Over the last two years, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has used more than $1 million in grants to hire longtime friends and former business associates as LAPD consultants, and now refuses to tell the City Council exactly what work was performed.
Bratton says he doesn't have to disclose much information because the money came through a private foundation -- not city coffers. But because the council was obligated to formally accept the grants, members say they have a right to know the details.
The money came from the Los Angeles Police Foundation, a private, tax-exempt nonprofit established in 1998 by then-Chief Bernard C. Parks. It raises money from millionaires and other major donors as well as from small contributors who attend foundation fundraisers.
The organization uses the money to pay for LAPD projects or initiatives: undertakings as varied as buying radiation boxes for the bomb squad, providing ropes to help SWAT team officers rappel from helicopters and holding a San Fernando Valley "Picnic for Peace." The group's work has been widely praised for aiding the department more quickly and efficiently than public contracting often allows.
The Bratton consultants -- all experienced law enforcement experts -- were paid, in some cases retroactively, for work that included offering advice on applying for state and federal grants and implementing the LAPD's computerized crime-tracking system.
As of last summer, the consultants had been paid more than $911,000. In January, the foundation authorized the expenditure of $63,536 more for "third-quarter consultant fees," according to a letter Bratton sent to the Police Commission, the civilian board that sets LAPD policy and standards. Fourth-quarter fees brought the grants' total to more than $1.3 million, foundation records show, though officials say the work is tapering off.
In some cases, the consultants supplied the LAPD and the private foundation with written reports verifying their work, but in others the only evidence given was the assurance by LAPD officials, including Bratton, that the work had been completed and was satisfactory.
"We rely on the department to verify that the deliverables have been delivered," said Karen Wagener, president of the foundation.
