Group Seeks Outside Probe of Domestic Abuse in LAPD

Outraged by the Los Angeles Police Department’s handling of sexual harassment and domestic abuse allegations involving its officers, leaders of a women’s advocacy group Wednesday called for an independent investigation of what they contend is “a culture within the Police Department that is opposed to women.”

“The prevailing attitude at the LAPD seems to be that it is acceptable to beat your wife, harass women co-workers and lie to cover it all up. Well, enough is enough,” said Katherine Spillar, national coordinator of the Feminist Majority Foundation. “Now is the time to clean the department from top to bottom.”

Councilwomen Jackie Goldberg and Rita Walters joined Spillar at a City Hall news conference, announcing that they will ask the City Council to urge the Police Commission to review the LAPD’s handling of domestic abuse allegations against officers. Legal documents show that more than 60 officers investigated by the department after having been accused of domestic abuse during a five-year period ending in 1992 were not arrested.

“We are very concerned as a council, and I am personally very concerned that there never be a double standard on domestic violence,” Goldberg said.

Spillar said the foundation is demanding that sexual harassment, intimidation, discrimination and retaliation against women officers be investigated by a “blue ribbon” panel of citizens, similar to the Christopher Commission, which proposed departmental reforms after the Rodney G. King beating in 1991.

Spillar said recent news developments on gender issues require immediate attention. Among them: the pending release of a report on the investigation of former LAPD Det. Mark Fuhrman, which sources say found evidence of a secret anti-female club within the department; the overturning of a five-day suspension for a police commander who was accused of making an inappropriate remark to a female subordinate; and published reports on the department’s handling of domestic abuse allegations against its officers.

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After the news conference, Goldberg and Walters introduced their motion urging that the Police Commission instruct the LAPD’s inspector general to investigate the department’s handling of domestic violence incidents involving LAPD officers and report back to a City Council committee within 30 days.

A spokesman for the Police Commission said the panel will consider the request.

Spillar said the inspector general--who is the department’s civilian watchdog--should be given more funds and more staff to investigate department employees. She said the department’s “failure to stop violence against women in their homes and the harassment of women on the job is costly and dangerous, not only to the women on the force and those married to officers, but also to the community as a whole.”

In February, the City Council agreed to pay $2.15 million to settle a pair of lawsuits stemming from an incident in which an LAPD officer killed his estranged wife and her boyfriend, then fatally shot himself. Before the shooting, police were aware that the officer--Victor Felix Ramos--had previously pointed his gun at his wife and threatened to kill her. The department seized his weapons, but returned them the next month after he visited a police psychologist.

Chief Willie L. Williams said Tuesday that the department “aggressively pursues” all domestic abuse allegations against LAPD officers.

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A police spokesman said the department has begun a review of internal investigations of domestic abuse allegations against its officers. Cmdr. Tim McBride said that in the past, domestic abuse cases were handled internally at the request of prosecutors who believed that it might be difficult to win convictions and that the punishment would be relatively mild. Additionally, in some cases the victims recanted and in others there was not enough evidence to sustain the allegations, he said.

McBride said there is now “a heightened awareness” within the department, as in society, about the seriousness of domestic abuse. He added that the department for the past year has referred all allegations of domestic violence against its officers to prosecutors for review.

Women’s rights groups said such explanations did not ring true to them.

“It’s a whitewash and a cover-up,” said Penny Harrington, director of the National Center for Women and Policing, a division of the Feminist Majority.

At the news conference, Harrington said many male LAPD officers have problems accepting women as equals.

“Despite claims by some department officials to the contrary, widespread sexual harassment and orchestrated intimidation and threats against women on the force remain a serious problem in the LAPD,” she said.

Harrington, a former chief of police in Portland, said female LAPD officers have told her that gender bias is so great at the department that their male colleagues sometimes do not back them up on emergency calls. And, she said, when a female officer lodges a complaint against a male colleague she often becomes the target of further harassment and retaliation in the department.

LAPD Lt. Anthony Alba said the department “does not tolerate such behavior” and will investigate any allegations involving its personnel.