POLICE CHANGES VOWED

The broken rules, careless police work and lax supervision cited
Wednesday as contributors to the Dallas police fake-drug scandal were
nothing new in the narcotics division.

Similar concerns came up more than a decade ago, and suggested fixes
were ignored, according to a report presented to the City Council on
Wednesday about the series of arrests of innocent people in 2001. This
time, city leaders vow to get it right.

"I believe that we will take these recommendations and put them to
good use and make sure that this doesn't happen again," said Dallas
Mayor Laura Miller, responding to the report during an emotional
briefing at City Hall. The two independent attorneys' who wrote the
report found that police commanders at every level didn't monitor
narcotics detectives' work or heed warning signs, leading to the false
arrests.

The shoddy supervision allowed officers to break rules and corrupt
confidential informants - who were paid on a sliding scale based on
the size of their drug busts - to take advantage of the system,
framing innocent people with billiards chalk bundled like real drugs.
"It was truly one of those situations where everyone was looking at
everyone else to do something about it," said Terence Hart, a former
federal prosecutor who wrote the report with former Dallas County
district Judge Lena Levario.

"What struck me was the lack of anybody willing to step up in a
supervisory capacity and say, 'Hey, what's going on here?' "

The report placed some blame on the Dallas County district attorney's
office, saying its policy of waiting to test drug evidence until later
trial dates contributed to the length of time some of the wrongly
arrested people sat in jail.

Mr. Hill agreed that 20-year-old policy might have kept the defendants
in jail, but he said the officers violated the trust that, in the
past, made it safe to wait until trial.

"If they are saying we were equally the cause of this problem, I'll
take issue with that," he said.

Lab tests are now required before indictments. The 96-page report,
which leaves some key questions unanswered, identified more than 100
instances in which more than a dozen police officers and supervisors
potentially broke administrative rules or the law throughout the
spring and summer 2001.

"This is obviously a sad, painful day for the people that were
wrongfully arrested," said Police Chief David Kunkle, adding that the
findings were "an embarrassment" to the city and his department.

Ms. Miller and council members responded similarly to the
presentation. Most on the council offered apologies to the wrongly
arrested victims, some of whom gathered to watch at City Hall. Council
members also praised the investigators' effort.

"This is a sad day to see that we have a black eye," said council
member Elba Garcia, who was moved to tears during her response to the
briefing. "This report shows that we must always make sure that the
men and women we trust to uphold the law do so."

It was clear, though, that some feel more work lies ahead to prevent a
future scandal.

"This is just a first step," council member Steve Salazar said. "We
need to delve into this in every manner possible," said Mayor Pro Tem
John Loza. Some of the lawyers' conclusions resemble problems found in
the division in 1992 after an undercover officer was shot and killed
during a drug deal, prompting an inquiry. That investigation raised
questions of whether detectives forged informant signatures and
misused city money. Calls for uniform procedures and improved training
apparently were ignored or forgotten, the investigators of the 2001
scandal said. Chief Kunkle said the department's internal affairs and
public integrity divisions would begin reviewing the potential
violations noted in the new report today. He said he hopes to find out
by March whether disciplinary action or criminal referrals to the
district attorney's office are warranted. Two narcotics officers, Mark
Delapaz and Eddie Herrera, have already been indicted on charges
stemming from the scandal and fired. Kunkle backs proposals Chief
Kunkle said he supports implementing the lengthy list of
recommendations included in the lawyers' report. They called for
bolstered money-handling procedures, tougher informant oversight and
more training, among other suggestions.

Chief Kunkle, who transferred anyone associated with the scandal out
of the narcotics division after he took over leadership, also said he
is confident in his new team of supervisors.

The problems in 2001 pointed to a deeper lack of supervision: from
sergeants to Police Chief Terrell Bolton, who is accused of
defensively misleading the public by holding a news conference where
numerous unrelated firearms were displayed. His subordinates also said
the former chief wasn't responsive to their concerns.

"The ongoing issues point to an apathy among supervisors and an
unwillingness to resolve problems," the report said. Mr. Bolton's
attorney, Bob Hinton, said blaming his client is "preposterous." He
instead pinned the blame on underfunding by the council. "There wasn't
money to put people in the positions to have adequate supervision," he
said, adding that these problems existed long before Mr. Bolton took
over. "When you don't have the resources, you can't do the job." The
report also chided Assistant Chief Dora Saucedo-Falls for failing to
take the fake-drug concerns seriously as they surfaced. "Even though
the allegations involved personnel under her command, she demonstrated
a reluctance to investigate matters," the report said. Chief Falls
declined to comment.

Lower-level supervisors, including a sergeant who had direct command
over a squad of officers involved in the false arrests, all were
faulted. The report thoroughly summarizes the pattern of bogus cases,
but a few key questions were left unanswered - perhaps because the
investigators lacked the ability to compel testimony under oath.

It's still unclear, for example, why officers reported getting
positive test results on substances in the cases that later were
tested as having little or no drugs. The investigators said the
officers either did the tests incorrectly, lied about the results or -
as some evidence suggests - never performed the tests at all.

According to a scientist who did lab tests of 330 kilograms of the
seized phony drugs, only two of the packages appeared to have been cut
open, which is required for a field test.

The investigators also said they did not know whether numerous
accounting irregularities in the Police Department's narcotics funds
meant that officers stole money.

Missing money In addition to apparently forged payment slips used to
document reward money for informants, the lawyers said nearly $20,000
in funds to purchase drugs during undercover investigations
disappeared.

Asked whether officers might have taken the money, Mr. Hart replied,
"we don't know."

Dan Hagood, a special prosecutor appointed in December by Mr. Hill,
also is investigating allegations of criminal wrongdoing.

Grand juries have indicted three officers central to the scandal - Mr.
Delapaz, Mr. Herrera and former narcotics officer Jeffrey Haywood - as
well as several informants. Trials are expected next year. Several
federal civil rights lawsuits also have been filed on behalf of those
arrested. Many are in the beginning stages, and the candid admissions
in Wednesday's report were expected to jump-start settlement talks.
Though the new report is a milestone in the city's handling of the
scandal, it's likely the attention won't fade. Three years later,
emotions still run high. "This is extremely serious. People who did
nothing were deprived of their liberty, and, in the process, their
lives were ruined," said Mr. Loza. "All the way up the chain of
command, there were big problems." Staff writers Tanya Eiserer and
Michael Grabell contributed to this report.