Police Reform

On June 8, a District Court judge will once again consider the future of the federal consent decree under which the Los Angeles Police Department has operated for the last eight years. The court will decide whether the decree -- which was designed to address a series of long-standing problems by imposing a detailed and ambitious program of reform -- should continue or whether it should be allowed to lapse.

Declaring that the Los Angeles Police Department has reformed itself significantly after decades of corruption and brutality complaints, a U.S. judge on Friday ended a long-running period of federal oversight. U.S. District Court Judge Gary A. Feess terminated the consent decree federal officials had imposed on the LAPD in 2001, after the Rampart corruption scandal.

After several years of court-ordered reforms, the Los Angeles Police Department has heightened its image among Angelenos and made significant improvements in the performance and attitudes of its officers, according to a new Harvard University study released Monday. In asking for the study and giving researchers unusual access to the department, LAPD Chief William J.

A Los Angeles City Council effort to overturn a Police Commission policy requiring officers to disclose personal financial information seemed destined for failure Tuesday, as civic and reform leaders warned that the council's intervention was undermining the commission's authority over the Police Department.

"Police, police, police!" Young recruits cradling make-believe machine guns lined up in front of a building, identified themselves three times in Arabic, then burst through the door. The drill may have been standard, but the class at the police training center here was not: For the first time, the class -- 1,830 cadets who graduated Jan. 21 -- included as many Sunni as Shiite Muslims.

Once a month, Ilana Rosenzweig faces an angry crowd at the public meeting of the Police Board and tries to convince them that the bad old days of corrupt Chicago cops are coming to an end. It's a tough sell for the Los Angeles lawyer, who became chief administrator of Chicago's Independent Police Review Authority in September.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said Wednesday that the department's controversial policy on dealing with illegal immigrants was widely misunderstood by the public and some of his own officers, and he would clarify the rule in the next couple of weeks. Bratton strongly defended the basic intent of the policy -- known as Special Order 40 -- which prohibits officers from initiating contact with individuals for the sole purpose of determining whether they are illegal immigrants.

Defending her management of a long-troubled department, Inglewood Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks told reporters Wednesday that she helped initiate an independent review of her agency after the first of a spate of officer-involved shootings that left three people dead. Seabrooks said she also stood by her decision to return Officers Brian Ragan and Roman Fernandez to active duty a month after the May 11 shooting that left Michael Byoune, 19, dead and two others wounded.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has appointed an advisory group, including former City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, to help implement reforms recommended after the Rampart police corruption scandal, officials said Tuesday. In addition to Miscikowski, the group will include police union President Bob Baker, policing expert Merrick Bobb, civil rights attorney Connie Rice and top LAPD command officers.

Art no longer imitates life when it comes to that standard television police scene in which a brave officer races after a bad guy fleeing down an alleyway: In Los Angeles County and other parts of the nation, individual cops are now discouraged from chasing many suspects who run.