CURBING CORRUPTION IN CULVER CITY

Police department seeks to promote decades-old plan in wake of
Rampart scandal.

CULVER CITY--Critical eyes from local residents have prompted one
local police department to offer community meetings of reassurance in
the wake of the LAPD's Rampart scandal.

"It's a sad trend," said Culver City Police Department Lt. Tom Gabor.
"I reassure them that there's no possibility that [corruption] is
systemically happening in Culver City."

The Culver City Police Department held a discussion Tuesday about its
24-year-old "rotation" system designed to obstruct corruption.

"I think anybody in the greater Los Angeles area has some concerns and
has got to think about it," said Chip Netzel, president of the Culver
City Sunkist Park Neighborhood Watch. "You can't stick your head in
the sand and say the possibility is not there."

Because stagnation breeds corruption, said Gabor, Culver City's police
department is the only department in the Westside that rotates the
majority of its officers.

Narcotics detectives move on after 18 months, transferring into the
burglary or robbery units, just as vice detectives and officers in the
gang unit, or crime impact team, venture back into street patrol or as
motorcycle officers.

"There's an elitism that forms when you have permanent units. Cliquism
forms. And if there's someone who has a wayward mind, it's easy to
select people you want to trust to do certain things," said Gabor.
"People also get a little bored on assignment and the smaller crimes
go to the wayside."

The Los Angeles Police Department recently instituted the rotational
system for its new gang unit that replaced the beleaguered CRASH gang
unit, limiting officers to three years in the unit.

"That's why we changed the CRASH units because there was a concern
these guys developed too close of a connection to the gang members and
too much of a length of time in one area can breed certain types of
corruption," said LAPD Sgt. John Pasquariello. "It could have caused
Rampart and we realize there is potential for that so we changed the
policy."

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is also considering the
rotational system for some of its units.But disadvantages of a
rotational system include a loss of expertise when relocating
officers, according to Pasquariello. And although rounding out an
officer and sending officers through training for each unit works for
Culver City, it doesn't benefit a department the size and scope of
LAPD.

"We're a much bigger organization. There's not such a necessity to
round out an officer in a department like ours because you're getting
that within the department this size," Pasquariello said.