Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams and the leader of the city's police union clashed Thursday in front of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, disagreeing over the handling of complaints against police officers and the adequacy of procedures for selecting and training officers who train fellow police in the field.
Williams, appearing before a prestigious commission that is conducting national hearings on racism and police conduct, told members of the panel that the LAPD had made great strides in screening and training of "field training officers," those who teach academy recruits about police work on the street.
But Bill Harkness, the president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League and a famously outspoken cop, responded by saying the chief was out of touch.
Comparing Williams to the captain of a ship, Harkness said: "He doesn't always know what's going on in the engine room."
Harkness went on to suggest that field training officers often lack skills needed to train fellow officers and said he believes quality veterans are being overlooked for training jobs because department managers place too much emphasis on personnel complaints in screening candidates. Williams did not respond directly, but emphasized that he believes it is important for LAPD leaders to be able to review all officers' complaint histories in order to make decisions about staffing.
That view was echoed by Katherine Mader, the Police Commission's inspector general, and by Mark H. Epstein, who served as special counsel to that commission and helped prepare a landmark report on the progress of reform at the LAPD. Mader and Epstein joined Williams in opposing two state legislative bills that would remove some police complaint records from the reach of LAPD managers--proposals that Harkness and the police union support.
The exchange between the police chief and the police union boss came on the first day of hearings by the Civil Rights Commission, which is returning to Los Angeles two years after it initially came to study issues of racism and police brutality after the Rodney G. King beating and the 1992 riots.
Mayor Richard Riordan was among city leaders who testified Thursday, telling the panel that he believed the LAPD has made great progress but that more needed to be done, especially in the area of holding supervisors accountable for the actions of their subordinates.
