NEW LEVEL FOR LAPD PROBE

The U.S. Justice Department has been examining the Los Angeles Police
Department for the last four years. Agents and officials of the civil
rights division have been seeking to determine whether incidents involving
excessive force by LAPD officers fall into any recognizable pattern. It's
the scope and intensity of that work that now figure to change in light of
the burgeoning probe of corruption in the LAPD. Certainly that's the hope
of those most interested in getting to the bottom of the city's worst
police scandal.

Bill Lann Lee, head of Justice's civil rights division, arrived from
Washington this week with a much longer list of goals. Those include
getting an answer to the following questions:

Why has the LAPD failed to implement some of the major reforms called for
by 1991's Christopher Commission? How does the LAPD intend to improve its
supervision of officers? How will the department implement key
recommendations from the report of its own Board of Inquiry, particularly
those that seem to strengthen the powers of Police Chief Bernard C. Parks
without enhancing civilian oversight?

What the city needs is a sign that Lee's visit signals more aggressive
federal scrutiny.

In 1996 Willie L. Williams was still chief and Raymond Fisher headed the
city's Police Commission. Federal officials say now that they received
prompt cooperation and information on excessive-force complaints and
related matters involving LAPD officers. That seemed to change when Parks
took over as chief and Edith Perez became the Police Commission president.

Under Williams and Fisher, "We got a quicker response to our first
request," one government official familiar with the federal civil rights
investigation told Times reporters. It's clear that improved and prompt
cooperation between the Justice Department and the LAPD is crucial.

The Justice Department, if it becomes fully engaged, will bring new powers
to the table. It carries the threat of federal lawsuits, which Justice has
already applied in demanding better care for mentally ill inmates in the
Los Angeles County jails. The department also has the power to force local
police agencies to accept an outside monitor, implement reforms and turn
over police records.

In a scandal that has already produced allegations of perjury, drug
dealing, false arrests and unwarranted shootings by LAPD officers, Bill
Lann Lee's visit should signal the start of a full-scale independent civil
rights probe. Local inquiries can proceed apace, but a federal probe has
become an unavoidable necessity.