A Scandal Hits Home

What the public now knows as the Los Angeles Police Department corruption scandal began in August 1998 with the arrest of former Rampart Division Officer Rafael Perez on cocaine theft charges. The depth of the problem was not visible until Times reports appeared last September. The public was slow to respond to what might have then been perceived as an isolated incident involving perhaps one or two bad cops going overboard in pursuit of likely gangsters.

That has changed with the stream of new and disturbing allegations of police misconduct, involving ever more cases and spreading outside Rampart. Now, Los Angeles residents questioned in a recent Times poll have sent a strong message to city officials and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti. Many were deeply troubled by the corruption scandal. By big margins, those polled deemed the LAPD’s problems to be widespread and entrenched.

Despite strong personal approval ratings for Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, the LAPD’s image has suffered. Poll results showed city residents strongly believe that LAPD officers expressed racist attitudes and commonly engaged in brutality. Some 46% of those questioned said they believed that police commonly committed perjury in court.

More important, the public has little or no confidence in the way that the police corruption probe is being handled. Disappointment ran so high that poll respondents overwhelmingly said that an independent panel should be formed to resolve the scandal.

That sentiment seems bound to grow with revelations such as those in a Times news story Saturday that highlighted LAPD misconduct, prosecutorial indifference and judicial lassitude in the case of a witness who was allegedly coerced to provide false testimony, which a prosecutor and judge subsequently accepted.

Garcetti was a particular target of disapproval in the poll, apparently regarded as a bungler for his department’s failure to follow up on suspected police perjury and later for failure to prosecute Rampart cases more quickly. Few have faith in the ability of the Police Commission. City Atty. James K. Hahn has been such a no-show that 75% of those polled could not even rate his overall performance.

The mayor needs to be more visibly involved in ensuring that all the roots of the scandal are dug out. Chief Parks is facing sharply higher disapproval ratings, and his defensiveness in the face of criticism certainly isn’t helping. Surely, each of these officials is engaged in trying to get to the bottom of the Rampart scandal. What they haven’t demonstrated is any cohesion in reaching that goal. Prosecutions must be brought in the next few months, and there must be ample evidence of cooperation and the setting aside of all distractions in the interest of justice.