Los Angeles Police Protective League

Looking to slash payroll costs in a disastrous budget year, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council have thrown their support behind a new union contract that is designed to cut police overtime costs by 83%. The city's elected officials hope the two-year contract with the Los Angeles Police Protective League will reduce overtime costs by $72 million in the next fiscal year, according to a confidential report obtained by...

Police accountability is a multipurpose motto, susceptible to manipulation and often varying with the eye of the beholder. Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton tends to honor it in the breach -- he proclaims the department accountable, then decries those who scrutinize its work. Critics of the LAPD demand transparency but sometimes fail to take advantage of it. Leaders of the city's police union insist that they believe in it but often work to undermine it.

The union representing rank-and-file Los Angeles police officers Friday announced its support for a controversial campaign to make it easier for officers to question gang members about whether they are in the country legally. Last week, City Councilman Dennis Zine introduced a motion that would require Los Angeles Police Department officers to check the immigration status of a gang member suspected of being in the country illegally -- even if the suspect is not under arrest.

Most Los Angeles police officers who are suspended without pay for misconduct rely on an unusual union-run insurance policy to reimburse them for lost wages. The pool of money -- thought to be the only one of its kind in the country and unknown to many outside the department's rank and file -- has come under sudden scrutiny from police watchdogs concerned about its effect on how officers are punished.

A little-known Los Angeles police union program that reimburses officers for wages lost as a result of misconduct suspensions has been roundly criticized by law enforcement and management experts, who say the practice seriously undermines officer discipline. "It tends to make the discipline process somewhat meaningless," said Merrick Bobb, executive director of the Police Assessment Resource Center.

State Sen. Gloria Romero fought a noble but losing battle last year to open up hearings in which police officers are accused of serious misconduct. That's hardly a radical idea: The Los Angeles Police Department's hearings, known as boards of rights, were open for decades without incident and helped ensure that some of this city's most scalding allegations of police abuse received necessary public scrutiny.

In a challenge that could complicate Los Angeles' high-profile crackdown on street gangs, leaders of the city's police union called Thursday for gang enforcement officers to refuse to provide personal financial information as mandated by a federal decree. Union officials, who are considering a lawsuit to block the disclosure requirement, say the Los Angeles Police Department could experience an exodus of officers from gang units just as the city is attempting to beef up gang enforcement.

The head of the Los Angeles police union accused the City Council on Friday of inaction that he says will undermine efforts to put enough officers on the street. Bob Baker, president of the Police Protective League, said the council has dragged its feet on several measures, including proposals to increase overtime spending and allow retired officers to return to duty. "The council has been woefully absent," he said.

One day before LAPD Chief William J. Bratton is scheduled to deliver his report on the May Day MacArthur Park melee, the police union Monday offered up its own recommendations for new crowd-control training for officers and commanders.

THE SLOW DEATH of a worthy bill being discussed in Sacramento offers powerful evidence of what happens to a state when it comes under the control of its police. State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), the author of SB 1019, has done her best to right a wrong. Outraged by the closure of police disciplinary hearings to public scrutiny, she introduced her bill to allow cities to reopen those proceedings.