Internal Affairs

Lifetime, which no longer bills itself as "Television for Women" but is anyway, premieres its first original cop show, "Against the Wall," Sunday night. The network has a long history with crime, of course, with all those TV movies about killers and stalkers and darkly handsome con men. But this is something else, and better made -- something that, while it retains the essence of Lifetime, looks across the dial to TNT and USA, where character-driven procedurals have been blooming like wildflowers after a wet spring.

A jailer with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has been arrested on suspicion of smuggling cocaine into the Men's Central Jail with intent to sell it to inmates, authorities said Tuesday. Remington Orr, 24, who is not a deputy but has worked for the last four years as a custody employee, was arrested late Monday as he was preparing to enter the Men's Central Jail with the drug, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for Sheriff Lee Baca. "Obviously, if anybody tries to do this they will be caught, arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Whitmore said.

The allegations were serious: A group of Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies escorted an inmate to a secluded spot in Men's Central Jail, beat him, pulled down his boxers and pepper-sprayed his anus and groin. The Sheriff's Department waited to launch an internal affairs investigation until the Los Angeles County district attorney's office decided whether it was going to press criminal charges. After almost three years, prosecutors decided not to. That decision opened the door to the internal affairs investigation, which is still going on. Since the incident, two of the accused deputies continue to be paid.

Reporting from San Francisco -- Two officers involved in Occupy protests have been punished by the Oakland Police Department for violating official policy, after an onlooker's video showed one of them with dark tape obscuring his nameplate, according to court documents. After an expedited internal affairs investigation into the actions of Officer John Hargraves and Lieutenant Clifford Wong, interim Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan "immediately moved to implement what, in my judgment as chief of police, was appropriate personnel action," Jordan said in a recent written declaration.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas called Tuesday on the county Probation Department to hire more internal affairs staff to investigate employee misconduct. Ridley-Thomas' comments followed publication of a Times story revealing incidents in which probation officers were convicted of crimes or disciplined in recent years for inappropriate conduct involving current or former probationers, including several cases of officers molesting or beating youths in their care.

Richard Gere's high profile is luring renters to his cop drama "Internal Affairs." In two weeks, it rocketed to No. 4 on the Billboard magazine chart. Though it earned a respectable $27 million in theaters, "Affairs" has the rental market appeal of a movie that grossed two or three times as much. "Family Business" didn't do nearly as much box-office business as expected when it came out last Christmas.

Accusations that off-duty police officers knew about alleged illegal payments at the city's largest bingo parlor were referred Friday to the Los Angeles Police Department's internal affairs division, which investigates police wrongdoing. Cmdr. William Booth, a Police Department spokesman, said the referral to internal affairs was made because the officers involved were from numerous bureaus and divisions, making it impossible for any one division to handle the investigation.

Los Angeles police internal affairs investigators Tuesday questioned one of two officers who were involved in a recent scuffle with a woman who works as a supervisor in the Parker Center jail. The interview, which is part of a department probe into the incident, came as the City Council unanimously voted to ask the Police Commission to investigate the Aug. 9 confrontation involving Jennifer Jones, a black employee, and Officers Michael Daly and John Puis, both of whom are white.

Shaken by the corruption scandal still unfolding inside the Los Angeles Police Department, county Sheriff Lee Baca is considering hiring a civilian to head his internal affairs section and retaining retired judges to review disciplinary investigations. In an interview, Baca said both the public and deputies themselves need confidence in how police are policed.

"Internal Affairs" is one of those good old-fashioned police mysteries that involves you almost from start to finish. Director Michael Tuchner pushes the right suspense buttons and scriptwriter William Bayer keeps you on edge with his shrewd deployment of twists, U-turns and dead ends in a good cops/bad cops puzzler airing in two parts, Sunday and Monday at 9 p.m. on CBS (Channels 2 and 8).

The chief of the Homeland Security Department's drone aircraft program is facing an ethics investigation for joining the board of directors of the largest industry group promoting the use of unmanned aircraft, officials said Monday. The internal affairs office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is reviewing whether Tom Faller, director of unmanned aircraft systems operations, violated internal rules when he took an unpaid position as a board member of the Assn. for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International on Aug. 16. Faller oversees eight Predator B surveillance drones that are chiefly used to help search for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers on the northern and southwestern borders.

As Burbank moves to increase oversight of its Police Department, which is under federal investigation of allegations of officer misconduct and excessive use of force, transparency has emerged as a key part of its strategy. At a joint meeting last week with the Police Commission, Burbank City Council members endorsed bringing on two outside consultants to monitor the internal affairs of the department and make their assessments and reports public. The Police Commission still must hammer out the contract details for the two consultants — Michael Gennaco, who heads the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review, and Robert Corbin, an attorney who was staff counsel to the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department.

When Compton jurors recently deliberated the fate of a man charged with possessing a concealed firearm, they thought the evidence was overwhelming - not that the man was guilty but that the Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies who testified against him had lied. Jurors said a video of the arrest and inconsistent testimony from deputies left them no choice earlier this month but to vote for acquittal. The five jurors who spoke to The Times said authorities should investigate the deputies from the sheriff's anti-gang-unit who were involved in the case.

Lifetime, which no longer bills itself as "Television for Women" but is anyway, premieres its first original cop show, "Against the Wall," Sunday night. The network has a long history with crime, of course, with all those TV movies about killers and stalkers and darkly handsome con men. But this is something else, and better made -- something that, while it retains the essence of Lifetime, looks across the dial to TNT and USA, where character-driven procedurals have been blooming like wildflowers after a wet spring.

The allegations were serious: A group of Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies escorted an inmate to a secluded spot in Men's Central Jail, beat him, pulled down his boxers and pepper-sprayed his anus and groin. The Sheriff's Department waited to launch an internal affairs investigation until the Los Angeles County district attorney's office decided whether it was going to press criminal charges. After almost three years, prosecutors decided not to. That decision opened the door to the internal affairs investigation, which is still going on. Since the incident, two of the accused deputies continue to be paid.

The allegations were serious: A group of Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies escorted an inmate to a secluded spot in Men's Central Jail, beat him, pulled down his boxers and pepper-sprayed his anus and groin. The Sheriff's Department waited to launch an internal affairs investigation until the Los Angeles County district attorney's office decided whether it was going to press criminal charges. After almost three years, prosecutors decided not to. That decision opened the door to the internal affairs investigation, which is still going on. Since the incident, two of the accused deputies continue to be paid.

Even at 40, Richard Gere has such a sensual smoothie's face--like an evil grown-up boy with glittering eyes and an omnipresent cheek-tweaking smile--that he's perfect casting for the sexy bad cop in the nervous, shallow cop thriller "Internal Affairs" (citywide). Gere's role, corrupt Dennis Peck, is an LAPD street cop, high-roller and all-around hedonist. Gere hasn't done a pure heavy like this since 1977's "Looking for Mr.

Los Angeles Police Department investigators routinely fail to fully investigate citizens' complaints against allegedly abusive officers, often omitting or altering crucial information in ways that help exonerate the officers, according to a report to be released today. The 34-page report by the Police Commission's inspector general raises questions about the department's ability to police itself, adding to still-unresolved problems highlighted in previous reports.

Los Angeles County Chief Executive William T Fujioka is preparing to recommend a probe of the Department of Children and Family Services' internal affairs unit, county officials said. Fujioka, concerned that the internal affairs unit of the child protective services agency may not have conducted its work swiftly and thoroughly, is drafting a recommendation that the disciplinary unit be reviewed by Michael Gennaco, who leads the county Office of Independent Review, officials said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is investigating allegations of misconduct by deputies involved in a drug case that was dismissed last week after records appeared to contradict their account of a drug possession arrest. Prosecutors said the inconsistencies prompted them to drop a felony charge Wednesday against Tatiana Anjuli Lopez, 26. Lopez's attorney filed court records accusing the deputies of lying about her arrest and seeking to have her prosecuted in retaliation for her filing a complaint against them.