Police Reform

The Pasadena Police Department will institute a host of reforms and order new tactical training for its officers in light of a watchdog report on a fatal officer-involved shooting last year, police officials said in a written response to the report. Two police officers, whose names have been withheld by court order at the request of the officers' union, fired 11 shots at Leroy Barnes Jr. during a traffic stop in February 2009. Several of the shots were fired as Barnes was prone on the ground.

It is widely assumed that the presidential election will have an impact on the implementation of police reform in Los Angeles. Because Gov. George W. Bush has often stated his opposition to consent decrees similar to the one negotiated with Los Angeles by the U.S. Department of Justice, some have suggested that a Bush administration would ease or remove the pressure from Washington that led to the city's agreement.

Britain appointed a former U.S. law enforcement official to oversee reform of the Northern Ireland police force, one of the most divisive goals of the province's peace accord. Roman Catholics are demanding drastic changes in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a predominantly Protestant force. As the independent police oversight commissioner, Thomas A.

Geoffrey L. Garfield, a political consultant who helped run the campaign against Charter Amendment F, the police reform measure, has joined the Administration of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan as an assistant deputy mayor for public safety. Garfield will assist William Violante, the former head of the police officers' union, who earlier was hired by Riordan as a deputy mayor to work with the police and fire departments.

The stunning revelation that the police officer who fatally shot a Lincoln Heights teen-ager was one of the 44 "problem officers" cited by the Christopher Commission should help us focus on the true meaning of police reform. The Christopher Commission was established in 1991 after the Rodney King beating to explore two profound problems with the LAPD.

Leaders of five civil rights organizations expressed satisfaction Saturday with the Rodney G. King jury verdicts but displeasure with the pace of the city's economic revitalization and with police reform since last year's disturbances. They called for President Clinton to hold a town hall meeting in Los Angeles to address the economic problems and recovery of South-Central Los Angeles.

The new report on the state of the Los Angeles Police Department is a condemnation of the chief, the mayor, the Police Commission and the culture of the LAPD. But what it shows more vividly than anything else is that Los Angeles is a city where painfully little actually gets done.

Federal officials enter today's initial negotiation over the future of the Los Angeles Police Department facing a difficult task: how to force reform of the LAPD by strengthening civilian oversight without undermining the local officials responsible for it. As delicate as that job is, however, their counterparts on the city delegation have an even more difficult one: City negotiators appear divided and unsure of what to expect.

As the Los Angeles City Council prepares today to consider the police reform package its negotiators have worked out with the U.S. Department of Justice, federal officials informed key lawmakers that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has resolved to obtain a binding agreement to enforce the reforms--and is willing to sue if one is not agreed upon.

The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday asked for $7.8 million in additional funds next year to implement the recommendations of the independent Christopher Commission. The money would pay for key changes urged by the panel that investigated the department in the wake of the Rodney G. King beating, including greatly expanded internal investigations of citizen complaints of officer misconduct. Currently, many such cases do not make it beyond the local station.