FEUDS OVER RAMPART REPORT TO TEST DIVIDED POLICE PANEL

Confronted by the Los Angeles Police Department's stinging
self-analysis, city leaders Wednesday reeled, argued and puzzled over
what to do next, a debate that thrust the divided Police Commission
into the biggest quandary of its recent history. How the commissioners
resolve that dilemma may determine the future of civilian oversight of
a department that historically has been one of Los Angeles' most
powerful and controversial institutions. With its work analyzing the
events surrounding the Rampart police scandal barely begun, the
commission already is showing signs of strain, both internally and in
its relationship with Mayor Richard Riordan, who appoints its five
members.

In a briefing Tuesday night, the LAPD's leaders presented
commissioners with the department's Board of Inquiry report, and
Riordan asked panel members to appear at a news conference Wednesday
morning alongside Chief Bernard C. Parks to receive the document.
Sources said that Police Commission President Gerald Chaleff balked at
that idea, worried that the commission's presence would imply
endorsement of a report the panel is charged with reviewing in coming
weeks. At that, the sources said that Deputy Police Chief Michael
Bostic, one of the authors, erupted in annoyance and complained that
the commission's reluctance to publicly accept the report was an
insult to him and his colleagues. On Wednesday, Chaleff declined to
discuss the meeting, saying only: "We have to examine this report with
a critical eye. The future of local civilian control is in our hands."
But despite the issue's importance--or perhaps because of it--tensions
among the city's top officials escalated Wednesday and spilled over
into new arenas, as Los Angeles' leaders insulted and annoyed one
another, tried to deflect blame from themselves and engaged in a
theatrical, embarrassing face-off in the mayor's news conference room.

Riordan Denies Prejudging Report Riordan used his news conference to
lavish praise on the LAPD report, calling it thorough, detailed,
professional and nothing less than the most candid self-appraisal ever
performed by a public agency "in the history of mankind." Then,
moments later, Riordan argued that he had not prejudged the document,
which he said he had not finished reading, and he stressed that he
expected his police commissioners to give it a tough review.

Later, a spokeswoman said Riordan's preliminary appreciation of the
report is not meant to put pressure on his commissioners; in the past,
Riordan and police commissioners have come to different views on key
issues, most notably the appointment of an interim chief in 1997, when
commissioners defied Riordan and he stood by them anyway. This time,
however, the issues are far graver--a fact that Wednesday seemed to
bring out the worst in the city's leaders. As Riordan addressed a
crowded room of reporters, five City Council members thumped on the
locked door of the press room. They had been locked out on
instructions of the mayor's staff.

Once the mayor finished, the council members burst inside and
announced that they had been threatened with arrest. They furiously
attacked Riordan for keeping important information out of their hands
as they contemplate their role in the unfolding police scandal. "This
is symbolic of this administration and its desire to control
information," Councilwoman Laura Chick said. Councilwoman Rita Walters
complained that a guard had shut the door on her arm. Walters, Chick
and council members Mark Ridley-Thomas, Ruth Galanter and Jackie
Goldberg--who form the core of the council's anti-Riordan
contingent--joined in denouncing the mayor's refusal to let them
attend the press briefing.

They called it typical of a mayor who they feel has contempt for the
city's legislative body. On the substantive issues, the lawmakers
differed in some respects, but generally expressed skepticism about
the Police Commission's ability to examine the LAPD's work. Goldberg
questioned whether the commission is sufficiently independent of the
mayor to conduct a genuine review of the LAPD and said later that she
was nervous about the prospect that commissioners would feel pressure
from the mayor to accept the LAPD report as written.

Similarly, Chick said her faith in the commission's oversight had been
shaken by the report and other revelations about the Rampart scandal.
"What have they been doing for the last 6 1/2 years?" she asked.

During much of that period, Chick headed the council's Public Safety
Committee, which also has responsibility for LAPD oversight. Faced
with ever-expanding evidence of a Police Department that failed its
city, officials spent much of the day juggling admissions of general
responsibility with defenses of their individual actions. Riordan
shrugged off the suggestion that he should be held personally
accountable for warnings about hiring too many police officers too
quickly. At his news conference, the mayor adamantly denied that
former Chief Willie L. Williams ever warned him against carrying out
Riordan's campaign pledge to hire thousands of police officers in his
first term. Pressed on the matter by reporter Joe Domanick, a longtime
observer of the LAPD who wrote a well-received book on the department,
Riordan asked Domanick for the source of his information and, when
Domanick declined to provide it, the mayor brusquely insisted that
Williams had never warned him of any risks. "He didn't tell it to me,"
Riordan said. Whether or not Williams expressed his reservations
directly to Riordan, the then-chief made his view of the buildup
abundantly and publicly clear.

On
July 13, 1993, Williams said in an interview with The Times: "We cannot
hire, train and put on the street a net increase of 3,000 in the next four
years. We don't have the capacity."
An article quoting Williams to that effect appeared on the paper's front
page the following day.
Williams, in that interview and several published follow-ups in ensuing
days, pledged to try to hire as many officers as possible, but he continued
to warn of the dangers of a rapid buildup of the force.
"I'm going to try to meet the mayor's goal," Williams said. "That's the job
of the chief of police, but I'm sure the same as the mayor, that we don't
want to do anything that's going to put an inappropriate or inadequately
trained officer out on the street."
The issue of rapid hiring has emerged as one of many in the wake of the
Rampart scandal.

The Police Department's review concluded that for years, the LAPD has
failed to conduct adequate background checks on its officers. The
report added that the background check issue continues to hamper the
department, and Riordan said Wednesday that he intends to take
immediate steps to resolve it.

Commission Divided Over Inquiry Riordan's initiatives, however, are
finding increasingly tough going with council members and others. That
has complicated the work of the Police Commission, whose own members
are deeply divided about how to go about their work. Sources say that
two commissioners, Chaleff and Dean Hansell, are inclined to pursue an
aggressive inquiry, perhaps hiring outside help. At least one, Raquel
de la Rocha, is said to be leaning toward a briefer investigation.
That makes Herbert Boeckmann and Warren Jackson the commission's swing
votes. Boeckmann is ideologically conservative but not doctrinaire and
sources say it is hard to predict where he will come down in the
current debate. For his part, Jackson managed to irritate both sides
in a recent controversy over the shooting of a homeless woman by an
LAPD officer, and his vacillating on that and other issues has made
him a wild card on the panel. Despite the fading confidence of some
council members in the commission's independence--particularly its
independence from Riordan--others remain convinced that it is the best
agency to conduct the review that now is before it. Council members
Cindy Miscikowski and Mike Feuer said they have complete confidence in
the commission. "The first step in this process is to provide the
resources the commission deems necessary to perform this crucial
oversight," Feuer said. "Ideally, they will rise to the challenge. . .
. In order to hold the commission accountable, you have to create the
conditions where the commission can be effective in its role. It is
premature to say this structure cannot work." Miscikowski agreed. "The
commission is now at a critical juncture," she said. "I expect that it
will do its job--and that is to perform an aggressive and independent
analysis of the report." And yet, the commission is struggling,
painfully at times, to have itself taken seriously. At the Police
Department's news conference Wednesday, four commissioners attended,
as Riordan had asked them to do. They sat at the side of the room,
listening to the contentious exchanges between the police chief and
reporters. When Parks concluded his remarks, the commissioners were
invited on stage to discuss their role in evaluating the Board of
Inquiry report.

By that point, however, much of the audience had had
enough.

As Chaleff read his statement, television crews collected their
microphones, and much of the LAPD's command staff headed for the exit.
One commission source later described the news conference as an
embarrassment for the panel.