book. In his autobiography, Bratton details the tumultuous and bitter ending to his relationship with Giuliani, who forced him out of the NYPD commissioner's job after an extended fight over who deserved credit for steep declines in New York City's crime rate. And Bratton hotly disputed criticism raised in New York that police officers there had become overzealous, resulting in serious civil rights violations. He said allegations that such instances increased under the community policing model he embraces--and plans to bring to Los Angeles--were a creation of the media. "It's a gross misrepresentation of [the NYPD's] professional activities," Bratton said. "You don't have to worry about officers out of control" in Los Angeles, he added. Bratton, who had lunch with the department's deputy chiefs, said Thursday that he anticipates having to bring in a only few outsiders to help him overhaul the LAPD. He joked that he would use his "winning personality" to win over the LAPD rank and file, a corps known for being inhospitable to outsiders. But he also pointed out he had spent a good deal of time studying the department while working as a consultant on consent decree compliance. "One of the benefits of having been here over the past year is that I've had a chance to reach out to a lot of people at different levels of the organization," Bratton said. "There's great talent here, there's just a lot of them in the wrong position. It's a matter of shuffling the deck little bit." 10/4/02 Page 3 of 3 One of his first orders of business will be tackling the city's graffiti problem, which falls under the category of "quality of life" enforcement that was his trademark as head of New York's transit authority and as police commissioner. "1 was amazed to find that of 9,000 persons in the Police Department, not a single one is focused on graffiti," Bratton said. "As a result you look like the graffiti capital of the world.... I'd like to see more focus on that issue because it reflects community pride. It reflects a sense of caring." He said he also plans to quickly reconfigure the LAPD's specialized units, such as robbery-homicide, narcotics and gang divisions. "My own sense of the Police Department is it is an overspecialized, compartmentalized department," Bratton said. "You are policing in the 1950s here .... "Where you have guns, you have drugs. Where you have drugs, you have youth. Where you have youth, you have gangs. Why treat them like four different diseases? When you go to a doctor, he treats the totality of all the things that are affecting your body. L.A. is not doing that in any way, shape or form." He added: "You have a narcotics unit that works Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, and on weekends there is no one fighting drug crime in Los Angeles. If you're a drug dealer, you are going to sleep Monday through Friday and say, 'Let's go party' on the weekends." Bratton said he believed updating Los Angeles's computerized crime reporting system to Compstat, the system he used in New York to break down crime statistics street by street, will go a long way making troubled areas safer. And Bratton's selection was welcomed by some of the rank and file who listened to his remarks. "Everybody is looking forward to the change because he is going to step up to bat and shake things up," said LAPD Homicide Det. Hollis Berdin of the North Hollywood Division. She said she believed Bratton's approach "is going to bring us back as the No. 1 police department in the world." Bratton--who walked a beat in Boston before working his way up the ranks--said it wasn't until after the attack on the World Trade Center that he realized how much he missed policing. "1 never felt so useless in New York City than on 9/11 ," Bratton said. "It's those kinds of things that make public service so desirable. "The day the shield is pinned to my chest, that's when I know it's real." 10/4/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 12:46 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Commentaries on Bratton Selection for LAPD http;//www !at!mes com/news/Iocal/la-me-again4oct04004444,0,3764135~story?co!!=!a%2D head!ines%2Dca!ifornia LATimes NEWS ANALYSIS Oct. 4 02 Will N.Y.M.O. Work in L.A.? Chief: Crime plummeted on Bratton's watch there, but some doubt he can repeat that success here. By BETH SHUSTER and GEOFFREY MOHAN TIMES STAFF WRITERS October 4 2002 Now that New York City crime fighter William J. Bratton has been selected to head the Los Angeles Police Department, the question becomes: Can he do it hera? In his 27-month reign as police commissioner in New York City, Bratton oversaw double-digit declines in crime; violent felonies fell by a third and homicides were cut in half. It was that record that made him one of the country's best-known chiefs and that helped him secure the top job at the LAPD. Bratton, who titled his 1998 autobiography "Turnaround: How America's Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic," is one of many who credit the NYPD and his leadership with playing a large role in reducing New York crime. Still, there is considerable skepticism among academics and policing experts that Bratton can neatly replicate New York's crime statistics from those years in this city at this time. Among other things, the LAPD is far smaller than the NYPD. But Bratton is widely admired for his creativity and insistence on accountability. His admirers say that bodes well for crime fighting in the nation's second-largest city under Bratton's watch. "It's not going to be the Bill Bratton method applied to L.A.," said Richard Emery, a New York City civil rights lawyer and Bratton's lawyer as well. "1 don't think that's what will occur. It's going to be the creativity of Bill Bratton for L.A. That is the key factor here." In New York, Bratton employed a computer statistical program aimed at identifying problem areas, directing resources there and holding supervisors accountable for reducing crime. As commissioner in New York, Bratton defined those methods as community policing, and positioned himself as a leading advocate of that law enforcement style. Indeed, he said Thursday he will expand the system for tracking crime in the LAPD and that he will encourage officers "to take back the streets" of Los Angeles--an echo of the rhetoric he employed in taking over the NYPD in 1994. "What we effectively did in New York was use quality-of-life control by the police--understandably with a much larger police force--that literally for 25 years did not have a modicum of quality-of-life enforcement," Bratton said at a morning news conference. But Bratton will have far fewer officers in a far larger geographical area, making cop-on-the-beat policing difficult. That's likely to provoke a debate over exactly what is meant by community policing here in Los Angeles--the assertive style of Bratton's NYPD or the more community-relations oriented approach the LAPD has practiced in recent years. "Thera are probably 150 visions of community policing," said former Philadelphia Police Commissioner John F. Timoney, who was a finalist for the LAPD job and who was one of Bratton's most trusted aides in New York. 10/4/02 Page 2 of 3 "The bottom line is his [program] is problem solving, not just dealing with the immediate problem but fixing it once and for all." For New York, community policing meant the broken window approach: cracking down on small problems in a neighborhood in order to avoid the bigger, more violent ones. "1 would say his biggest challenge is he will not have the number of people in proportion to the population that he had in New York City," said James Q. Wilson, a retired UCLA professor who is considered the godfather of that theory. "In New York, you have enough officers to do ordinary and specialized patrols. Here, you need virtually every officer." The NYPD has nearly 40,000 police officers, compared to more than 9,000 in Los Angeles. Although New York is the bigger city, that still amounts to one officer for every 209 residents of that city and one for every 409 Los Angeles residents. "It will be the greatest challenge of Commissioner Bratton's career to take on the complex crime problems in Los Angeles with a force that's much smaller than what he had," said Jeffrey Fagan, a Columbia University professor of law and public health. Bratton's arrival in LA. reignites an old debate: the question of how much the police in New York were responsible for that city's drop in crime in the 1990s. "Historians like to argue that things are intertwined and one factor can never explain a phenomenon, but he gets a lot of credit, and of course the 40,000 men and women [in the New York Police Department] get a lot of credit, for what happened here in New York," said Robert McCrie, chairman of the law, police science and criminal justice administration department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. "If we list the forces that can have an effect, good or bad, policing would be at the top, and Bratton was the police chief," he said. In his autobiography, Bratton skewered academic experts who at first explained away New York's double-digit drop in crime during the mid-1990s: "We lined up their alternate reasons like ducks in a row and shot them all down," Brafton wrote, dismissing arguments that the strong economy and changing demographics, among other things, were the real reasons for the drop in violence. Nonetheless, McCrie said that the economic boom, with record Iow unemployment, as well as a calm political climate in New York, helped Bratton's crusade appreciably. "We didn't have reasons for riots and disorders," McCrie said. "The city wasn't unhappy with the government." But there was a downside to the Bratton formula, as activists accused the NYPD of engaging in racial profiling in their aggressive pursuit of street crime. Minority communities within Los Angeles have long felt disenfranchised by the Police Department, criticizing it for racially profiling residents, among other things. The federally negotiated consent decree in Los Angeles, which grew out of the Rampart corruption scandal, has been blamed in some quarters for distracting LAPD management from the business of fighting crime. Mayor James K. Hahn, whose office helped negotiate the decree, disagrees and has indicated his desire to more fully implement those reforms in the LAPD. Thursday, some experts said the decree actually may strengthen Bratton's hand as he takes aim at crime. "By adhering to the order of the court, he will help build legitimacy in the Police Department in the eyes of the minority community," Fagan said. "Legitimacy is an important ingredient to building citizen and department partnerships." Inside the department, Timoney and ethers say Bratton's forte will be in fostering an environment where Jess-senior officers are encouraged to be innovative in their approach to targeting violent hot spots. "You'll see some junior officers get moved up almost overnight," Timoney said. "He's a risk taker; he will surround himself with junior officers and he'll give them the authority to really do their job." In New York, for example, Bratton shifted the working hours of robbery detectives to match the hours of robbers, based on a suggestion from a detective. He promoted that detective, McCrie said. 10/4/02 Page 3 of 3 "Bratton is a manager, an executive--maybe not a manager to everyone's taste, but he's not going to come in saying, '1 know the solutions to your problems,'" McCrie said. "He'll create an environment where people who have ideas on how to solve L.A.'s problems will feel comfortable bringing up ideas and having them tested." But as Bratton moves to step up the LAPD's technological capacity for spotting crime trends and beefs up its insistence on accountability, he still will face deep challenges in learning the department he will soon lead--in the city he is only just beginning to know. "He can get the numbers easily, but can he get the qualitative nature of Los Angeles?" said Geoff Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina. "1 wish him the best and hope he does well, but it isn't going to be easy." http:~www~!atimes.c~m~news~pini~n~edit~da~s~!a~ed~gang4~ct~4~442943~st~ry?c~!!=!a%2Dnews%2Dc~mment% 2Deditoria!s STANDING UP TO STREET GANGS Collar Killers, Foster Hope LA Times Editorial October 4 2002 To the many crime statistics Los Angeles' new police chief will soon be crunching, add No. 90. That's what Krystle Tashell White became last week, one of 90 homicides so far this year in South Los Angeles' 77th Street Division. According to police, the 20-year-old Cerritos woman and a male companion were driving near 83rd Street and Avalon Boulevard when a group of teenage boys on bicycles rode alongside, yelling gang challenges. Police believe she was trying to shield her 22-month-old son when one of the teenagers shot her through the car window. Incongruous as it sounds, it's not unusual for armed boys on bikes to prowl parts of Los Angeles. What sets this killing apart from the usual carnage is that typically mothers are left to mourn lost sons, not the other way around. As this young mother's life evaporates into the ever-growing violent crime tallies, let's put 90 homicides in perspective. The city of Oakland, population 399,500, has had 85 homicides citywide so far this year, and city officials have declared a crisis. The LAPD'S 77th Street Division patrols 12 square miles with about 175,000 residents. With fewer than 5% of the 3.7 million people in Los Angeles, it accounts for almost 20% of the homicides. South Los Angeles' homicide numbers alone, as bad as they are, don't tell the full toll. LAPD Capt. James Miller, who commands the 77th Division, estimates that shootings have wounded an additional 1,000 people. VVhole neighborhoods live in fear. Families and friends live with loss. Wednesday's Times carried a sobering story of violence's rippling reach: A jury convicted a North Hollywood woman of fatally beating her 4-year-old niece--she had reluctantly taken custody of the child two years ago, after street gangsters killed the girl's mother. We wrote last month that the most urgent task facing the then-unnamed new police chief would be quelling a three-year surge in homicides, more than half of them involving gangs. Police here and in Oakland and everywhere cite the same reasons for the slaughter: a crummy economy, waves of parolees returning to the streets and a population bulge of adolescents, the most crime-prene age. To this, the 77th Division's Miller adds, "Kids are hopeless. They don't care if they get killed. They don't care if they kill someone." Former New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, whom Mayor James K. Hahn named Thursday to take over the L^PD, cannot repair the boyhood dreams knocked flat by poverty, absent fathers, criminally inadequate schooling and a lack of jobs. But together, with real commitment, the mayor and chief could hit the crisis with the required one-two: a hard punch for the criminals, a gu[ding hand on the shoulders of the boys who are not yet beyond salvation. Only by busting criminals and arresting hopelessness will they make the streets that failed Krystle Tashell White safe for her young son. 10/4/02 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 12:50 PM To: Update@NACOLEorg Subject: [NACOLE Update] Houston: Citizen Group Plans to Monitor Police HoustonChmnicle.com -- httpJ/www. HoustonChronicle.com I Section: Local & State Oct. 4, 2002, 7:50AM Citizens group plans to monitor the police Copwatch will hit local streets soon By PEGGY O'HARE Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle A citizens advocacy group looking for police misconduct, brutality and abuse of power is launching patrols to monitor officers' interactions with the public. Houston Copwatch, a volunteer organization that formed last month, will begin patrolling the streets in two or three weeks, using video cameras, tape recorders and notebooks, said Copwatch organizer Ernesto Aguilar. Copwatch, a national organization, regularly videotapes police stopping people or pulling over motorists. The Houston chapter wrote to more than 20 area law enfomement agencies Tuesday, notifying them of the planned citizen patrols and asking that officers respect Copwatch's democratic rights by refraining from harassment and intimidation. "Our concern is that officers will not take kindly to what we're doing," Aguilar said Thursday. "We're not out there to cause a fight. We're there strictly to observe." The recent spate of officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths in Houston and Harris County played a major role in the local chapter's birth. "Harris County has a long, ugly history of police brutality and misconduct," the Houston Copwatch Web site says, referencing the controversial cases of Luis Torres, a Mexican national who died in January after a struggle with Baytown police, and Christopher Menifee, shot to death by a Harris County sheriffs deputy in July. "These incidents have been continually happening all over the city," Aguilar said~ "These have prompted a lot of people to raise their voices and want to get involved." Copwatch promotes itself as a nonconfrontational citizens group whose members are trained to help diffuse confrontations if officers become upset with their presence. But some Copwatch chapters - particularly in Seattle -- have become embroiled in disputes with police who tried to stop Copwatch volunteers from recording or observing officers' activities. "In other cities, officers have gotten extremely aggressive with some Copwatch members -- cameras have been broken, people arrested," Aguilar said. "Our goal is not to return aggressiveness with aggressiveness. If you want revenge on a police officer, or to get in a fight with a police officer, this is not the organization for you." Some local officers did not want to comment on Copwatch's citizen patrol plans. Others said some police officials might not welcome the activity, but officers who aren't doing anything wrong shouldn't worry about someone videotaping them. "If most officers don't realize their actions are subject to being filmed by someone in this high-tech society, they're not very smart," said J.C. Mosier, assistant chief of the Harris County Precinct 1 constable's office. "1 welcome anyone to check what we're doing. I don't think it's anything we in law enforcement should fear. Why would we be afraid of someone monitoring our activity if we're doing our job?" The Houston Police Department has not moved to alert officers of Copwatch's patrol plans. If officers are confused over the legality of citizens recording police activities, HPD will deal with that when the time comes, said spokesman Robert Hurst. "What people do with their own time is their own business as long as they're not obstructing police activity," he said. "If they feel it's something that needs to be taped, and it needs to be brought to the department's attention, the department always wants to know about it. "We would encourage any citizen who has any documentation that would point out possible problems within the Police Department to bring it to the internal affairs division so it can be investigated." One of Houston Copwatch's goals is to have the city establish a civilian oversight board with investigative and punitive powers. The Citizen Review Committee, a 21-member advisory board appointed by the mayor, reviews Houston police investigations of officer-involved shootings, but it has no power to call witnesses or conduct independent investigations. The committee must rely on evidence and data collected by HPD. More than 50 volunteers have joined Houston Copwatch, though Aguilar declined to give a specific membership number. The chapter meets frequently. No area police departments had responded to the group's letter by Thursday, Aguilar said. 10/4/02 Vera Institute of Justice I Projects ] Civilian Oversight of Police Page 1 of 2 VERA INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE Civilian Oversight of Police Latest Developments/Overview I Private Supporters I Brazil I Czech Republic I India I Civilian Oversight of Indonesia I Kenya I Nigeria ] Peru I Russia I South Africa ] United States I Publications Police Indicators of Neighborhood Latest Developments Overview Satisfaction with Police in New York City Brazil counts on ombudsman Mapping Crime Across offices to keep police Police in democratic societies are not only expected to New York State accountable to the public, The control crime, but to do so while treating all citizens fairly Center for Studies on Public and respectfully. To help shape law enforcement practices Pittsburgh's Experience Security and Citizenship that are both effective and respectful, citizens and their (CESeC) at University Candido with Police Monitoring Mendes in Rio de Janeiro is representatives are creating formal and informal evaluating ombudsman offices in mechanisms to oversee the police. Police Assessment five Brazilian states. CESeC's Resource Center new web site has more about this In May 2002, Vera and the Police Assessment Resource and other applied research at Center (PA~ co-hosted an international meeting in Los Police Department CEseC, as well as the center's Angeles on the subject of civilian oversight of police The Crime Statistics Locater courses, forums, and events in meeting, one in a series of global m~tjng~ on police the areas of public security, accountability organized by Vera and supported by the Policing in Democratic justice, and citizenship. Ford Foundation, brought together police officials and Societies police monitors from government and nongovernmental Receive Updates organizations. Ten countries were represented: India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, Peru, and the United States. (For information about civilian oversight in these countries, click on the navigation bar above.) A framework oaeer prepared for the meeting provided the context for the discussion. Presentations by participants suggested that organizations involved in civilian oversight face similar challenges despite regional, cultural, and legal differences. They all have limited resources, for example, and need to set priorities. Should they respond to all complaints? Should they conduct their own investigations and, if so, in which cases? Participants also discussed the challenge of maintaining independence while collaborating with police, the issue of Iow morale among officers, and the need to hold oversight agencies themselves accountable. The discussion, which is summarized in Building Public Confidence in Police through Civilian Oversight, also illustrated how culture and history can influence the way oversight mechanisms evolve In South Africa, for example, the central role of the police in enforcing apartheid led the new democratic government to establish the Independent Complaints Directorate, a statutory body charged with investigating deaths in custody or as a result of police violence. One of the main insights of the meeting was that civilian oversight is less a specific structure than the product of dynamic relationships between government agencies, police departments, and civil society. While civilian oversight can never substitute for good police leadership or effective internal monitoring, it holds the promise of improving law enforcement practices by engaging the public and the police in a dialogue about what constitutes http://vera.org/project/projectl_l.asp?section_id=2&project_id=50 10/7/02 Vera Institute of Justice I Projects [ Civilian Oversight of Police Page 2 of 2 respectful and effective policing. For more information about Vera's continuing series of global meetings on democratic policing, contact Chitra Bhanu. [ last modified 9/18/2002 8'46 39 A M ] Crime and Viet/miz*fion I Policing ] The Judicial Process [ Sentencing and Correcfions I Institutions for Youth I Support for Government J Home Planning and Demonstrating So[utiens ] Advancing Research [ Consulting Nationally I Working Internationally [ Building Nonprofit Organizations http://vera.org/project/projectl_l.asp?section_id=2&project_id=50 10/7/02 Marian Karr From: Hector. W.Soto@phila.gov Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 '11:50 AM To: update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] NYPD Bomb Squad This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by hector.w.soto@phila.gov. Defusing the Situation October 6, 2002 By ROBERT SULLIVAN For the men of the N.Y.P.D. Bomb Squad, admired worldwide for their knowledge and experience, business is much as it has been for the last 100 years - only now there's more of it. Oh, and d±rty bombs to think about too. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/lO/O6/magazine/O6HOWTO.html?ex=lO35005568&ei=l &en=c3991995ea6fb185 HOW TO ADVERTISE For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gan{Ra.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update_nacole.org Marian Karr From: Hector. W.Soto@phila.gov Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 11:52 AM To: update@nacoleorg Subject: [NACOLE Update] NYTimes.com Article: A Proud Badge in Hadford Is Tarnished Like So Many SRFC822.ernl This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by hector.w.soto@phila.gov. A Proud Badge in Hartford Is Tarnished Like So Many October 5, 2002 By PAUL ZIELBAUER HARTFORD, Oct. 4 - For six years, Gregory J. DePietro was not just an ordinary cop. Working the toughest neighborhoods, he was considered an example of what was right with Hartford's embattled police force, hauling in some of this city's most violent drug suspects at a time when several colleagues were being indicted, tried and sent to prison for coI~mitting outrageous felonies on the job. Nowadays, Grog DePietro is still no ordinary cop, but for all the wrong reasons. In admissions that have stunned police officials here, Officer DePietro said that he and other Hartford officers had stolen weapons and jewelry from suspects and crime scenes, flushed drug evidence down the toilet, filched department property and fudged departmental reports during his years on the force. On Thursday, after a 10-month internal investigation, he resigned rather than face the likely prospect of being fired. For the Hartford Police Department and Chief Bruce P, Marquis, a former F.B.I. agent brought in from Texas two years ago to turn around a force stung by one high-profile embarrassment after another, Officer DePietro's revelations, reported by The Hartford Courant on Tuesday, are a humbling reminder of the work left to be done. But what struck many here as downright bizarre was the way in which he confessed them: during a job interview last December with the West Hartford Police Department. His revelations came out during his second interview, as he sat with a West Hartford detective, police officials said. Officer DePietro later told investigators from his own department that he had decided to come clean to avoid being caught lying about his past during the polygraph test that the West Hartford police administer to all job candidates. ! "I'm a very sensitive person," he told Hartford police investigators, according to an internal report quoted by The Courant. "I was trying to be so specific for this interview because of the fact that I was going to be wired to a lie-detector machine." Moreover, responding to 130 yes-or-no questions given to him by the West Hartford detective, Officer DePietro affirmatively answered numerous questions about whether he had lied or stolen, and admitted that he had kept knives and narcotics seized from criminal suspects, the report said. On one occasion, Officer DePietro told West Hartford officials, a partner had stolen a shotgun he had found in the back of an abandoned vehicle, the report said. Another time, the officer said, he was among a group of Hartford officers who flushed what appeared to be cocaine down a station-house toilet because they did not have time to book the three suspects they had taken the package from, the report said. This is not what his bosses expected from Officer DePietro, 31, who won a statewide award in 1998 for bravery. And this is not what the Hartford police were hoping to hear after years of scandal. "This is just devastating," said Sgt. Maura Hammick, a Hartford police spokeswoman. "You feel very betrayed. Honestly, I wondered what police department he was working for." Chief Marquis was traveling out of state and could not be reached for comment, she said. Since 1998, seven officers or former officers have been convicted on federal charges that they coerced city prostitutes into performing sex acts in police cars, sometimes while the officers were on duty. Before that, a nationally recognized expert hired by the city concluded, in a meticulous audit of the department, that it was "dysfunctional" and lacking the policies, personnel and discipline needed to serve a city this size adequately. The department is still investigating Mr. DePietro's charges implicating more than a dozen of his former colleagues, Sergeant Hammick said. But not all officers are convinced he did everything he confessed to. "A lot of things were taken out of context and hyperbolized," said Sgt. Hike Wood, the president of the police union in Hartford. The West Hartford police chief, James J. Strillacci, said in an interview today that no one really knows what compelled Officer DePietro, a seasoned policeman, suddenly to admit a laundry llst of potential crimes. "It was possible that he was so i~nersed in a culture that allowed such things, that he thought he wouldn't get caught," he said. Asked if Mr. DePietro could ever find another job at a police department, Chief Strillacci said, "I would think the news stories about him make him pretty much unemployable in law enforcement. Some people are just too dumb to be police officers." 2 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/lO/O5/nyregion/O5RESI.html?ex-lO35005399&ei 1 &en=elSb95adSale4a34 HOW TO ADVERTISE For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company *** eSafe scanned this email for malicious content *** *** IMPORTANT: Do not open attachments from unrecognized senders Marian Karr From: Hector. W.Soto@phila.gov Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 11:52 AM To: update@nacoJe.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Houston Chief In Trouble This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by hector.w.soto@phila.gov. Police Chief's Job on Line Over Testimony on Profanity October 6, 2002 By JIM YARDLEY HOUSTON, Oct. 5 - In case anyone in the nation's fourth-largest city ever thought otherwise, the people of Houston now know that their police officers cuss. They cuss at meetings. They cuss at each other. Even the chief cusses. The question, though, that has left the Houston Police Department in turmoil for the past two months is whether the chief lied about his cussing. Normally, such an offense might not matter, but because Chief Clarence O. Bradford is accused of lying about cussing while under oath, his career is in jeopardy. A grand jury last month indicted him on a perjury charge, a criminal charge that meant he was suspended with pay. The matter, depending on which side is doing the telking, is either an important example of holding public servants accountable for truth-telling or a silly waste of public tax money. "Do you think people ought to tell the truth when they swear to tell the truth?" said Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal when asked why he had pursed the case. He said the issue was veracity. But one of Chief Bradford's lawyers, Rusty Hardin, countered that the chief is being penalized because he failed under oath to remember using a nasty word. "He is charged with perjury because he didn't remember calling an assistant chief a particular curse word a year and a half earlier," Mr. Hardin said. The origin of the cussing controversy, as first reported by a Houston Press columnist, Tim Fleck, was an angry November 2000 telephone call from Mayor Lee P. Brown to the chief. Officers assigned to a security detail for the mayor's wife, Frances, had not shown up for two days, even though an unidentified caller had mentioned her in a death threat. The chief blistered a group of his top officers about the error. He was reportedly very heated with one of his closest assistants, Executive Assistant Chief Joe Breshears. The chief reprimanded some of the officers and, undoubtedly, he thought that was the end of it. 1 Bet it was only the beginning. Last year, cursing arose in another police controversy. Several officers had filed complaints accusing Capt. Mark Aguirre of using threats and profanity against them. As a result, Captain Aguirre received a letter of reprimand, which he appealed. In that disciplinary hearing, the captain's lawyer called the chief as a witness, asking if he had ever cussed. Yes, the chief said. The lawyer asked the chief if he had ever cussed in police meetings. Yes, the chief answered. Then the lawyer moved in for the kill: Had the chief ever called Joe Breshears a sexual vulgarity? "I don't ever recall calling Joe Breshears that name," the chief answered initially. He he~ed and hawed a little and then finally said emphatically, categorically no. Mr. Breshears later testified that the chief had called him a sexual vulgarity at the meeting a year earlier. He added that he was not too horribly traumatized. didn't jump up and file a complaint against the chief because he said it," Mr. Breshears testified. But Captain Aguirre filed a perjury complaint against the chief with the district attorney, which presented the issue to a grand jury, which indicted Chief Bradford last month. At a hurried news conference, the chief was suspended by the mayor whose own angry phone call had started the whole matter. The mayor, who offered support for the chief, has named an acting chief until the case is resolved. Terry Yates, Captain Aguirre's lawyer, said the chief should be held accountable. "We felt he lied and tried to harm Aguirre's case by lying," Mr. Yates said. But Mr. Hardin says the chief's good name is being unfairly ruined. Neither side appears willing to settle. A trial date will soon be set. It will be a trial in which one thing is certain: There will be plenty of cussing. http://www.nytimes.com/2OO2/lO/O6/national/O6CUSS.html?ex 1035005345&ei l&en- 2556ba4458965bd3 Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update_nacole.org Page 1 of 5 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 12:19 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] 1. Bratton: A Solid Bet for LA; 2. Three Rampart Probes Lax, LAPD Says http:#www, !atimes co m/news/p ri nted itl on/sun ed i toria! s/la-ed-bratton6octO6,0,2 '155073 story?col [=1a%2 D su n opi n io n% 2Dedjtorials LA EDITORIAL A Solid Bet for a Better City October 6 2002 "1 want to make Los Angeles the safest big city in America." Mayor James K. Hahn's mission for a new LAPD must strike residents of neighborhoods where homicides are skyrocketing and weapons poke from passing cars as a naive dream. His choice of a brash, goal-oriented, anti-crime crusader as police chief makes that vision less farfetched. In picking former New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, the mayor defied political convention and made an appointment based on record and reputation. In picking an unyielding out-of-towner, he showed that he can stand up to the LAPD's infamously insular insiders. In nominating a showboat, he proved he's not afraid of having his less-than- commanding presence overshadowed. Despite a few predictable squawks, the City Council will confirm Bratton swiftly, and then the chief needs to attack two interlinked priorities hard. Lowering violent crime must top his list. On Friday, Bratton expressed an eagerness to take on the city's criminal street gangs, and we encourage him to do so within the community policing strategy he has embraced. Feasibility will be in the details. He plans to bring the Los Angeles Police Department into the new century by using computers to track crime and assigning cops (with Palms no less) where needed. He also plans to focus on seemingly small, "quality of life" issues, and has astutely targeted graffiti--especially gang tags-as a problem that undercuts Los Angeles' civic pride. Unlike in New York, however, he can't clean up this sprawling city by sending in beat cops on foot and bicycle--even if he had New York's 40,000 officers, even if the 9,000 men and women who wear an LAPD badge were all perfect humans. Unfortunately, they're not. And quality of life is a hollow promise if some residents feel disrespected by and remain frightened of the people who are supposed to protect and serve them. So, after a decade bracketed by the Rodney King beating and the Rampart scandal, Bratton also must face down criminal cops. He has to break the code of silence, protect whistle-blowers and accelerate the department's implementation of the internally unpopular consent decree--a bold goal he and Hahn have already discussed. He has to push his cops from their bunker mentality and into problem solving. All this will annoy some cops, at least initially, making it even trickier to achieve what should be Bratton's second goal: improving officer morale. Without that, nothing else wi II happen. Luckily, his obvious affection for his fellow cops will help. Bratton has been enamored of the LAPD since he first watched TV's "Dragnet." "1 loved that show," he said. "Now I'm gettin9 to live it." He already has a plan for shaking up the command and a knack for recognizing talent. Insiders he seems likely to lean on include Cmdrs. Jim McDonnell, Sharon Papa, George Gascon and Deputy Chief David Kalish. If the confidence he exudes is genuine, LAPD old-timers who refuse to get with the program had better get out of the way. In this heavily Latino city, many hoped for a chief who could trill his Rs. They got instead a native Bostonian who drops them completely. But if Bratton can achieve the "pahtnership" he envisions between the people and the police, Los Angeles just may stand a chance of becoming the country's safest city. h ttp; l lwww. lati mes. comlnewsllocallla-me-la pd 7 oct0 7. story 3 Rampart Probes Lax, LAPD Says Inquiry: Investigators did incomplete reviews of police 10/7/02 Page 2 of 5 shootings that Perez called unjustified. By MATT LAIT and SCOTT CLOVER LA TIMES STAFF WRITERS October 7 2002 Los Angeles Police Department detectives did not thoroughly investigate three shooting cases that corrupt ex-officer Rafael Perez said were unjustified and covered up, a top police official said last week. Assistant Chief David Gascon, responding to inquiries from The Times, said he was "not satisfied" with the department's efforts to investigate two shooting cases that left men injured. He also acknowledged that a third shooting, in which Perez said he had been told about an officer who tried to cover up an embarrassing misfire, was never reinvestigated by the department's Rampart Corruption Task Force In all three cases, department investigators did not interview witnesses or review other material that might have challenged the official police accounts. Some officers involved in the cases remain on duty, patrolling the streets of Los Angeles three years after Perez accused them of lying and fabricating evidence to justify their actions in shootings. City leaders said they had been assured repeatedly that the Police Department was thoroughly investigating all allegations of misconduct made by Perez about the incidents collectively known as the Rampart scandal. The LAPD has investigated five other shootings that Perez said were suspicious and concluded that, in at least two, he helped the department uncover officer misconduct. "I'm just stunned," Mayor James K. Hahn said Friday when he learned of Gascon's comments. "It doesn't seem like the kind of thing that can just fall through the cracks. I can't imagine what the explanation is." Police Commission President Rick Caruso agreed. "This blows me away," he said. "There's no excuse for not doing everything possible to get to the bottom of those allegations." Referring to Hahn's decision last week to nominate former New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton to head the LAPD, Caruso added: "Herein lies the reason it's healthy to have somebody from the outside become chief of this department." Perez, a former anti-gang officer convicted of stealing cocaine booked as evidence, identified eight allegedly improper shootings more than three years ago during his debriefings with police and prosecutors. In return for a reduced sentence on the charges against him, Perez told investigators about some shootings that he said he knew about firsthand and others that he had heard about from other officers. For months, LAPD officials have told The Times that they were trying to evaluate the status of the investigations into each of those eight cases. Last week, in response to repeated requests for information, Gascon, after consulting with Interim Chief Martin Pomeroy, acknowledged that the department had not done significant follow-up in three of the cases. He said the department now intends to do that review. "We hope to go back and make sure that the actual investigation is done to our satisfaction so we know that we have not only the quality that we need to make a determination, but [also] address any inconsistencies that may have been raised," Gascon said. Gascon said the three shootings were deemed "lower priorities" when detectives were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Perez's allegations. The statutory deadlines for filing criminal charges had either elapsed or were about to expire on two of the cases when Perez, as part of his plea deal, spoke to detectives in September 1999. Nonetheless, Gascon said, the department should have put more effort into investigating the criminal and administrative implications of Perez's allegations in those two shootings, both of which were the subjects of previous articles in The Times. Officials in the district attorney's office declined to comment. One former prosecutor, however, said he was not surprised that the LAPD's shooting investigations were less than thorough. "The LAPD was extraordinarily recalcitrant. It was very difficult to get their cooperation in reviewing the shootings," said 10/7/02 Page 3 of 5 Richard Rosenthal, the former deputy district attorney who prosecuted Perez and worked on the district attorney's corruption task force. "They decided which shootings they wanted to review, and then gave us very few supplemental reports showing us what they had done." Rosenthal, who now works as the civilian monitor of the Port[and Police Department in Oregon, said the alleged cover-ups would have been very difficult to prosecute. "But that does not excuse not reinvestigating shootings," he said. Many of the officers implicated by Perez in improper shootings remain on the job and on patrol. One of the officers Perez accused of covering up a shooting was assigned to work on the department's so-called board of inquiry report critiquing the Rampart scandal at the same time she supposedly was under investigation. All but one of the officers involved in the cases identified by Perez failed to return phone calls, declined to comment for this story, or have previously declined to discuss their roles in the incidents. One officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, corroborated Perez's allegations about one of the shootings. One of those incidents that Gascon said did not receive sufficient investigation took place in the waning hours of Dec. 31, 1995. According to the official police account, officers from the Rampart Division's anti-gang CRASH unit were attacked while looking for revelers firing guns into the air to celebrate the new year. Two men on the balcony of an apartment building on Linwood Avenue opened fire on Officers Brian Hewitt, John Collard and Daniel Lujan, police said The officers, according to police documents, took cover and returned fire, wounding the two suspects. They were booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. Both men admitted firing their guns in the air, but vehemently denied shooting at police. In court, they pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of negligently discharging a firearm and were sentenced to probation. That was the end of the case until Perez spoke out, telling authorities that it was the suspects on the balcony who were attacked, not the officers. According to transcripts of his debriefings with investigators, Perez said the officers watched as the men fired shots into the air. During a break in their shooting, Perez alleged, the officers, who had taken cover behind a car and a concrete column, opened fire on the suspects without warning. Perez, who said he arrived in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, said he and the other officers began collecting their shell casings and were planning to leave without reporting the incident when they discovered blood and determined that a suspect had been hit. The officers then entered the building and arrested the wounded men, Perez said. Police officials acknowledge that there are several pieces of circumstantial evidence that raise serious questions about the account given by officers the night of the shooting. For one, despite the officers' claim that they came under heavy fire from at least two suspects, the LAPD's officer-involved shooting report makes no mention of any bullets or damage in the area where the officers were. In addition, if the officers had been attacked by suspects who then holed up in the building, LAPD protocols would have suggested that officers then call for a SWAT team to take over. No such call was placed. Two officers involved in that incident, Hewitt and Collard, have since been fired from the LAPD for misconduct unrelated to the shooting. Lujan was found guilty of misconduct at an internal LAPD proceeding earlier this year in another case brought to light by Perez, but the officer's only punishment was an official reprimand because the proceeding was not completed within the one-year statute of limitations, according to department sources. Additionally, one officer who was at the scene that evening told The Times in an interview that Perez was telling the truth and that officers were not provoked when they opened fire on the suspects. After Perez's statements to authorities, however, police never interviewed that officer. The second shooting that has raised new questions occurred Oct. 15, 1995. In that incident, rookie Officer Daniel Widman and his partner were dispatched to a domestic violence call in the 1700 block of South Catalina Street. 10/7/02 Page 4 of 5 As Widman searched the apartment for a man who had allegedly hit his wife, he saw what he thought was a large amount of blood smeared on the wails, police documents state. "That is when the hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I was thinking that this was serious," the officer would later tell investigators. He drew his gun. Seconds later, the suspect opened the bedroom door, emerging with a shiny object near his waist, according to police. At the same moment, the officer said he heard a loud boom and saw a flash of light, which he believed to be a muzzle flash. Officer Widman, concluding that he had been shot, fired at the suspect. The bullet hit him in the abdomen. But when police searched for the weapon Widman believed the suspect was holding, they found only a hand mirror. The scenario that Widman, other officers at the scene, and ultimately shooting investigators pieced together was that the "boom" Widman heard was the sound of the bedroom door being flung open by the suspect and striking a dresser; the shiny object the officer saw, they concluded, was the hand mirror; and the flash was light from Widman's flashlight bouncing off the mirror. The "blood" turned out to be ketchup. In a tape-recorded interview shortly after the incident, a shooting team investigator seemed skeptical of the account given by Widman, repeatedly asking the officer if he was sure the shooting had not been an accident. When Widman insisted that it had not, the detective pressed on. "OK, Dan. We are going to go over this again," the detective said. "Wait till two or three years down the line and you get in front of the judge and the jury ... and you are going to have to explain to them why you shot this guy.." In the end, the case never made it to a jury. The city paid the victim, Jose Vega, $425,000 to settle a lawsuit he filed as a result of the shooting. When Perez told investigators about the shooting in 1999, he said he wasn't there and didn't even recall the name of the officer involved, just the circumstances, which he said were an open secret in the Rampart Division. "They wanted to save the kid's career," Perez said. They asked him, 'What do you got?' And he goes, '1 don't know. I just shot him.' And they were like, 'Oh, Jesus.'" Perez said he was told during a CRASH meeting that sergeants who responded to the scene that night helped concoct a story to justify Widman's alleged mistake. "They came up with some idea of a little mirror," Perez told investigators. "They made it very clear to us that that was just what they did to save [Widman's], you know, his job ... covered it up. Fixed it." LAPD officials now concede that the department has not taken adequate steps to determine whether Perez's account was true. Gascon declined to comment on specifics of the department's work. Widman and his partner continue to work at the LAPD. The third shooting that Gascon said last week has yet to receive attention by the department involves a May 14, 1998, incident in which an officer allegedly fired his gun by accident. According to the official police report on the incident, Officer Sonny Garcia chased down a drug dealer whom he thought might have been armed. As Garcia tried to arrest the suspect, the man struck a hard blow to Garcia's hand, which was holding his service weapon. Garcia said he lost control of his gun for a moment and then fired it by accident. Perez said he heard about the alleged cover-up of that shooting from other officers, but did not witness it. According to Perez, officers discussing the incident said Garcia had accidentally fired his gun during the chase, not because of a physical altercation. "It was just simply a mistake. But he didn't know how to explain it," Perez told investigators. "Instead of saying, hey, I was 10/7/02 Page 5 of 5 running and my gun accidentally went off, things are made up and--and added to the story to make it sound like, 'OK, I can--we can understand how that happened.'" One LAPD official said the case might have been assigned a lower priority partly because the alleged cover story the officer told would not have subjected him to any less criticism than the version he gave. "It just didn't make sense," said the high-ranking LAPD source. "For that reason, I don't think it was a top priority." Caruso, the Police Commission president, said he has been asking department officials to produce a long-promised report that is supposed to account for the LAPD's investigation of all allegations arising from the Rampart scandal.. That report is more than two years overdue. "If this is how they treated cases with such a high profile, how did they treat cases that didn't get so much attention?" Caruso said. "That's what scares me." 10/7/02 Page 1 of 5 From: hector.w.soto@phila.gov < hector.w.soto@phila.go¥> 1o: hector.w.soto@phila.gov <hector.w.soto@phila.gov> Date: Monday, October 07, 2002 4:41 PM Subject: NYTimes.com Article: Seeking Terrorist Plots, F.B.I. Is Tracking Hundreds of Muslims This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by hector.w,soto@phila.gov. Seeking Terrorist Plots, F.B.I. Is Tracking Hundreds of Muslims October 6, 2002 By PHILIP SHENON and DAVID JOHNSTON WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 - The Federal Bureau of Investigation is trying to make an open book of the lives of hundreds of mostly young, mostly Muslim men in the United States in the belief that Al Qaeda-trained terrorists remain in this country, awaiting instructions to attack. Senior law enforcement officials say the surveillance campaign is being carried out by every major F.B.I. office in the country and involves 24-hour monitoring of the suspects' telephone calls, e-mail messages and Internet use, as well as scrutiny of their credit-card charges, their travel and their visits to neighborhood gathering places, including mosques. The campaign, which has also involved efforts to recruit the suspects' friends and family members as government informers, has raised alarm from civil liberties groups and some Arab-American and Muslim leaders. The men are suspected of ties to Al Qaeda or other groups affiliated with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. Law enforcement officials say the surveillance program has provided vital evidence to support a string of arrests and indictments around the country since late summer - in western New York, in Detroit, in Seattle and, on Friday, in Portland, Ore. - of Americans and others accused of conspiring in terrorist cells to assist Al Qaeda. Still, the F.B.I. has acknowledged that it has no evidence of any imminent terrorist threat posed by the so-called 10/8/02 Page 2 of 5 sleeper cells connected to Al Oaeda. Federal law enforcement officials say there is no sign of a terrorist cell operating on American soil that, in its level of commitment and training, resembles anything like the team of suicide hijackers who trained in the United States for several months before carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks. They concede that the domestic threat posed by Qaeda cells may at times have been overstated, especially after the arrest last May of Jose Padilla, an American also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, Justice Department officials have backed away from their initial suggestion that they had compelling evidence linking him to a plot to build an explosive radiological device known as a dirty bomb. Still, law enforcement officials say they are convinced that at least several dozen people now under F.B.I. surveillance in the United States - with different degrees of terrorist training, and with varying degrees of loyalty to Al Qaeda - would take part in an attack if ordered, and that they represent a clear threat. "If you look at the number of people who went through the Al Qaeda training camps, and there are literally thousands who did, it stands to reason that a certain percentage of them are in this country," said John E. Bell Jr., who retired last summer as the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.'s field office in Detroit. Much of the surveillance campaign is centered in Detroit, since the region is the home to the nation's largest population of people of Arab descent. On Friday, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that an investigation based in Portland had resulted in charges against six people, five of them Americans, because they were members of a "suspected terrorist cell within our borders." The suspects were accused of conspiring to "levy war against the United States" and to contribute services to Al Qaeda. One of the suspects was accused of joining the Army Reserve to get weapons and tactical training for use in what officials said was a "jihad" against the United States. It was the latest in a series of arrests of people around the United States accused of ties to Qaeda cells. In the New York case, six Americans of Yemeni descent from a suburb of Buffalo were accused last month of traveling to Afghanistan last year to attend a Qaeda camp. In Detroit, four men were charged in August with membership in a "sleeper operational combat cell" tied to Al Qaeda 10/8/02 Page 3 of 5 that was preparing for attacks in the United States, Turkey and Jordan. In Seattle, James Ujaama, a local Muslim activist, was accused of providing Al Qaeda with training facilities, safe houses and computer services as part of a conspiracy to "murder and maim persons located outside the United States." Within the Bush administration, there has been a fractious, mostly unpublicized debate over how many sleeper agents of Al Qaeda might be in the United States, and the amount of resources the F.B.I. and other law enforcement agencies should devote to their effort to ferret them out. American counterterrorism officials have estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 young Muslims from around the world trained in Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, with information gathered from abandoned Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan and Pakistan and from captured terrorists, the officials have tried to compile the names of everyone who attended the camps. So far, the officials say, they have been able to identify and track down several hundred people around the world who trained at the camps and might be considered a threat. Some law enforcement officials say that when they have detected Qaeda loyalists in the United States since Sept. 11, they have tended to be hapless malcontents and not disciplined terrorists. "They are hangers-on and wannabe terrorists for the most part," said one official, adding, in reference to the leader of the Sept. 11 plot, "Mohammed Atta wouldn't have asked most of these guys to take out his trash." But other senior officials emphasized that they were reluctant to dismiss the threat posed by these suspects, in part because they view terrorist acts like bombings as relatively easy to carry out - even by unskilled groups operating without much money or leadership. Some Arab-American and Muslim groups have complained that the intense F.B.L surveillance campaign, which they insist has been evident for months, has unfairly left the perception that all young men of Arab descent or the Muslim faith have some connection to terrorism. "Young Arab men, in particular, are being treated as suspicious, possibly dangerous," said Hussein Ibish, communications director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "1 think there have been some really egregious instances of abuse." 10/8/02 Page 4 of 5 But he said there was an understanding among Arab-Americans that a handful of young men of Arab descent in the United States might pose a terrorist threat, and that it was in the best interests of the community here to find and stop them. "1 would be surprised if there are hundreds of them," he said. "But there could be 10, 20, 30." In Buffalo, the F.B.I. said tips from local Muslims led to the arrest of the six men last month. Mr. Bell, the former special agent in Detroit, said that Arab and Muslim leaders in the city had "made it very clear that they were not interested in supporting terrorism, and that they were going to be the first to step forward if they learned about it." The bureau's surveillance campaign has depended heavily on wiretaps obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows electronic surveillance of terrorism suspects at a far lower standard of evidence than in normal criminal cases. Law enforcement officials said the bureau had worked closely with the National Security Agency in trying to monitor telephone calls and other communication between suspects in the United States and telephone numbers abroad that are known to be used by Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. The bureau's dependence on the surveillance act in the search for sleeper cells helps explain why the Justice Department has so aggressively defended its request to expand its authority under the law, passed in 1978, which has been the subject of a recent battle involving the secret court in Washington that reviews the bureau's surveillance requests. "The terrorists don't know it, but we're listening in all the time," said a senior law enforcement official, noting that there had been extensive electronic surveillance of the six men charged near Buffalo, including reviews of e-mail messages between some of the men as they traveled in the Middle East in recent months. In F.B.I. offices in Detroit, Newark, Los Angeles and other cities with large Arab-American and Muslim populations, officials say, the bureau is struggling to keep up with the mountain of tapes, transcripts and photographs from the surveillance. Mr. Bell, the former director of the Detroit office, said that after Sept. 11, he doubled the number of agents 10/8/02 Page 5 of 5 assigned to work on counterterrorism - he says he is barred from providing an exact figure - and that he moved quickly to hire several Arabic-language translators to deal with the tapes and transcripts. http:llwww.nytimes.coml2OO211OlO61nationallO6SLEE.html? ex--1035026619&ei=1&en=a4869b29fde51b6b HOW TO ADVERTISE For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www, nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company 10/8/02 Marian Karr From: Hector. W.Soto@phila.gov Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 5:07 PM To: update@nacole.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] NYTimes.com Article: The Difficult Balance Between Liberty and Security SRFC822.eml This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by hector.w.soto@phila.gov. The Difficult Balance Between Liberty and Security October 6, 2002 By JEFFREY ROSEN WASHINGTON Even more than last year, the Supreme Court's new term begins in the shadow of Sept. 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks led Congress to pass laws that increase the ability of federal officials to investigate not just terrorists but all ~nericans. While the Supreme Court may begin to hear challenges to those laws later in its term, which begins tomorrow, it already has on its docket several cases that could reveal how it draws the line between liberty and security. In hearing these cases, the justices will inevitably face one of the most basic and profound questions for any system of justice: how to ensure that the most serious restrictions on liberty are reserved for those who pose the most serious threats to security. Few Americans would disagree with the principle that the punishment should fit the crime. But whether the Constitution requires some degree of proportionality is unclear. Unfortunately, based on the justices' past rulings, it may be a mistake to rely on the Supreme Court to restore some sense of balance. Of the cases the court has already agreed to hear, three involve laws passed after highly publicized crimes in the 1990's: the Oklahoma City bombing and the murders of Polly Klass and Megan Kanka. Like the Sept. 11 attacks, these crimes created widespread fear and unrealistic public demands for security at the expense of liberty. Although the justices have been eager to expand their own power in relation to that of Congress and the president, they have been reluctant to strike down or modify excessively broad laws adopted in haste after especially dramatic or horrific events. In Demore v. Kim, the issue is whether Congress, in responding to terrorism after the Oklahoma City bombing, acted unconstitutionally when it passed a law in 1996 requiring the attorney general to take into custody all noncitizens who commit certain crimes and hold them without bail before deporting them. The law is being challenged by a South Korean citizen who served three years in prison for ! petty theft and was seized by the Immigration and Naturalization Service the day after his release. In striking down the mandatory detention, a federal appeals court said the plaintiff's treatment was disproportionate to his crime. How the Supreme Court decides this case may give some indication of its view of the U.S.A. Patriot Act, which Congress passed a year ago and which gives the attorney general even broader powers to detain criminal aliens. Two years ago, the Supreme Court narrowly held that the indefinite detention of certain aliens might violate the Constitution, although it made an exception for cases involving terrorism (which it did not define). Yet the court has traditionally given Congress broad discretion over immigration and historically has not insisted upon proportionality between the length of the detention and the seriousness of the crime in cases involving noncitizens. The court will confront similar questions of proportionality when it considers Lockyer v. Andrade, where the question is whether the three-strikes laws in California, adopted in 1994 after the murder of Polly Klass, violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. After some previous burglary convictions, Leandro Andrade's third strike was shoplifting nine videos. This is a misdemeanor ordinarily punishable by six months in jail, but it was upgraded to a felony because of his prior arrests. As a result, he got 50 years to life. In striking down the sentence, the appeals court said it was "grossly disproportionate" to his crime. But no other court has struck down the life sentence of a habitual offender (as opposed to a first-time offender) on these grounds. In the cases about the so-called Megan's laws, Smith v. Doe and Connecticut v. Doe, the court will hear challenges to the public sex-offender registers that all 50 states created after the murder of Megan Kanka in New Jersey in 1994. Two federal appeals courts struck down these laws in Connecticut and Alaska, holding that the public lists stigmatized convicts who may not have posed a continuing threat to society. Here the Supreme Court's decision will almost certainly hinge on which view of the sex-crime registry prevails: is it an unfair punishment for nonviolent criminals who have already served their time, or a reasonable tool for protecting public safety? Current Supreme Court precedents don't clearly require proportionality between crime and punishment, or between searches and seizures. This may emerge as a central issue as the justices begin to review cases arising out of the Sept. 11 investigation. In the U.S.A. Patriot Act, for example, Congress gave the president new powers to detain aliens and to investigate citizens. If these powers were limited to the investigation of terrorism, they might be viewed as reasonable. But many of these new powers apply to the investigation of all crimes. As a result, they allow the federal government to collect personal data in search of wrongdoing. In evaluating the constitutionality of the U.S.A. Patriot Act as well as new technologies of surveillance adopted after Sept. 11, the court will have to determine whether the Constitution requires that the most intrusive searches be reserved for the most serious crimes. In recent years, the justices have been reluctant to question detentions or 2 investigations because of their disproportionate scope, and there is little reason to hope for a change in course. But there is at least some support for the proportionality principle in the text and history of the prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishments and unreasonable searches and seizures. As the cases already on the docket show, public opinion tends to be emotional and unreliable in trying to balance liberty and security in times of great anxiety. Is it too much to expect the court to do better? Jeffrey Rosen teaches law at George Washington University and is legal affairs editor of The New Republic. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/lO/O6/opinion/O6ROSE.html?ex=lO35027010&ei 1 &on d75d283909dSc377 HOW TO ADVERTISE For information on advertising in e-mall newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company *** eSafe scanned this email for malicious content *** IMPORTANT: Do not open attachments from unrecognized senders 3 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 10:41 PM To: Update@NACOLEorg Subject: [NACOLE Update] NACOLE Conference Early Registration Deadline Dear Civilian Oversight Community, The NACOLE Conference is October 31 to Nov 3 in Cambridge, Mass. If you have not yet registered for the NACOLE conference, please remember the early registration deadline is October 10, 2002. Download the hotel information, membership & registration forms from the Summer 2002 Newsletter on our website, nacole.org Then, fax them to Rose Ceja-Aragon at 303-256-5491. We look forward to seein9 you in Cambridge. Sue Quinn for NACOLE 10/8/02 Marian Karr From: hector.w.soto@phila.gov Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 8:45 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] NYTimes.com Articre: After 9/11, a Question of Command This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by hector.w.soto@phila.gov. After 9/11, a Question of Comm~nd October 9, 2002 By AL BAKER After the World Trade Center attack, New York City's police and fire officials came under criticism for lapses in command and cor~munication in their response to the disaster. A private consultant told the city that catastrophes of this size required a unified command overseeing the numerous emergency agencies. But yesterday the city's police and fire commissioners said at a City Council committee hearing that a central commland system was not needed. Under persistent questioning by Council members, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said that neither department was qualified to seize control of the other. They said the top leaders from each department would cooperate, communicate and coordinate to share power and responsibility in a future disaster - and train toward that end. "I think there is a danger in getting wrapped around the axle in saying who is in charge in a particular event," Mr. Kelly told the joint hearing of the two committees that oversee public safety, fire and criminal justice issues. The audience was filled with leaders from the city's uniformed services, union officials and some relatives of the victims of the attack. Seated between the police and fire commissioners was John T. Odermatt, the emergency management commissioner, who said his agency's main job was to coordinate disaster response with the two major departments as well as scores of local, state and federal agencies. Many other cities and states around the nation subscribe to some form of unified command structure, with a single leader or agency atop a clear chain of command, depending en the nature of the calamity. The system dictates under what circumstances police, fire or other officials take control of an emergency. "There is the Niims system that keeps coming up," Hr. Kelly added, referring to the National Interagency Incident Management System. "This is the national incident response ! system that is used by the federal government. It really is focused on forest fires, it is focused on municipalities that can't handle an incident by themselves, that need groupings of several agencies to come from all over a county or indeed all over the country. I don~t think that that kind of system is appropriate for New York City." The issue was raised in two reports issued in August by McKinsey & Company, a corporate consultant best known for its expertise in management practices. In its report on the Fire Department's response to the 9/11 attack, the consultant advised the Fire and Police Departments and other agencies to create common command and control structures to manage a response to any incident. In its report on the Police Department, the consultant called for a clearer delineation of the roles and responsibilities of the department's leaders because of a lack of clear command structure and direction during and after the Sept. 11 attack. The police and firefighters have at times clashed at emergency scenes. A written protocol or plan to designate an incident commander at certain emergencies had been worked out between city officials over the years and signed by former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, but it was informal. Under that plan, the Police Department would take charge at bomb threats and hostage situations, for example, while the Fire Department would take charge at situations like fires, explosions and structural collapses. Sometimes, Mr. Scoppetta said, command is determined by who arrives first. Yesterday, Mr. Scoppetta said he hoped a new written protocol for routine emergencies could be agreed upon "very soon," and signed by both himself and Mr. Kelly. But at a catastrophe like the trade center attack, city officials said, the notion of a single commander would be impossible because of the amount of the resources and manpower needed. It is hard to plan for rapidly changing conditions, they said. Police and fire officials now meet more regularly, and the agencies are trying to improve their technological links. The Fire Department is testing its radios using the Police Department's system of radio signal-boosting repeaters to strengthen its transmissions, Mr. Scoppetta said. But some lawmakers said yesterday that a pledge to cooperate might not be enough. They asked what would happen if the leaders disagreed, if the rank-and-file resp0nders did not cooperate, or if events overwhelmed the city's abilities. "My concern is human instinct that sort of dictates the adrenaline rush, anxiety and panic," said Councilwoman Yvette D. Clarke, Democrat of Brooklyn. "And, I am concerned that that spirit of cooperation actually filters to the rank and file of each department." And Peter L. Gorman, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, testified that even though firefighters and police officers acted heroically on Sept. 11,, they acted separately because there was no unified conm~and structure. If the issue is not addressed, he told the Council, "We are doomed to repeat our failures of 9/11." Peter F. Vallone Jr., Democrat of Queens and the chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said lawmakers would recommend a response system to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in a few months. There is no provision today for who has the final say in any emergency situation, he said, noting that the Office of Emergency Management's role was limited to coordination. "Should we make or put O.E.M. in charge?" he said after the hearing. "Whether or not the O.E.M. mandate should include ultimate command responsibility is something that we need to look into." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/lO/Og/nyregion/OgDISA.html?ex=lO35171084&ei 1 &en-c026acc5c982bg0e HOW TO ADVERTISE For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update nacole.org Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2002 10:35 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA Area Lethal Force Accident; Officer Thought He Had Beanbag Gun http:/~www.~atimes~c~m~news/~ca~a-me~sh~t8~ct~8~4348318~st~ry?c~!!=!a%2Dhead!!nes%2Dca!!f~rnia Fatal Police Gunfire Probed Shooting: Authorities are investigating whether killing of suspected car thief by Redondo Beach officer after high-speed chase was accidental. By RICHARD WINTON and ANDREW BLANKSTEIN TIMES STAFF WRITERS October 8 2002 Los Angeles authorities are investigating whether a Redondo Beach police officer accidentally killed a suspected car thief by mistaking a shotgun for a beanbag stun gun, law enforcement sources said Monday. The 40-year-old man was shot to death after a high-speed pursuit through several South Bay cities late Sunday, police said. The pursuit, which began in Redondo Beach, came to a halt when the driver of a stolen sport-utility vehicle hit a curb just south of Los Angeles International Airport. "At the termination of the pursuit, a police officer fired his weapon, striking the suspect," said Redondo Beach Police Sgt. Phil Keenan. "The suspect was declared dead at the scene." No weapons were found on the man or inside the vehicle, Keenan said. The man's name was being withheld Monday by the Los Angeles County Coroner's office, pending the notification of his family. Law enforcement sources said a preliminary investigation suggests the Redondo Beach officer may have discharged the wrong shotgun. Instead of grabbing a weapon loaded with a "less lethal" beanbag round, sources said, the officer fired a shotgun. Redondo Beach police declined to say what the driver did to prompt the use of force. Keenan said he could not comment on the beanbag weapons used by the department because the comment would relate to the investigation of the killing. The shooting is being investigated by both the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery Homicide Division and the district attorney's office. Robbery homicide detectives said they would not comment. "We rolled on it, and it's under investigation," said the district attorney's spokeswoman, Sandi Gibbons. A prosecutor and an investigator went to the scene of the shooting at Imperial Highway and Sepulveda Boulevard. Redondo Beach police declined Monday to identify the officer who was involved in the shooting. Keenan said, in accordance with department policy, the officer was removed from active patrol and was undergoing counseling. Maj. Steve Ijames of the Springfield, Mo., Police Department, an expert in less-than-lethal arms, said deadly mistakes are 10/9/02 Page 2 of 3 rare. Typically, he said, squad cars either carry two different weapons or a single shotgun that shoots both deadly rounds and beanbag projectiles. Departments that employ two guns usually identify them with painted stocks or other markers, Ijames said. In 1995, a SWAT team deputy for Contra Cesta County fired a shotgun round meant to blast through door locks and bolts instead of a beanbag round, killing a 42-year-old man. Sunday night's pursuit began when Redondo Beach police received a call at 6:50 p.m. about a reckless motorist driving north on Pacific Coast Highway in a 1992 Ford Bronco. The vehicle had been reported stolen in Los Angeles. Officers spotted the Bronco headed north on Sepulveda Boulevard in Manhattan Beach. When officers tried to persuade the driver to pull over, he stopped momentarily and then sped away, Keenan said. The driver led police on a high-speed chase north through El Segundo. He then turned west onto Imperial Highway and crashed into the curb, leaving the SUV disabled, Keenan said. At least three Redondo Beach police cars were involved in the pursuit. http;//www !atimes. com/news/!ocal/la-me-redondo9oct09,0,254086 story?co!l=la%2 Dhead!ines%2Dca!ifornia LOS ANGELES Unarmed Man's Killing Called Mistake Probe: Redondo Beach officer was handed a shotgun rather than a beanbag stun gun to subdue the suspected car thief, authorities say. By ANDREW BLANKSTEIN and RICHARD WINTON TIMES STAFF WRITERS October 9 2002 A Redondo Beach police officer under orders to subdue a suspected car thief mistakenly fired a shotgun instead of a beanbag stun gun, killing the unarmed man after he got out of the car, law enforcement sources said Tuesday. The officer, identified as Michael Strosnider, 30, was described as distraught immediately after the Sunday night shooting, sources said. The shooting, which was recorded on a police videotape, is being investigated by the district attorney's office and the Los Angeles Police Department. The tape has not been released by authorities. Authorities have withheld the name of the 40-year-old suspect, pending notification of his family. The coroner's office said the man was a parolee. The shotgun used to fire the fatal blast did not have the yellow tape the Redondo Beach Police Department uses to distinguish the less-lethal weapon, according to sources close to the investigation. A preliminary investigation found that a senior officer at the scene ordered use of the beanbag gun when the suspect at first refused to follow orders to get out of the vehicle, according to sources. Another officer handed Strosnider the shotgun and he fired, hitting the man in the chest and killing him instantly, law enforcement sources said. The LAPD took jurisdiction of the investigation because the man was killed in Los Angeles, at 10/9/02 Page 3 of 3 Imperial Highway and Sepulveda Boulevard. The area was described by sources who were at the scene as poorly lighted. Law enforcement agencies typically distinguish the less-lethal stun gun by spray-painting the stock with fluorescent paint or wrapping the barrel with bright tape. The beanbag guns used in Redondo Beach are wrapped with thin yellow tape on both the barrel and stock, a law enforcement source said. The LAPD paints the stocks of its beanbag shotguns a fluorescent green to distinguish them from lethal shotguns. Redondo Beach police refused Tuesday to provide further information about the officer or the shooting. A department sergeant referred all questions to the LAPD. Redondo Beach Police Sgt. Phil Keenan said Monday that the officer is undergoing counseling and is not on patrol. Strosnider joined the department in August 2001, according to city officials. The incident began when Redondo Beach police received a call at 6:50 p.m. about a reckless motorist driving north on Pacific Coast Highway in a 1992 Ford Bronco. The vehicle had been reported stolen in Los Angeles. Officers spotted the vehicle headed north on Sepulveda Boulevard in Manhattan Beach. When they tried to persuade the driver to pull over, he stopped momentarily and then sped away, police said. The driver led police on a high-speed chase north through El Segundo. He then turned west onto Imperial Highway and crashed into the curb, leaving the Bronco disabled. A similar shooting occurred in Northern California seven years ago, when a Contra Costa County deputy fired a shotgun instead of a beanbag round, killing a 42-year-old man. 10/9/02 Marian Karr From: Kelvyn.Anderson@phila.gov Sent: Friday, October 11,2002 10:04 AM To: update@nacole.org Cc: Hector. W.Soto@phiJa.gov Subject: [NACOLE Update] Biking while Black Biking While Black Charlie and Davon King just wanted to ride their bikes. But when police in the predominantly white Detroit suburb of Eastpointe repeatedly stopped the African-~u~erican brothers, their parents filed suit. Then the family's lawyer, reviewing police records, found a startling pattern. Elizabeth Rusch September/October, 2002 In the past 10 years, racial profiling has become a buzzword in city halls and courthouses across the nation. But while most of the debate revolves around black and Hispanic men stopped by police while driving, a federal judge in Detroit this fall will hear a case involving a different group of plaintiffs -- kids on bicycles. In Bennett v. City of Eastpointe, 21 African American plaintiffs allege that they were stopped because of their race in a Detroit suburb when they were between 10 and 18 years old. Like many sweeping cases, this one started small. In 1995, several months after moving from Detroit to predominantly white Eastpointe, Davon King, then 12, and his older brother, Charlie, 14, were riding to a neighborhood store. A police car pulled up and an officer shouted at them to stop. Black kids were stealing bikes in Eastpointe and taking them to Detroit, the officer told them. He asked for their names, IDs, and bike registrations, then waved them on. A few weeks later, as the brothers rode to Kmart, a police car headed toward them -- with the siren screaming and lights flashing. Again, an officer ordered them off their bikes. "I was nervous," Davon remembers. "'I haven't done anything,' I thought, 'so why is he stopping me?'" Then, a white kid pedaled by. "I was mad," Davon says. "This Caucasian kid rolled right in front of the cops. For all they knew he could have been stealing that bike and taking it to Detroit." This time, when Davon and Charlie told their parents, the King family decided to curtail their bike riding. "My father was afraid that the police would do something more severe," Davon says. Charles King Sr. also complained to city officials. Eastpointe's chief of police defended his officers' actions in a memo to the city manager, citing reports of black kids stealing bikes. "My instructions to the officers were to investigate any black youths riding through our subdivisions," he wrote. In 1998, the Kings filed two lawsuits against Eastpointe in connection with the bike stops and other incidents of alleged racial harassment; one case has been settled and the other one is under appeal. But while reviewing police logs and reports, the Kings' lawyer, Charles Chomet, discovered a startling pattern: Between 1995 and 1998, Eastpointe police had stopped more than 100 black kids aged 11 to 18 on their bikes, searching or handcuffing some -- even confiscating bikes -- before releasing them. During the same period, only 40 white cyclists had been stopped. Chomet filed a new discrimination case on behalf of 21 kids who had been stopped, and the American Civil Liberties Union, which is party to more than a dozen lawsuits on racial profiling of black motorists nationwide, joined the suit. The plaintiffs are asking for $21 million in damages, mandatory training for police, and an end to racial profiling of kids on bikes. "Police harassment and racial stereotyping at such an early age destroys kids' faith in police and other institutions and erodes their confidence in society," says Chomet. "The case highlights, in a way no other case has, the injustice of law enforcement based primarily on Davon and Charlie, both in college now, say they are proud of what their family started. But, notes Davon, he still doesn't feel entirely safe on the streets. "The more I talk about what happened, the angrier and angrier I get," he says. "I just want to live my life like a normal young man." Update mailing list Update@nacole.org http://gamma.jumpserver.net/mailman/listinfo/update nacole.org Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Friday, October 11,2002 10:49 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] "A Student's Guide to Police Practices" NACOLE has posted a new resource document to the nacole.org website. San Jose, California's "A Student's Guide to Police Practices" is a resource to help youth recognize their rights and responsibilities, and those of the police. Please share this resource with your oversight board, city/county government, law enforcement agencies, schools, students and media. Consider the benefit of a similar resource in your community. This kind of information can often be reproduced on CDs, at less cost than mass printing hard copy. See you in Cambridge. Sue Quinn 10/11/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 11:05 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LA: Hundreds of Claims Against Deputies Never Probed http:/Iwww.!atimes,comlnews/!ocallla-me-miscon~uct14oct14 story Hundreds of Legal Claims Against Deputies Never Probed By Nicholas Riccardi Times Staff Writer October 14 2002 The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department never investigated more than 800 claims of wrongdoing by its deputies over the last decade, losing chances to uncover misconduct and limit liability, according to the agency's new civilian watchdog. The department only this year began requiring a review of all legal claims filed against deputies at the urging of the Office of Independent Review, an agency staffed by former prosecutors and civil rights attorneys. For 10 years, the office found, the Sheriff's Department often simply declined to review the performances of deputies who, in legal claims against the county, had been alleged to have violated department policies and the law. The office's first report, obtained by The Times and scheduled for release this week, provides a benchmark for a nationally watched experiment in civilian oversight of law enforcement. Sheriff Lee Baca proposed the office at the height of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart scandal. The team of six civil rights attorneys has watched over the Sheriffs Department's shoulder for the last year as it has policed itself. The most wide-ranging fault found by the Office of Independent Review was in the way the Sheriffs Department addressed legal claims, typically those filed with the county as precursors to lawsuits. The claims allege all levels of misconduct, from improperly served search warrants and reckless driving to illegal shootings. The department routinely investigates complaints filed by the public, and cases involving extreme use of force. But hundreds of claims that did not fall into those categories were never investigated internally. Among them was one lodged by Patricia Gutierrez. In 1994, Gutierrez was arrested by two deputies on suspicion of having made terrorist threats and attacking a neighbor with whom she had a long-running feud, according to county records. Charges were later dropped. Gutierrez then filed a claim against the department in 1995, alleging that deputies had improperly entered her home, arrested her, subjected her to illegal searches and fondled her in the East Los Angeles sheriff's station. Gutierrez attributed the harassment to a complaint that she had filed against Deputy Dan Bartlett, who she said had been angered when she brought her boyfriend to a party that Bartlett had invited her to years earlier. The incident with the neighbors, Gutierrez argued, had been investigated by other deputies earlier. The county rejected the claim, leading Gutierrez to file a lawsuit. In court papers, county attorneys argued that the Sheriffs Department had operated properly. But a Los Angeles jury sided with Gutierrez and awarded her $2 million. The county dropped its appeal, and agreed to pay Gutierrez a SI.I-million settlement in April. But even with the settlement underway, the Sheriffs Department still had not investigated the conduct of the deputies. 10/14/02 Page 2 of 3 "Their answer was, it was just a runaway judge, it was a runaway jury," said Michael Gennaco, the former federal civil rights prosecutor who now heads the Office of Independent Review. At the urging of the office, an investigation is now underway. Automatic Reviews Some legal claims were investigated by unit commanders, but the office found that those reviews were often substandard. Now all claims are automatically reviewed. "We were all caught off guard, believing that everything was being done properly, and it wasn't," Baca said of the lack of investigation into legal claims. "Had we not had the OIR, we probably would still be bumbling, in some respects, with the policies that are in place." The duties of the office's attorneys include responding to the scenes of shootings involving officers and monitoring internal administrative probes of deputies. In its report, the office, which was created by the county Board of Supervisors, stated that it had encountered no resistance from the Sheriffs Department and had unfettered access to records. "What's goin9 on in Los Angeles is different than just about anywhere because they put a unit of civil rights attorneys right in the department," said Sue Quinn, president of the National Assn. of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. Gennaco, head of the Office of Independent Review, said the creation of his agency showed a "cultural change" in the Sheriffs Department. "At least up to now, the sheriff has allowed us to shine a flashlight into any corner we want and see what we discover," he said. In its report, the Office of Independent Review praises the quality of internal investigations, but also notes a number of cases in which it says scrutiny has fallen short. In perhaps the most controversial case, the Sheriffs Department never conducted an internal investigation of the much- publicized death of a mentally ill inmate at Twin Towers jail who was asphyxiated while being restrained by deputies, according to the report. The county paid a $600,000 settlement to the family of Kevin Evans, but, because there was no administrative investigation, no deputy was ever disciplined. The Office of Independent Review concluded that the deputies might have violated department policies--a conclusion that Baca rejected. At the suggestion of the watchdog agency, the Sheriffs Department is now routinely investigating all cases in which prisoners are restrained by force. Investigators Prodded The report also lists several cases in which the Office of independent Review prodded internal investigators into being more aggressive. In another case--this one an incident in which deputies beat and pepper-sprayed a man who they said was fleeing after swallowing rock cocaine--the office found that the medical treatment the deputies later requested for the man had not been consistent, prompting a renewed internal investigation, which is still underway. The Office of Independent Review's report found that the Sheriff's Department had failed to provide complete disclosure in criminal cases, a failin9 that had cost taxpayers $295,000. The issue surfaced in a case in which Calvin Newburn was charged with drug dealing. He contended that he had been framed, and that deputies had lied about witnessing the transactions during surveillance. Newbum's attorney requested access to all messages that passed between the patrol cars of deputies involved in the incident, but the department did not turn over all of them. The department routinely interpreted such requests narrowly 10/14/02 Page 3 of 3 and provided only a fraction of the messages, the report found. Newburn was convicted and served 27 months in prison before an appellate court ruled that the records withheld by the department cast doubt on the deputies' testimony. Newburn received a $295,000 settlement from county supervisors, who asked Gennaco to look at the case. "This criminal defendant deserved that information, and he didn't get it and he didn't get it because his criminal attorney didn't know the magic words to get that information," Gennaco said. "And that is wrong." At the Office of Independent Review's urging, the Sheriff's Department changed its policy. It now releases full radio transmission records. County Counsel Chided While Baca was praised for his openness, the watchdog agency's report criticized the county counsel's office, which represents the Sheriff's Department and deputies accused of wrongdoing in lawsuits. The county counsel has refused to give the Office of Independent Review case files from lawsuits, saying that doing so might violate deputies' attorney-client privileges. It has asked a USC law professor for an opinion on whether it is allowed to share information with the civilian overseers. Baca said that he was concerned about the situation, but that, overall, the internal monitors have "exceeded my expectations" and that the monitoring is improving the quality of the department's investigations, Baca added that he knew when he proposed the office that it would uncover problems that could embarrass his department. "I'm actually opening up a door to criticism," said the sheriff, who meets weekly with Gennaco. "But to me, the truth of what we are, good or bad, is more important than hiding what could be bad." 10/14/02 Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 11:13 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Deputy's Past Is a Present Problem http[//www.latimes.com/new~/Ioca!/!a-me-sheriffs12oct12 s!ory Deputy's Past Is a Present Problem Courts: U.S. drops a gun case, fearing officer's '96 misconduct might hurt his credibility on the stand. He gets desk duty. By RICHARD WINTON and NICHOLAS RICCARDI TIMES STAFF WRITERS October 12 2002 A 6-year-old evidence-planting and brutality case that led the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to discipline four deputies has resurfaced in federal court, raising the question: If a sworn officer lies once, should authorities ever trust him again? Federal prosecutors this summer freed a man accused of illegal gun possession after deciding that they could not use Deputy Patrick Golden as a witness in the case because of his past misconduct. As a result, the district attorney's office told the Sheriff's Department that Golden should always work with another deputy as a witness, officials said. Sheriff's officials have since transferred Golden to a desk job while bosses decide his future assignment, Assistant Sheriff Larry Waldie said. The dismissal of the federal gun charges because of Golden's disciplinary record has prompted an examination by the Office of Independent Review, an agency created at Sheriff Lee Baca's request to investigate discipline in the department. "It is an essential requirement for a law enforcement officer to be a witness," said Michael Gennaco, a former federal prosecutor who now heads the review office. "When a law enforcement official has significant credibility problems, it makes that impossible." Questions about Golden's credibility stem from a 1996 arrest. He and two other deputies were recommended for termination because of their conduct, according to court records. A fourth deputy who was at the scene alleged that one colleague planted rock cocaine on a handcuffed suspect who was then driven to a mall garage and beaten unconscious by Golden and fellow Deputy Terry Burgin. Sheriff's officials later allowed the three deputies to stay with the department, suspending them for 15 days and ordering them off patrol for two years, internal records and interviews show. One quit. Golden and Burgin were found to have used excessive force and eventually returned to regular duties. This year, a federal public defender representing a man whom Golden arrested on gun charges discovered Golden's past. That led the U.S. attorney's office to drop charges in August, even though authorities did not think Golden acted inappropriately in the gun case. The district attorney's office said it will decide whether to use Golden as a witness on a case-by-case basis. According to a district attorney's database, Golden has been subpoenaed as a witness against 462 defendants since about 1995. Attorneys say it is unclear from the records whether any cases previous to the August case were dismissed because of the deputy's disciplinary history. Veracity Pivotal 10/14/02 Page 2 of 4 Criminal cases usually pivot on the veracity of officers who can testify about illegal activity they have seen. Defense attorneys question why the district attorney's office and Sheriffs Department would continue to use the testimony of deputies they had previously found to lack credibility. "The D.A.'s policy here assists in keeping people employed who really should not be in law enforcement," said Assistant Public Defender Randall Reich. "It gives the Sheriffs Department no incentive to weed these people out." Assistant Sheriff Waldie said the department can settle complaints against its employees for several reasons. "We fire people, and the Civil Service Commission reinstates them," he said. "We follow the evidence; we do what we can. We are constrained by the law." Golden said he has been directed by sheriffs officials not to comment. Efforts to reach the other deputies were unsuccessful. Attorney Richard Shinee, who represented the three deputies in the 1996 case, said none of them was ever disciplined for planting evidence. "Deputy Golden has done an excellent job since his return to work and has never been the subject of any other complaints," Shinee said. Case Resurfaces The 1996 case resurfaced in August, when federal prosecutors dropped charges against Mark Stephen Bellows, 20. According to court papers, Golden and his partner were patrolling a Compton apartment complex troubled by gangs May 6 this year when they saw Bellows flee. The deputies chased him and reported recovering a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver they said Bellows tossed onto the roof of a neighboring building. As a convicted felon, Bellows faced federal prosecution for carrying a firearm. Bellows pleaded not guilty. His deputy federal public defender, Ronald O. Kaye, checked into the background of the arresting deputies. What he found was enough to persuade federal prosecutors to dismiss charges against Bellows on Aug. 15, even though they had "no suspicion," according to a federal source, that Golden had acted inappropriately in the gun case. "After reviewing the information [in Golden's personnel file]," wrote Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas P. O'Brien, "it is my belief that the indictment should be dismissed in the interests of justice." The concerns stemmed from Golden's confidential disciplinary records in the drug case of Kendrick Loot, who is now on death row for unrelated murders, according to attorneys. In 1996, deputies spotted Loot and another man apparently conducting a drug deal at 149th Street and Hawthorne Boulevard in Lawndale, according to the Sheriffs Department account. Loot fled and was chased by deputies. One caught up with him in an alley, and in the ensuing tussle, Loot grabbed the deputy's flashlight and beat the officer, according to department reports. Deputy James Ramey and his trainee Charles Hulsey were in one of the patrol cars that arrived at the scene. Golden and Burgin were in another patrol car. All four were working out of the Lennox sheriffs station. In his interview with sheriffs internal investigators, Hulsey said deputies crowded around Loot, whacking him with their flashlights, and then discussed what charges he would face. Ramey planted the drugs on Loot, Hulsey told investigators, then Golden and Burgin put him in their patrol car to take him to jail. After driving 28 blocks, they pulled into the garage at the Hawthorne Mall. Golden and Burgin told investigators they stopped because they realized they had not fully frisked Loot. Ramey and Hulsey followed them into the garage. Hulsey said Loot, who was handcuffed, was ordered out of the car. "Every time that person would make an attempt to stand up and get out of the car, Deputy Golden would hit him as hard as he could," Hulsey told investigators. 10/14/02 Page 3 of 4 After Loot got out of the car, Golden and Burgin beat him until he was unconscious, Hulsey said in his interview with investigators and in a lawsuit he later filed. Loot also complained to internal investigators that he had been beaten. After Loot was arrested, he was charged separately with triple homicide for his role driving the getaway car in a series of armored-car holdups. He was eventually found guilty and sentenced to death in 2000. After an internal administrative investigation, sheriffs officials concluded that Golden and Burgin had used excessive force on Loot and that Ramey had planted evidence, according to department records. "As a result of the subject's misconduct, the credibility of the station was severely damaged," investigators wrote in a letter to one of the deputies, "thus causing a direct and negative impact on the prosecution of criminal cases within our jurisdiction." Then-Undersheriff Jerry Harper recommended in late 1998 that the three deputies be terminated. County procedure allows accused deputies to argue their case and appeal disciplinary recommendations before they are made final. The deputies did so, and in January 1999, officials agreed to let them remain with the department. Baca, who had been in office one month, signed letters to the deputies informing them that they would be suspended for 25 days--lO days of which were held in abeyance-and transferred to non-patrol assignments for two years, according to internal records. Golden and Burgin were found to have used excessive force and failed to report it, according to internal records. The department rescinded its finding that Ramey had tampered with evidence, and instead found him to have failed to report excessive force by others. Ramey resigned from the department in February 2000. Attorney Shinee would not say where his client went. Burgin works as a detective assigned to the department's Compton office and has not been the subject of further complaints, officials said. Hulsey, the deputy who told investigators about the incident, was also found to have failed to report the excessive force in a timely manner and received a 30-day suspension, according to internal documents. He later left the department and filed a $17-million whistle-blower lawsuit, which was settled this year for $100,000. The department admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement. The investigation into Golden's behavior in the Loot case had repercussions for another drug case handled by the Lennox sheriff's station, according to court records. More Doubts Arise It sparked a review that led prosecutors in 1998 to doubt the credibility of two other deputies and drop criminal charges against two alleged drug dealers. On the night of June 12, 1997, Golden was chasing a drug suspect, Gary O'Bannon, down a South Bay street, according to court documents. Meanwhile, in a nearby alleyway known for drug dealing, Deputies Laughn Barth and Alfred Alvarez reported seeing two men engaged in a drug transaction, court records show. The deputies arrested the two men, who said O'Bannon had dropped the drugs and they simply found them. Months later, as prosecutors were preparing for trial, they were told that Golden was under internal investigation, according to court papers. As a result, the suspects-who accused deputies of falsifying their arrest report-were given polygraph exams, which they passed. O'Bannon told prosecutors the drugs were his. Charges were dropped against the two suspects "because of doubts about the credibility" of Barth and Alvarez, according to a court declaration signed by the then-head deputy of the Torrance branch of the district attorney's office, Sandra Buttitta. Golden was not accused of any wrongdoing. Prosecutors said they declined to file perjury charges against the deputies because of conflicting stories, the "long criminal histories" of the suspects and the fact that polygraphs are not admissible in criminal cases. Sources said investigators were also hampered by their inability to find a sheriff's deputy who would corroborate the suspects' allegations. 10/14/02 Page 4 of 4 "Even with the irregularities in the arrest," prosecutors wrote in their rejection report, there was insufficient evidence to file perjury or false-report charges. According to court records, the U.S. attorney's office also investigated the case and declined to press charges. A sheriffs administrative probe found that the deputies had committed infractions in evidence- handling procedures, and they were each given three-day suspensions. The two suspects sued the county for $17 million in 1998. In court filings, attorneys for Alvarez and Berth maintained that they did witness the drug transaction. The lawsuit was settled for $78,000 in late 2000 with no admission of wrongdoing. Berth has since left the department for another police agency, sheriff's officials say. Alvarez works at the West Hollywood station and has apparently had no complaints filed against him recently, sheriffs officials said. Golden's attorney, Shinee, whose firm represented Berth and Alvarez, said prosecutors declined to file perjury charges because "it was impossible to determine what happened that night." 1 O/14/02 Page 1 of 4 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 11:13 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Paying A Price for Freebies http:llwww,!atimes,comlnewsllocallla-me-freeb!e12oct12.story COLUMN ONE Paying a Price for Freebies Police: Merchants' handouts and discounts for police are a tradition that some chiefs want ended, calling them unseemly and compromising. By JACK LEONARD Times Staff Writer October 12 2002 Sitting on a restaurant patio, Anaheim Police Det. Bruce Bottolfson chomped on a chicken drumstick, violating department policy with every bite. Moments earlier, the on-duty investigator had strolled into the El Polio Loco on Anaheim's Ball Road and ordered a two- piece chicken meal with cole slaw. Noticing the Anaheim Police Assn. logo on Bottolfson's navy blue T-shirt, the cashier rang up the standard 50% police discount. Handouts and price breaks for police officers--a free coffee here, half-price dry cleaning there-are time-honored and pervasive, woven into the very fabric of relations between police and public. Now, a band of reform-minded chiefs is trying to banish these benefits, arguing that they corrode a cop's sense of right and wrong. To some department brass, the discounts are the last vestiges of graft that was once rife in American policing. They see freebies as a slippery slope likely to lead officers into greater sin. The Los Angeles Police Department's report on the roots of the Rampart Division scandal faulted officers for taking free coffee and food and recommended that the department crack down on the practice. To patrol officers, the rules are out of step with reality. Refusing a store owner's generosity, they say, could destroy the very bridges they are supposed to build in era of community policing. They bristle at the suggestion that they can be bought for half the price of a chicken plate. "This is harmless," groused Bottolfson, who saved $2.70 on his meal at El Pollo Loco. Behind him, a black-and-white cruiser inched along the restaurant's drive-through lane. "Ask a chief, 'Did you ever take a free cup of coffee from Winchell's ?'" Bottolfson said, referring to the chain of doughnut shops. "If they say no, they're lying to you." The world of police discounts has its own lexicon. Officers "badge" their way to a price break, "flex muscle" or wear the "blue discount suit." Restaurants that give discounts "show love," or, more commonly, "pop." Temptations lie on almost every street corner, with discounts extending well beyond food to include jewelry and motor vehicles, even free entry to strip clubs. A model code of ethics developed by the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police includes a pledge against "accepting gratuities," and almost every law enforcement agency in Southern California has such a prohibition. In police academies nationwide, cadets are warned about the ethical fallout from mooching. "It sends the wrong message: that somehow police officers are entitled to something special," said Cypress Police Chief John Hensley. "If it comes to my attention, there will be discipline meted out." Since taking the helm in Cypress three years ago, Hensley has moved aggressively to combat gratuities. Early on, he persuaded a local Sizzler restaurant to end police discounts. Last month, he talked the manager of a 'Starbucks coffee shop into halting the practice. 10/14/02 Page 2 of 4 Crackdowns at other departments have become part of freebie folklore. Simi Valley's department caused a furor several years ago when it launched an investigation of officers who were hanging out at doughnut shops that gave handouts. The department declined to comment on what the probe found. San Diego police officers were once ordered to stay out of more than a dozen eateries that had refused to stop offerin9 discounts. Despite the efforts, freebies flourish. Pick Up Stix, the Chinese food chain, offers police a price break. In-N-Out Burger is well known among cops for discounting meals, though the company said it doesn't have an official policy to do so. The waitresses at most local Hooters restaurants offer discounts to police patrons (50% off, a Hooters spokesman said). Fantasy Ranch, a Long Beach strip club, waives the $7 entry fee for cops at the door. "They're good customers," said Fantasy's general manager, Jerry Westlund. 'Td probably let in PTA presidents and members of the clergy for free if I could get enough of them." From strip clubs to car dealerships, businesses realize that police officers make good customers. They come with a clean- cut image and, if they turn up in uniform, they provide cheap security. Twenty-four-hour mini-marts-so vulnerable to crime that beat cops call them "stop-and-robs"--routinely offer police free coffee and sodas to encourage frequent visits. The discounts have become corporate policy at businesses like El Pollo Loco. At some eateries, cash registers have special keys that automatically calculate the break. Focus on Businesses Few chiefs have waged as vigorous a fight against gratuities as Michael Skogh, who retired this year from the Gardena Police Department. Growin9 up in small-town Minnesota, Skogh watched his parents toil in the family ice cream parlor. The experience taught him how hard life could be for a small-business owner. Later, as a police officer in Orange County, Skogh had little respect for colleagues who ate for free in neighborhood stores. "It's a basically dishonest person abusing their power. They have no place in American policing," he said. As he won promotions, Skogh tried to put a dent in the practice. Scofflaws are almost impossible to catch in the act, he said, so he focused on the offending businesses. As a police captain in Manhattan Beach, Skogh went from cafe to cafe, urging owners to stop giving free coffee to his officers. Later, as chief in Los Alamitos, he made sure the Chamber of Commerce knew how he felt. Three years ago, Skogh became chief of police in Gardena, where a throng of shops and restaurants drew hungry cops in search of a good deal. Gardena Police Sgt. Thomas Kang remembers his own first day on the force 14 years ago. A training officer took him to a liquor store that supplied officers with free coffee and cigarettes. "That was the culture I was brought into," said Kang, now head of the Gardena police union. "The fancy term was, 'If you got no pop, you got no cop.' It was an inside joke." On his arrival, Skogh told leaders of the police union that he wouldn't tolerate the practice. To his surprise, they decided to back him. But officers became resentful when top brass were allowed to attend community lunches without paying. Despite the complaints, police fell into line. The city's restaurants, however, did not. Many continue to offer police discounts, luring cops from nearby cities. Come lunchtime, the parking lot in front of California Fish Grill on Artesia Boulevard is guaranteed a black-and-white cruiser or two. Along with fresh seafood, owner Victor Topete offers a 25% pop to police. "Everybody here in the block gives it," he said. "It's added security. The area can have a tendency to be a bit dangerous." Local restaurateurs say that reducing or eliminating a "pop" will drive away police business and leave the establishments vulnerable to crime. When Shobi Zuberi and his brother bought their Sizzler restaurant in Gardena four years ago, the place drew officers from Torrance, Lawndale and Los Angeles thanks to its half-price meals. When a HomeTown Buffet opened up nearby, Zuberi's profits dropped and he cut his police discount to 15%. Officers stopped coming, he said. Then, one evening Zuberi was robbed at gunpoint. He restored the half-price discount. Officers began to trickle back, but the damage was done. "Before, a lot of LAPD knew about it," Zuberi said, "but now they don't come around." 10/14/02 Page 3 of 4 Effect on Patrols Law enforcement discounts date to an earlier era in policing, when officers were poorly paid and relied on the generosity of shopkeepers to make ends meet. Officers who defend the custom say that though they would not solicit freebies, they see no harm in accepting them when offered. In the vast majority of cases, they say, no favors are expected in return. But there is evidence that the freebies do influence their work. Hearing cops claim that discounts had no effect on patrols, two graduate students at Indiana University in Bloomington decided to conduct a test several years ago. The criminal justice students, William DeLeon-Granados and William Wells, staked out 20 restaurants, noting each time a patrol officer pulled up to eat. The pair concluded that restaurants offering free or discounted food received far more visits from on-duty patrol officers than those that did not. The journal Police Quarterly published their 1998 report under the title "Do you want extra police coverage with those fries?" "Even though they don't feel like they're giving in to favoritism, the gratuities were altering their patrol practices," said DeLeon-Granados, who now works in Northern California as a consultant to police departments and community groups. In Los Angeles, the city's police manual includes a general prohibition against accepting gratuities. But the rule is routinely ignored. The department acknowledged as much in its report on the Rampart scandal. "Employees are well aware that this practice is tolerated in the form of reduced prices for meals and free coffee," the report said. In a section offering recommendations for deterring future misconduct by officers, the report urged supervisors to enforce the prohibition on petty gifts. Just what constitutes a gratuity, however, is unclear from the manual, and the department sometimes sanctions discounts more valuable than a hamburger or flies. The Los Angeles police union's monthly newsletter, The Thin Blue Line, is full of ads for cars, jewelry, even hearing aids, at special police rates. A plastic surgery consultant offers a law enforcement discount. So does a Tarzana parrot store (10% off birds and UP to 20% off their food). Galpin Ford, the huge Van Nuys car dealership, advertises "special consideration" for police officers and their families. Galpin's owner is Bert Boeckmann, a member of the Los Angeles Police Commission, the five-member panel that oversees the LAPD. Boeckmann did not return calls seeking comment. The Galpin offer and similar discounts do not violate the policy against gratuities, said Sgt. John Pasquariello, an LAPD spokesman. Officers are allowed to accept discounts from companies that are reaching out to police as a large group of valuable customers, he said. They are not allowed to accept breaks when businesses expect a better level of service in return. Even in such cases though, supervisors won't take action unless an officer solicits a discount. "Because 7-Eleven gives out a free cup of coffee," Pasquariello said, "1 don't think we're going to send out the dogs." William Bratton, the LAPD's incoming chief, declined to give his views on discounts. But during a recent tour of Los Angeles, he appeared wary of the practice. When the owner of a Greek restaurant in San Pedro suggested that he could eat for free on his next visit, Bratton replied: "We'll have to check with the Ethics Commission on that one." Reasons to Accept Though police officers welcome the chance to save a buck, they say there are other reasons to accept the discounts. When cashiers insist, officers say, they would rather flout policy than offend an employee or create a scene. Anaheim's Bottolfson said his department's strict rule against discounts underestimates police. How, he asked, can supervisors trust officers to make life or death decisions but not to decide when a discount is harmless? "They want to make out that there's a big, slippery slope, but there's not," he said. "It's not leading us down the road to perdition." Still, Bottolfson acknowledged that the practice is open to abuse. He ridicules the handful of officers he knows who take 1 O/14/02 Page 4 of 4 discounted pizzas and other meals home to their families, He rolls his eyes when he sees colleagues ask for discounts. "That's like begging. It's undue pressure," Bottolfson said. "How tough is it to say no to a uniformed cop? it's very tough." Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein contributed to this report. 1 O/14/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Monday, October 14, 2002 11:13 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Detroit Cop Drug Probe Expands to Cash, Guns Detroit cop drug probe expands to cash, guns Chief says property room was mess, much more may be missing By David Shepardson and Norman Sinclair / The Detroit News 10 10 02 The nine who were charged * John Earl Cole Sr., 50, of Detroit, a 24-veteran civilian employee of the Detroit Police Department, faces life in prison if convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to embezzle and distribute cocaine. * David L. Cole Jr., 60, of Detroit, is the brother of Cole. * Ernest D. Myatt Sr., 49, of Belleville is a lieutenant with the Michigan State Police and is a certified polygraph examiner. * Anthony Lasenby, 33, of Detroit allegedly bought drugs and a stolen gun from Cole. * Shirley Terry, 34, of Detroit is a friend of Cole SCs who was a bank teller employed by Comerice bank. * Cora L. Cole-Robinson, 74, of Detroit is Cole SCs mother. * Chontrice Cole, 28, is CoJe Sr.'s daughter. * Ida Mae Hall, 72, of Detroit is the former mother-in-law of Cole. * Donald C. Hynes, 41, is a retired Detroit police officer and business associate of Cole Sr. Nine people were indicted Wednesday on charges of stealing cocaine from the Detroit Police Department's evidence room, where drugs, cash and guns seized in arrests are kept. All but John Cole face 20 years in prison for money laundering. They are: I ,Comment on this story E ~Send this stoW to a friend ~Get Home Delivew DETROIT -- The indictment of nine people on charges of stealing at least 222 pounds of cocaine from the Detroit Police Department's evidence room is the first step in a wider investigation to account for weapons and cash that could be missing from the storage area, Chief Jerry A. Oliver Sr. said Wednesday. "There are whole lockers and vaults of weapons that have to be inventoried and accounted for," Oliver said. "We have huge amounts of money, cash, that must be inventoried and we are in the process of doing that. There are hundreds of property envelopes filled with cash. Our procedures associated with destroying drugs have not been stringently adhered to." The indictments come as a team of 17 FBI and Detroit police officers, created in late July, is looking into a wide range of charges of wrong-doing in the Police Department, said Oliver and Paula Wendell, the acting special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI. More prosecutions of Police Department employees for misconduct are expected, Wendell said. There are about 200,000 guns listed in property records at the Detroit Police Department's evidence room. But because there has been no recent inventory, the department's leadership has no way of knowing how many are actually there, Oliver said. "I don't know how many guns we have. We have far too many guns," he said. Up until a few months ago, all confiscated property was recorded on paper, and there were no cameras in the evidence room. The cameras still have problems in that they don't cover the entire room, Oliver said. Detroit has had problems with its evidence room for years. In 1994, a Detroit police officer was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for stealing 200 weapons that were found in Sanilac County. For decades, the department has used one sprawling room, with no segregation of property by vaults or 10/14/02 Page 2 of 3 other safeguards to protect and keep evidence. Valuables were kept behind mesh wire, and in open cabinets or on the floor. By comparison, the FBI in Detroit has four separate evidence rooms -- for weapons, drags, valuable property and regular property. In order to remove valuable items, two wimesses are required and strict scrutiny is maintained. Stolen cocaine Wednesday's indictments of nine people on charges of stealing cocaine from the evidence room and then selling it are the result of an investigation that began in March 2001. Police discovered that the cocaine, which was to be used in a sting, was missing when they found a sealed package of Gold Medal flour in a box that was supposed to contain the drug. Those charged Wednesday included former Detroit Police Officer Donald C. Hynes, 41, who left the department last year; Michigan State Police Lt. Ernest D. Myatt Sr., 49, a polygraph examiner; and John Earl Cole Sr., 50, a 24-year civilian police employee who worked as a driver ferrying seized evidence, including drugs, from crime scenes and precincts to the downtown property room. The indictment also charges that Myatt was Cole's business partner. Myatt, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, was suspended without pay from the state police. Cole, who worked in the property room as recently as last Saturday, stole the cocaine and sold it for $ i .3 million, along with at least one gun from the property room, the indictment says. Cole, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, was ordered held by federal Magistrate Steven Pepe, pending a hearing today. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey G. Collins, who announced the indictment, said the missing cocaine did not affect the outcome of six cases in which the drugs were seized. Called mastermind Cole, who made $30,000 in his Police Department job, was described as the mastermind of the cocaine thefts that allegedly occurred between 1994 and 2000 and netted him more than $1.3 million when the drugs were sold. About $500,000 of that money was used to buy and renovate 18 properties, mostly rental homes, and a barber shop, the indictment says. To hide the transactions, Cole enlisted family members in the scheme, federal authorities said. Their names, as well as that of Myatt, were used on the titles of the properties, the indictment says. The purchases of property with the drug money continued until earlier this year. Cole also is accused of using $23,433 in a cashier's check to buy a 1992 Corvette sports car. He allegedly used three kilograms of the stolen cocaine to pay Anthony Lasenby for another Corvette. He also gave a gun -- a .357 Derringer-style handgun valued at $5,000 -- to Lasenby. The gun had been in evidence at Detroit police headquarters since 1986. In another transaction, Cole sold a kilogram of cocaine to Lasenby, who was also indicted on Wednesday. Family, friends tied in Also named in the indictment were Cora L. Cole-Robinson, 74, Cole's mother; Ida Mae Hall, 72, his former mother-in-law; his brother, David L. C01e, 60; his daughter, Chontrice Cole; and a friend, Shirley Terry, who was employed as a teller at Comerica Bank. The 17 counts against the defendants include conspiracy to commit perjury, laundering money and distributing cocaine, as well as making false declarations before a grand jury and obstruction of justice. Terry helped Cole launder the drug proceeds by advising him on how to avoid the government's reporting requirements for transaction of more than $10,000 in currency, the indictment says. She also intentionally failed to file legally required reports on some of Cole's deals and purchases above $10,000. The indictment also charges that Terry, now a credit union employee, conspired with Cole in buying a home on Cole's behalf and then negotiating a $19,000 mortgage in her name from Comerica on Feb. 11, I997. Less than three weeks after making an initial payment of $448, the balance of the mortgage was paid off: Cole's son, John E. "John John" Cole Jr. was named in the indictment but was not charged in the alleged 10/14/02 Page 3 of 3 crimes. By not charging the younger Cole, government prosecutor's may use his testimony against the others. The younger Cole's name was used to hide his father's ownership of several pieces of property, the indictment says. For example, in November 1998, Cole and then-police Officer Hynes deposited two checks for $9,000 each into an account in the name of William Hynes. Those deposits were then turned into a $25,000 check from the William Hynes account and used to buy a barber shop on Van Dyke. The ownership of the barber shop was placed in the name of John E. Cole Jr. In explaining the purchase of another home on Outer Drive to a federal grand jury, Ida Mae Hall testified she saved $36,000 in cash through hard work and gave the money to her grandson, the younger Cole, and that he used the money to buy the home. She told the grand jurors she kept the $36,000 cash in pillow cases and in a mattress even though she and her husband regularly deposited about $2,500 every month in an account at Comerica Bank. Task force probe The task force conducting the investigation of the department was created on July 30, when the FBI and the Detroit Police signed a memorandum of understanding. The FBI committed an entire squad -- 10 agents -- to work in an undisclosed location with seven Detroit police officers. The signing of the legally binding memorandum is an indication of how concerned officials are about charges of corruption in the department. "There are a number of public corruption cases that we expect to bring forward," said Wendell, the acting special agent in charge of the Detroit FBI. Oliver is not confident all the evidence can be accounted for. To safeguard confiscated property in the future, he said he has begun to take precautions and make procedural changes. The department needs a system where items are bar-coded and computer programs can carefully track the whereabouts of evidence, he said. While acknowledging the failures of Police Department employees and the lack of proper oversight, Oliver said the decrepit condition of police headquarters precluded establishing a modern, efficient property room. "We're under new management. We're under construction. We're being remodeled and that's going to be painful," Chief Oliver said. "We're not tolerating misconduct that was tolerated before." Former Mayor Dennis Archer said the indictments of misconduct that occurred while he was mayor were troubling, but noted it was the Police Department that brought it to the attention of the FBI. "This is a continuation of the department's attempts to cleanse itself of apparent wrongdoing," Archer said. You can reach David Shepardson at (313) 222-2028 or dshe£ardson~detnews, com. 10/14/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 2:'i5 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] LAPD Leak [of Cops' Domestic Violence Incidents] May Mean Jail Los Angeles Times October 12, 2002 LAPD Leak May Mean Jail By HENRY WEINSTEIN, TIMES STAFF WRITER A man who leaked documents that led the Los Angeles Police Department to reform the way it disciplines officers prone to domestic violence should not be sent to jail for his actions, his lawyers urged a federal appeals court Friday. Sending Robert Mulially, 58, to prison for 60 days for violating a judge's protective order would be a miscarriage of justice because he acted to protect women and children for no personal gain, his attorney, James Weinstein, told a panel of judges from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1997, Mullally gave a television reporter copies of LAPD documents that showed the department had failed to discipline officers who beat and in some cases raped their wives and girlfriends. He had access to the documents because he was an expert witness hired by a lawyer who had sued the LAPD. The documents were covered by a court order that prohibited making them public. Mullally could become the first person ever sent to jail in the United States for violating a protective order in a civil lawsuit, experts said. His appeal comes at a time of increasing controversy over the use of judicial orders sealin9 court files containing data on the dangers of cigarettes and automobile tires, and information on child sex abuse committed by priests. Mullally had been hired by an attorney representing the family of Melba Ramos, who was murdered by her estranged husband, LAPD Officer Victor Ramos. Ramos killed her boyfriend and then himself. The suit alleged that the LAPD had engaged in a pattern and practice of civil rights violations by ignoring complaints of domestic violence by its officers. Before trial, the LAPD agreed to turn over to Gregory A. Yates, the Ramos family lawyer, papers documenting incidents of domestic violence by officers and how the department had responded. No officers were identified. Federal Magistrate Carolyn Turchin signed a protective order, drawn up by lawyers in the case, ordering that none of the documents be made public before trial, or after, without the judge's approval. The LAPD agreed to settle the federal wrongful-death case for $2.2 million. Mullally, who had reviewed the personnel records of 79 officers involved in domestic abuse, was disappointed that there would not be an airing of the records at a trial. The files showed that more than 70 police officers had been accused of beating or raping their wives and girlfriends. The records showed none had been arrested. Mullally turned the material over to Harvey Levin, a reporter with KCBS-TV Channel 2, whose report led to a major investigation by Katherine Mader, the Police Department's inspector general. Mader's July 1997 report found that officers accused of domestic violence usually received little discipline and were rarely prosecuted. Mader found that one officer was reprimanded for raping his girlfriend and another received a 10-day suspension after breaking his wife's nose. In response, the LAPD formed a special unit to deal with domestic violence perpetrated by its officers, and within seven months half a dozen had been arrested. But then-Police Chief Bernard C. Parks complained to the California Bar Assn. about the release of the documents. Eventually, U.S. District Judge William D. Keller ordered the U.S. attorney's office to investigate how the documents became public. Mullally admitted in interviews that he had been the source and was later convicted of criminal contempt of court by Keller. The U.S. attorney's office recommended probation, saying that a jail term would be "extreme." But Keller, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Reagan and had been the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles during the administration of President Nixon, said mere probation would be a "toothless tiger." 10/15/02 Page 2 of 2 In March 2001, he sentenced Mullally to 60 days but stayed the sentence pending appeal. Moreover, Keller said that but for mitigating circumstance, he would have sentenced Mullally to the maximum term of six months. The sentence was condemned by the Feminist Majority Foundation and the National Center for Women and Policing. The groups pointed out that Mullally would be punished more severely than most of the officers whose conduct he had helped disclose. "Mullally acted to protect women and children because officials charged with their protection had abdicated that duty and had themselves become the threat," the groups argued. At Friday's oral argument, Mullally's attorneys, Weinstein and co- counsel James B. LeBow, argued that the order was ambiguous, that it violated the 1 st Amendment and federal rules of civil procedure, and that a 60-day sentence was "plainly unreasonable." At least two of the 9th Circuit judges--M. Margaret McKeown and Pamela A. Rymer--indicated they were troubled by the prospect of lack of consequences for violators of court orders. If Mullally suffered no consequence, McKeown said, the court would be saying, in effect, that an individual could violate a protective order if he decided it was in the public interest?That's not the kind of rule we can adopt," McKeown said. When Weinstein said that not even the government could cite a case in which someone had been sent to jail for violating a protective order, Rymer responded: "If there's contempt, the statute gives the judge discretion" to impose a jail term. McKeown said she felt the protective order had been "pretty poorly drafted" and that that might have an impact on what the punishment should be. END 10/15/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 2:15 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] AZ Prosecutorial Misconduct Results on Dismissal of Conviction w Death Penalty Local - The Arizona Daily Star Case discarded: Tucson convict off death row Sat Oct 12, 6:36 AM ET Joseph Barrios, ARIZONA DAILY STAR Citing misconduct by a deputy county attorney, the state's highest court Friday threw out the case of a man on death row who was convicted of killing three people at the South Side El Grande Market in 1992. Andre Lamont Minnitt, 32, was one of three defendants charged with killing three people at El Grande Market in June 1992. After trials in 1993 and 1997, Minnitt was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to death. Friday's unanimous ruling takes Minnitt off death row, although he has yet to finish a 36-year sentence for the unrelated robbery of a Tucson restaurant. The family members of at least one of the victims, reached Friday night, said they were angry with the ruling. An assistant attorney general said that persuading the court to reverse its Friday ruling would be difficult. With Minnitt's dismissal and the acquittal of Christopher McCrimmon, that leaves one defendant, Martin Soto-Fong, convicted in the murders. The court ruled that the state constitutional protection against double jeopardy should have barred Minnitt from having another trial in 1999 because in both the 1993 and 1997 trials, Deputy County Attorney Ken Peasley "engaged in extreme misconduct that he knew was grossly improper and highly prejudicial, both as to the defendant and to the integrity of the system," according to the opinion. Neither Peasley nor his attorney in the ethics hearing could be reached for comment. In April, Peasley was reassigned to the county attorney's civil division, where he acts as legal adviser to the Pima County Sheriffs Department. Carla Ryan, Minnitt's lawyer, said she thinks the Supreme Court's ruling is perhaps the most significant legal event in connection with the El Grande case because it addresses the importance of due process. "That you just need one or two people who will go to this extent to get a conviction in a death penalty case is scary," Ryan said. "We don't have a system that's perfect and if we don't have a system that's perfect, we shouldn't be killing people." Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall released a written statement in response to the court opinion, in which she said that she has worked "tirelessly" to ensure prosecutors acted with integrity. "In this instance, the Arizona Supreme Court has found otherwise, and for that I am embarrassed for the office and personally saddened," LaWall said in the statement. She could not be reached for further comment. In the June 1992 slayings, store manager Fred Gee, 45, was shot twice; his uncle, Huang Zee Wan, 75, and store worker Raymond Arriola, 32, each were shot once as the store was robbed of about $300. "Just because of a stupid technicality, because of (former Tucson police Detective) Godoy and Peasley, they're going to let him off?" said Dolores Bell, Arriola's sister. "They went the wrong way about it. I hope this doesn't happen with Fong." Arriola's mother, Lupe Arriola, said: "1 have a lot of anger about this. I didn't know they were going to drop charges." Peasley, who also faces sanctions for ethics violations, is accused of eliciting false testimony during the murder trials from former Detective Godoy, who testified falsely about how he determined Minnitt and two others were suspects. Godoy testified at trial that a key witness identified Minnitt, McCrimmon, 31, and Soto-Fong, 28, as suspects in the El 10/15/02 Page 2 of 2 Grande slayings. In truth, Godoy had identified them as suspects days before using anonymous and confidential informants. Soto-Fong was convicted in 1993 on three counts of first-degree murder and was later sentenced to death. This week, Superior Court Judge Clark Munger denied Soto-Fong's arguments for a new trial or a new appeal. McCrimmon was acquitted in a separate 1997 trial. Assistant Attorney General Kent Cattani, who was handling the appeal of Minnitt's case, said he has not determined if an appeal should be filed in Minnitt's case. Cattani said he disagreed with the court assessment that the only proper way to handle the misconduct is to throw out the conviction. He said the third trial was "free of any kind of flaw that occurred in the first two trials" and that a fourth trial for Minnitt would have been appropriate. But Cattani said he might have to think twice before filing an appeal with the court because there were no dissenting votes. That would make an appeal difficult to win, he said. Although nobody in her office had represented any of the defendants, Pima County Public Defender Susan Kettlewell said she read the opinion and feels it would be "impossible" for Minnitt to get a fair trial at this point. "Due process and fairness require that the case be dismissed," Kettlewell said. Charles Ares, a University of Arizona law professor, said he had not read the court opinion but said it appeared to uphold the basic premise behind double jeopardy. "You have every right in the world to do your best and try to convict this guy. But you don't have a right to keep trying it over and over until you get the conviction. Even the worst defendant is entitled to something better than that," Ares said. The state Supreme Court will also have final say on what kind of sanctions Peasley will face after a hearing officer in July recommended a 60-day suspension for Peasley because of his conduct in the El Grande trials. Although the proceedings are separate, Ares said it seems clear the court believes Peasley committed misconduct. "It does not look good for him, I should think," Ares said. * Contact reporter Joseph Barrios at 573-4241 orjbarrios~azstamet, com. 10/15/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 2:15 PM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Fullerton Police Can Be Sued Over Death, Appeals Ct Says http://www.latimes.com/news/Iocal/la-me-coverup13oct13,0,1431440 story?co!l=!a%2 Dheadlines%2 Dca![fom!a THE REGION Fullerton Police Can Be Sued Over Death, Court Says Ruling allows woman to refile lawsuit alleging a cover-up after husband died in police custody. By H.G. Reza Times Staff Writer October 13 2002 An appeals court has ruled that Fullerton police can be sued for allegedly covering up key evidence when a combative man under the influence of cocaine died in their custody. The California Court of Appeal, 4th Appellate District, did not find that police covered up the death of Max Leyza Garcia. Instead, judges reversed a trial court's decision that Garcia's widow, Rita Garcia, waited too long to sue, alleging a cover- up. The decision means she can refile her lawsuit alleging that Fullerton police were responsible for her husband's death and that they covered up the fact that he was hogtied after his arrest. Rita Garcia alleges that for almost two years police withheld information showing that her husband had been hogtied. She said in court papers that he died from asphyxiation when police placed him on his stomach in the back of a police cruiser with his arms handcuffed behind his back and a rope tied around his feet and secured to the handcuffs. An autopsy said Garcia's death resulted from "acute cocaine intoxication" Nov. 2, 1991, after he was arrested at a hotel where he was causing a disturbance. The report did not say Garcia had been hogtied. The man had fought with officers, who restrained him and took him to Fullerton City Jail. When Garcia was removed from a police cruiser, officers found he was not breathing. Police were cleared of any wrongdoing in an investigation by the district attorney's office. But Rita Garcia sued Chief Patrick E. McKinley, his predecessor, Philip Goehring, Sgt. Joseph Klein and the city in 1996, alleging police knew the hogtying led to Max Garcia's death, and they hid this from her. Court documents show that she repeatedly asked police for records about her husband's arrest but that her requests were denied. It was not until she hired an attorney in 1993 that McKinley revealed that Max Garcia had been restrained by police. After further prodding, McKinley revealed in July 1993, that the man had been hogtied. In 1999, a jury cleared police and the city of negligence in Garcia's death in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Rita Garcia. Police were also cleared of using excessive force. But before the trial, the judge had ruled she could not use the cover-up claim because it had not been filed in the time prescribed by law. However, the appellate court ruled that Rita Garcia should have been allowed to use the cover-up argument in pursuing the wrongful death lawsuit because there is evidence that police kept details of her husband's arrest from her. 10/15/02 Page 2 of 2 By law, she had to have filed a claim within six months of her husband's death. But her attorney, Donald W. Cook, said that because police failed to disclose crucial evidence about the arrest, she was forced to wait 20 months before filing. 10/15/02 Page 1 of 2 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 10:55 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Re Military's Use in Sniper Hunt: Fears of Mergering Miltary & Police Roles httpJIwww !atimes,comlnewslnationwor!dlnationl!a-na-mi!sniperl 7oct17,story High Degree of Terror Swayed Military to Act Army surveillance plane can do the work of dozens of police copters. But experts fear the start of a merger of roles of soldier and policeman. By John Hendren Times Staff Writer October 17 2002 WASHINGTON -- On a clear day, the Army surveillance aircraft the Pentagon will use to track the shooter who is terrorizing greater Washington can tell a red sedan from a white van anywhere along the Beltway that encircles the city. If two planes rotate shifts, as some defense officials are suggesting, they can do the work of dozens of police helicopters over several counties surrounding the nation's densely populated capital city, 24 hours a day. Although they are wary of a military mission that is creeping ever closer to homeland defense, Pentagon officials offered the RC-7 surveillance plane this week to help hunt for a local killer. They did it, in part, because of the high level of terror wrought by a series of random slayings that have killed nine and seriously injured two in the last two weeks, defense officials and analysts said Wednesday. The task also offered a tantalizing opportunity for the military: a difficult training mission applicable immediately in military hotspots from Afghanistan to Iraq. "1 cannot imagine a tougher surveillance mission," said Ralph Peters, an author and former Army intelligence officer. "If you can find someone in Washington, D.C., you can find anyone in Baghdad." In bringing a military surveillance team into the hunt for the shooter, law-enforcement authorities presented the Pentagon with a daunting task. They are asking the same men and equipment that have been unable to find Osama bin Laden among the barren hills of Afghanistan and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Baghdad to pinpoint an individual whose whereabouts in the Washington region are unknown -- until he fires. The RC-7 plane highlights the broad range of resources -- from counter-sniper experts to sensors that can detect a bullet's path -- that the Pentagon could bring to the task. Defense officials and military experts say, and many fear, that participation in this case could mark the beginning of a merger of the roles of soldier and policeman. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld authorized the Pentagon's involvement this week after the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marines what they could contribute. Technically, the agreement does not limit the Pentagon's contribution to just the RC-7. The Pentagon merely acceded to an FBI request for "aerial surveillance," said Air Force Col. Jay DeFrank, a Pentagon spokesman. Defense officials confirmed, on condition of anonymity, that the RC-7 would be used, although other aircraft could be used later. The agreement is broad enough to include the use of satellite imagery, but a defense official said that has either not been considered or has not been requested by the FBI. The RC-7 won out over the P-3 Orion surveillance plane offered by the Navy largely because the Army aircraft, a modified 10/17/02 Page 2 of 2 commuter plane similar to those used by US Airways at Washington's Reagan National Airport, would be less conspicuous aloft than the more distinctive Navy plane. Military officials use the four-engine turboprop plane, made by De Havilland of Canada, for detecting marijuana and cocaine fields in Colombia and for clandestine surveillance. Its infrared camera has a heat sensor that can detect anything from body heat to car exhaust and is capable of working in Iow light, transmitting live video signals or saving them to tape. It is designed to loiter at a slow speed -- about 125 mph -- in all types of weather for up to 10 hours, in day or night, and offers the same radar coverage as a U-2 spy plane or a B-2 bomber. It can transmit voice interceptions and data either to satellites or to users on the ground. "The theory on this is that they'll have this aircraft flying in circles over downtown Washington and they get a 911 call and the police tells the TV camera operator on the airplane where to point the camera," said John Pike, a defense analyst at GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria, Va., research group. "They basically start panning the camera out from the shooting scene until the operator sees a white van fleeing the crime scene." At that point, the camera operator can radio in the location of the vehicle -- police recently released a composite picture, based on witness interviews, of a white Chevrolet Astro van with a ladder rack -- and let police know which streets to block. In principle, police helicopters can do the job, but they don't fly as high or see as far. Unlike helicopters, a single plane flying at 20,000 feet can circle the region and then home in on a spot within seconds after a report of a shooting. While police on the ground might lose the getaway car, aerial surveillance rarely does, defense analysts said. But the car has to be identified first. "That means getting the initial spotting, which police haven't been able to do," said Tom Sanderson, a terrorism analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington public policy center. Military analysts warn the public not to expect a quick catch. Like other military surveillance equipment, the plane is primarily designed to spot movements of vehicles, machinery and cadres of soldiers, not a lone suspect. The plane's thermal detectors could detect a muzzle flash if it were staking out a limited area, such as a shopping center, but not a sprawling region, such as Northern Virginia, home to several outdoor shooting ranges. "The technology we're talking about here really wasn't designed to do the sort of search that the sniper investigation requires. It's nice that the military cooperates, but I would not expect any great breakthroughs as a result," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, a public policy center in Arlington, Va. "For the most part, if you don't know where a crime is going to occur before it occurs, a lot of the technology simply isn't very useful." Any move toward increased involvement in domestic security would likely be slowed by two other forces. First, soldiers don't like it. Like peacekeeping, domestic policing is among the least favorite duties of both front-line soldiers and Rumsfeld, who has increasingly sought to extricate soldiers from existing missions in Bosnia and to limit military patrols in the United States. Soldiers, sailors and Marines say they signed up for combat, not police work. "As for the mission, we don't want it," one Army officer said, on condition of anonymity. Second, defense officials and civil libertarians alike have expressed a concern over the limitations of the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the military's role in domestic affairs. The rule could easily be circumvented by using National Guard units under state authority, or simply by having civilian authorities, such as President Bush, request the military involvement. "You get a little chill when you think of the military jumping into this stuff, because where does it stop?" analyst Sanderson said. "This is a terrible case, but it's not a national disaster." That concern has increased the Pentagon's reluctance to offer other capabilities, such as Army and Air Force counter- sniper experts, who could profile or even target the shooter. Defense officials quickly ruled out using unmanned drones, which are in high demand and Iow supply. Nevertheless, the Pentagon's "mission creep" is inevitable, many analysts said. "1 do feel that in the future we're going to see more use of the military domestically," Peters said. "When terrorism strikes domestically, the military is often the best tool." 10/17/02 Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 10:59 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update].ACLU Report Cites Racial Profiling in San Francisco ACLU report cites racial profiling in S.F. Jaxon Van Derbeken, San F[ancisco Chronicle Staff Writer_ Tuesday, October 8, 2002 San Francisco -- San Francisco police are doing little to deal with "the significant problem" of racial profiling in their traffic stops and searches, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday. Using a year's worth of SFPD reports of traffic stops, the ACLU found that black motorists were being targeted far beyond their numbers in the city population and that both blacks and Latinos were searched far more frequently after being stopped than white drivers. The report echoed findings reported in The Chronicle in May that were based on three months' worth of department data ordered colrected by the Police Commission. The ACLU's Mark Schlosberg, who compiled the latest study, said the department "has not taken any steps to address the issue of racial profiling." The department needs to come up with a clear definition of what racial profiling is, set up sanctions, and bring in an independent auditor to monitor the situation, Schlosberg said. "This report clearly shows that the San Francisco Police Department is failing to take the issue of racial profiling seriously and is not complying with basic directives of the Police Commission," Schlosberg said. "San Francisco deserves better." Police Chief Earl Sanders said he considered the issue a top priority and would issue a report to the Police Commission when his staff finished its research. But he disagreed with the findings of the report, saying the ACLU "jumped to conclusions." "As a member (of the Police Department) and its chief, I will not allow pervasive racial profiling," Sanders said. "We are looking at the problem, and it will be solved," Sanders said. "1 invite any citizen who feels the basis for their stop was racially motivated (to file a complaint). I will see that their complaint is properly directed and investigated." The police data used by the ACLU were collected between July 1, 2001, and June 30, 2002, documenting details of more than 50,000 stops. The ACLU said the data showed that blacks were 3.3 times more likely to be searched after a traffic stop than whites in that period, while Latinos were 2.6 times more likely to be searched when stopped than whites. The department suggests more black motorists may be searched because a greater proportion of blacks than whites are on probation or parole in San Francisco. Officers who make traffic stops can conduct searches of parolees or people on probation without cause. But Schlosberg said that even accounting for parole-prebation searches, blacks were still three times more likely to be searched than whites. "This is an issue that is really important," he said. "We are not going to wait around forever." Sanders said that he was working on new general orders that would define the department's policies on the issue and that the ACLU was going after the department unfairly. "1 have read the report -- I don't agree with the analysis," Sanders said. "That's based on 64 years of life and 38 years in San Francisco law enforcement." E-mail Jaxon Van Derbeken at jvanderbeken~sfchronicle, com. 10/17/02 Page 1 of 3 Marian Karr From: Suelqq@aol.com Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 11:00 AM To: Update@NACOLE.org Subject: [NACOLE Update] Bratton in LA: Readying Brass; Another Look At October 17, 2002 LOS ANGELES Times Bratton Tells LAPD Brass to Submit Resumes [] The incoming chief is seeking insiders with fresh ideas for top command posts. Their material, including goals, is due Friday. By Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton, Times Staff Writers For the top brass of the Los Angeles Police Department, it's time to dust offthe resumes and touch up those beauty shots, literally. From the outset, incoming Chief William J. Brafton said he intends to pick a new command team of department insiders who can provide fresh ideas to carry out his vision for change at the LAPD. Now, Bratton has begun in earnest. He has told 114 commanders to submit memos with resumes, pictures, and a list of the officer's three top accomplishments and three goals for a new-look LAPD. To some commanders, it is either the first breath of fresh air to blow through the stale environs of Parker Center and its outlying divisions, or the career-ending equivalent of being handed a cigarette and a blindfold. The answers are due on the desk of Bratton's transition-team leader, Cmdr. Jim McDonnell, by 5 p.m. Friday. McDonnell said Bratton will review the information as quickly as possible. "The answer to those questions will allow Bratton to make quick and decisive decisions immediately when he takes office," McDonnell said. "He'll be sworn in on [Oct.] 28 and relatively swiftly after that, we want to hit the ground running and getting the LAPD moving." Most agree that the bid to tap the thoughts of so many commanders, whose salaries range above $90,000, is unusual, if not unprecedented. Former Assistant Chief David Dotson said he could not recall any incoming chief making such a request of the entire command staff. 1 O/17/02 Page 2 of 3 "Generally speaking, when a new chief comes in, them isn't usually a transition plan," Dotson said. "Certainly, no one has sent out something so formalized in the past." LAPD Assistant Chief Dave Gascon said he was not surprised that the new chief would ask for input. "Every chief of police has taken an opportunity to meet and discuss with the staff of the organization, the critical issues facing the organization," he said. "And [they have] received that input in terms of suggestions for addressing those critical issues." Cmdr. Sharon Papa, the department's ombudsman, said the move made sense as a way for Bratton to become familiar with the vast number of top managers in the department, and also to determine who is best suited to carry out his agenda. "If I was walking into this department, I'd want this too," Papa said. "Some of the previous chiefs may have been better prepared if they'd done it. "Some people may wrongly view it as a test," she said. "1 see it as an opportunity for people to express themselves," she said. "It is certainly easier than the new chief pulling everyone's file." Bratton has vowed to install his team within two weeks of being sworn in as chief. The former head of the New York Police Department has said he will recruit his leadership team from within the ranks. Bratton has identified several current LAPD leaders he highly respects, including Papa, Deputy Chief David Kalish and Cmdr. George Gascon. They along with McDonnell unsuccessfully applied for the chiefs post. Some wonder why the survey is needed, given Bratton's clear pronouncements about his intentions. Since his selection by Mayor James K. Hahn, Bratton has repeatedly promised a major makeover -- a "re-engineering" -- of the nearly 9,000-officer department, from top to bottom. His model is the city's legal settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice last year, after that agency concluded that the LAPD had engaged in a "pattern or practice" of civil rights violations. Bratton has publicly warned that those who don't embrace the consent decree, which embodies the settlement, or the need for change, should retire. Specifically, Bratton said, he wants to fill out his roster with commanders who endorse his policing concepts and "who are very desirous of change, who have been extraordinarily frustrated for a variety of reasons over the last 10 years." ht~p:~www.~atimes.c~m~news/~ca~la~me-bratt~n8~ct~8~72~915.st~ry?c~l~=la%2Dhead~ines%2Dca~if~rnia Rampart Probe a Top Priority, Bratton Says Police: Mayor's choice for new chief calls for review, expresses wonder at lack of reforms. By ANDREW BLANKSTEIN and RICHARD WlNTON TIMES STAFF WRITERS October 8 2002 10/17/02 Page 3 of 3 Moving quickly to assert command, William J. Bratton called Monday for a complete review of how well the Los Angeles Police Department has investigated the Rampart corruption scandal. The LAPD's investigation was called into question by the disclosure Monday that allegations of wrongdoing by disgraced former Officer Rafael Perez had not been thoroughly investigated. During a walking tour of a San Pedro neighborhood with Mayor James K. Hahn on Monday, Bratton acknowledged that the Rampart scandal continues to damage the department's reputation. He drew parallels with corruption scandals he faced in 1993 as the incoming New York police commissioner. "The Rampart issue, both in what has happened in the past as well as these lingering issues, is certainly going to be one of my first priorities," said Bratton. He said he would develop his own opinion about "what has been done, what needs to be done, and how fast can it be done." Perez is a former anti-gang officer who was convicted of stealing cocaine seized as evidence. Three years ago, in exchange for a reduced sentence on the charges against him, he identified eight allegedly improper shootings. He told authorities that he had direct knowledge of some of the incidents, and had heard about others from fellow officers. Responding to inquiries from The Times, the LAPD acknowledged that it had not thoroughly investigated three shootings that Perez said had been covered up. In an interview, Bratton wondered why the Rampart scandal hadn't led to more sweeping changes. He said he had discussed the shootings with acting Chief Martin Pomeroy during a breakfast meeting Monday. Hahn pledged that corruption allegations would be fully investigated. L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley praised Bratton's decision to review Rampart. "We share Chief Bratton's concerns that LAPD's investigations of various Rampart-related shootings have been less than thorough. We welcome the new chief's review of this matter," Cooley said in a prepared statement. The department Monday seemed already to be taking steps to adjust to the priorities of Bratton, whose appointment still must be approved by the City Council. Cmdr. Cayler "Lee" Carter of the Central Operations Bureau announced that officers within the Newton, Hollenbeck, Rampart, Northeast and Central divisions, along with a group of city agencies, would aggressively fight crime and blight in targeted city neighborhoods. Carter said the plans were in the works long before the selection of Bratton, a Iongtime advocate of enforcing laws against minor crimes, such as graffiti, as a strategy toward reducing major crime. The initiative calls for a cooperative effort by city workers, from building inspectors to librarians, to attack neighborhood problems, according to Gary Harris, chief street use inspector. "We are going to take back the city street by street," said LAPD Capt. Doug Shur of the Rampart Division. A 12-block area in the division encompassed by Santa Monica Boulevard, Madison Avenue, and Hoover and Marathon streets is being targeted. "We're going to improve the quality of life in this area by cleaning up the graffiti, educating people to take care of their properties and enforcing every law for trespassing and loitering. The Police Department is only part of the solution. It's a partnership," Shur said. In the Hollenbeck Division, officers will target a Boyle Heights neighborhood plagued with prostitution. In the Central Division, unlicensed street vendors will be targeted. Bratton said he regretted the continuing problems resulting from the Rampart corruption investigation. "l would have loved to come through the door and have it all behind me," he said. 1 O/17/02 Office of the Police Monitor Six-Month Report February 11 - August 11, 2002 http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/opm/ Fall 2002 Message from the Pofice Monitor Functions of the Police Monitor · Accept Complaints from Citizens · Monitor Investigation of Complaints · Conduct Community Outreach · Publish Reports on Activities of Office and Educational Forums Mission Statement Through our outreach efforts, we will educate the community and law enforcement to promote the highest degree of mutual respect between Police Officers and the Public. By engaging in honest dialogue over issues and incidents that impact the community and law enforcement, the Office of Police Monitor will enhance public confidence, trust, and support in the fairness and integrity of the Austin Police Department. Complaint Process The Police Monitor's Office is the main location for accepting complaints filed by members of the public against police officers. To file a complaint with the Office of the Police Monitor the public can contact our office by telephone, fax, or in person. The Police Monitor or a member of the It has been over si~ months since Police Monitor's office will conduct an initial interview with the complainant and will explain the stading my job as Austin's first oversight and investigative process. The Internal Affairs Division of the Austin Police Department Police Monitor on February 11, will conduct an investigation. The Monitor's office will participate in the APD Intake investigation. 2002. Establishing a brand new The Police Monitor will make policy recommendations to the Chief of Police. Upon the conclusion office certainly has its challenges of the Internal Affairs Investigation, the complainant will be notified in writing of the outcome. and finding the best staff to support the office was a full time job in an( of itself. However, as of June 17~" my superb staff is on board and th( Po/ice Monitor Iris Jones office is fully operational. With my attends the Texas Women's team in place, we immediately Hispanic League honoring initiated several outreach programs City Manager Toby Hammett throughout the city to introduce Futrell ourselves to the citizens of Austin. After diligently working each day on your behalf, we are delighted to Dorothy Turner present the Six Month Report of the Juneteenth Parade Police Monitor's Office. The first report includes data and statistics relating lo the nature of complaints, Honorable Mayor Gus Garcia geographical area of incident as greets the crowdat the Police well as the breakdown by ethnicity Monitors Open House and gender of complainants; August 13th community activities of our first six months of operation and an article /tis Jones on guidelines relating to racial profiling. Celebration of Juneteenth 2002 Our seven member Citizen Review Panel is also featured in this report and we are pleased to have a dedicated panel working with us to review complaints end to assist in making policy recommendations. Open House Ribbon cutting I am proud to do my part as Austin's Toby Hammett mutrell ceremony August 13th first Police Monitor to make Austin a brighter community for us all. National Night Out Iris Jones August 6th Recognizing Racial Profiling Procedures Bl16 defines racial profiling as "any pattern or practice, including but not limited to stopping, By Alfred Jenkins III detaining, frisking, and searching by police officers that Assistant Police Monitor is based on the generalized belief that a person of a particular race, ethnicity, or national origin is more likely Being falsely accused of a misdeed is one of life's most to commit certain types of crimes." frustrating events. Racial profiling by law enforcement Of course, a police officer is totally within his or her goes a step further; here specific groups of persons are unjustly targeted for investigation based solely on the authority to stop you if you violate the law. Moreover, color of their skin. In fairness to law enforcement, the law permits police officers to stop a vehicle if they officers are often placed in the difficult position of have probable cause to believe a traffic violation has occurred even if the officer has ulterior motives to search balancing the use of effective techniques to capture the vehicle.4 Additionally, the law permits an officer to actual criminals, an outcome that most persons support, against ensuring the fair treatment of all citizens, take certain actions for their safety such as (~rdering the driver to exit the vehicle5 and stopping and frisking a Regardless, many scholars have stated that racial person for weapons.6 profiling is one of the most pervasive social injustices of When an officer asks to search your vehicle its up to you our time. While racial profiling may occur in a number of settings, according to the Texas Commission on Law since the officer needs voluntary consent in order to Enforcement, the traffic stop is the most pervasive. A conduct the search. So you are within your rights to study released on October 6, 2000, indicated that when consent or refuse to consent. However, an officer does compared to a similarly situated white motorist in Texas, not require consent if he has a warrant, probable cause to believe a crime occurred, or arrests the driver of the a Black male was 2.5 times more likely to be searched vehicle for a violation of the law. in connection with a traffic stop, while a Hispanic male was nearly four times more likely to be searched.l As a The following tips have been offered for those persons result, it is important to understand what racial profiling who are stopped by the police while driving: is and what it is not. ~ Remain calm. Before we discuss how the law defines and deals with racial profiling, test your knowledge by answering these = Be respectful and polite, if you disagree with a true/false questions. The answers follow this article, ticket fight it in court not on the side of the road. Pop Quiz ~ Keep your hands where police can see them. 1) T or F An arrest is required in order for a traffic stop ~ If not informed, ask the officer why you were to result in racial profiling, stopped. 2) T or F Racial profiling by law enforcement is illegal = Only the driver should speak unless someone in Texas. else is directly asked a question. 3) T or F A police officer may stop an individual for a ~ Produce valid ID and information when asked. minor traffic violation even if the officer really just wants to search the individual's car. ~ If stopped at night, turn on interior lights. 4) T or F During a traffic stop, a police officer always If you believe that you have been a victim of racial has the authority to search your vehicle, profiling: 5) T or F Office of the Police Monitor is the correct = Write down the name of the police officer and his location to bring complaints of racial profiling, badge number. Texas law prohibits racial profiling2 and defines it as "a ~ Make note of witnesses, time, and location of the law enforcement-initiated action based on an individual's incident. race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than on the individual's behavior or on information identifying the ~ Determine whether the incident is being individual as having engaged in criminal activity."3 The recorded by video camera by the officer. law further requires that each individual law enforcement ~ You may refuse to have your vehicle searched. agency adopt detailed written policies, which among other things are to strictly prohibit and clearly define ~ Remember that the Office of the Police Monitor specific acts constituting racial profiling, is the place to report complaints against Austin Police Department officers. The Austin Police Department implemented its policy three months prior to the passing of the state law. Austin Police Department General Orders, Policies and OFFICE OF THE POLICE MONITOR SIX-MONTH REPORT FEBRUARY 11 - AUGUST 11, 2002 MONITOR REACHES OUT 'ro PUBLIC !i Community Outreach Events The Office of the Police Monitor initiated a series of neighborhood meetings this summer targeting about 100 different neighborhood associations in all areas of the city, including East, West, North, Northwest and Southeast Austin. On August 13, we opened our doors to the community by hosting an Open House from c.~,m-,ml~y Cent.,. noon to 3 p.m. Mayor Gus Garcia kicked off the dedication ceremonies at 1 p.m. The Mayor was introduced by City Manager Toby 928-1287 Hammett FutrelL Joining the Mayor were Council members Raul Alvarez and Will Wynn. The Rev. Frank Garrett, imparted True Light Day words of inspiration and gave a blessing to Care Center Event the office. Other dignitaries included State Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, former Mayor Roy Butler, who also serves on the Citizens Review Panel; former Mayor Pro Tem John Trevino Jr., former Council member Willie Lewis, Herman Lessard, President and CEO of the Austin Area Urban League, and Nelson Under, NAACP-Austin President. An estimated 300 people attended our Open House. The Office of the Police Monitor has St. John Community completed six meetings, as well as participated in National Night Out hosted bt Center different neighborhoods throughout Austin and attended the 5th Annual East Austir Community Awareness Day in May. Summer meetings were held at the St. John Community Center, Covenant United Methodist Church, Conley/Guerrero Senior Citizen's Center, Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church, Northwest Recreation Center and Tarrytown United Methodist Church. Neighborhood meetings in Bannockburn Baptist Church, 7100 Brodie Lane, and the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex, Police Monitor's Staff at 1156 Hargrave Street, are scheduled this fall. Northwest Recreation Center A seven-member Citizen Review Panel appointed by the City Manager will serve I Citizen Review Panel Member staggered two-year terms. After undergoing I~ Ashton Cumberbatch training, the panel will review critical incident cases and complaints submitted to them by the Police Monitor or the pub c. The pane may also make recommendations to Police Chief Stun Knee and recommend further investigation or an independent investigation. Training programs such as racial profiling are in the planning stages. The Office of the Police Monitor welcomes suggestions from the public. For more information about Conley-Guerrero upcoming meetings or training sessions Senior Center please call 974-9090. Office of the Police Monitor City of Austin I Police Monitor Staff 1106 clayton Lane Suite 100E - - Austin, Texas 78723 P.O.Box 1088 Austin, Texas 78767 Telephone (512) 974-9090 Fax (512) 974-6306 TrY (512) 974-9144 police.rnonitor @ ci.austin.tx.u s htt p://www.ci.austin.tx.us/opm/ Our brochure is available in alternate formats including Braille and large print and Spanish. ? ' Seated from left to right --.~ '-~4.~ ~%,, .... ,, . Iris Jones--Police Monitor % ,~ ;,--"~, ~-~ ~.'~"~t b~ ' Alfred Jenkins Ill--Assistant Police Monitor !! ~l~L'~t, ¢'"" -¢,:~%~'/~70 ~ ~" Louis Gonzales III--Compliance Specialist ,~ ~-. ~ig-e// ~£~/~ "-.~/~,,'~ -I ~ Hermelinda Zamarripa~ommunity Liaison ~-~ %, '- ~ ~'~ ~ -'..?t// ~: t~r ~, .¢~J~ ~ ..~ "%~:"-:'<~/~'--~ . Flynn Lee--Compliance Specialist ..~b'~'~~' '~ ~'.... ~,~: "-~ ' /' ~. Alison White--Administrative Specialist %A,~.?__~l illi~lli~r'.-. '..~, '-¢.¢~--. ? ~ -~/'--.-' Elizabeth Pugliese--Compliance Specialist 7 Member Citizen Review Panel and Non-Voting Chairperson Iris Jones Juan Alcala George Chang is an attorney practicing is the principal partner of McCaroll, LLP. He is Inc. in his professional community. Josefina Castillo Celia Israel is presently the program is the owner and founder et coordinator of American Mission Resources. She Friends Service Commit- currently serves on several tee TAO. She has a boards devoted to lifelong commitment to economic and generational social equality and the issues in Austin, as well as search for non-violent demonstrating a concern solutions to problems, for women's issues. Iris Jones