POLICE LIMITING ACCESS TO EVIDENCE FOLLOWING COCAINE THEFT BY OFFICER

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Police Department limited access to criminal
evidence after a cocaine theft by one of its own led to one of the largest
scandals in city history.

Police officers are no longer allowed to remove drugs, guns or money from
evidence lockers, spokeswoman Lt. Sharyn Buck said.

"We now only let them take photographs of the evidence," Buck told the
Daily News of Los Angeles for Sunday's edition.

The department cracked down on access to evidence after the August 1998
arrest of Rampart station officer Rafael Perez, who was sentenced Friday
for stealing eight pounds of cocaine.

In exchange for a lighter sentence, Perez cooperated with investigators and
alleged widespread corruption in the station's anti-gang unit.

Twenty officers have been relieved of duty and 40 convictions overturned
because of the ongoing investigation.

Perez told investigators that beginning in December 1997, he took advantage
of lax oversight in the LAPD's system for checking out evidence.

In confidential testimony obtained by the newspaper, Perez told
investigators that he checked out dope from the evidence room and several
times replaced it with flour.

He abused a flawed "honor system" to pull off the thefts, Perez said.

"I could have been anybody," he told investigators in September. "I could
have sent a civilian person in there ... They don't check I.D. Anybody can
walk in there."

Perez said he would disguise himself with thick glasses, a "really big
jacket" and a baseball cap pulled tightly over his head.

He normally requested cocaine that was scheduled to be destroyed. The drugs
were not tested when officers returned them, because department policy
dictated only random inspections for narcotics scheduled to be destroyed.

Perez said the best cocaine in the evidence room was often his target.

Perez slipped in March 1998 when he signed out eight pounds of cocaine and
failed to replace it with flour. He used the badge number of another
officer with the same last name to check out the drugs. When that officer
was cleared, the trail led back to Perez.