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 nothing to punish them.
