CHIEF SPEAKS PUBLICLY OF COMING CHANGES IN POLICE DEPARTMENT

Anti-Gang Division Overhauled After Worst Department Scandal In Decades

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Chief Bernard Parks said Wednesday he expects three
officers to be charged in the worst police scandal to strike the city in
decades, adding his department is overhauling its anti-gang unit to see
that such a scandal never happens again.

"We believe that we have submitted sufficient evidence to warrant filing on
three cases," Parks told reporters. "We believe that the district attorney
... will eventually come to those same conclusions that we have."

No timetable for arrests was given.

So far 20 officers have either resigned, been relieved of duty, suspended
without pay or fired as a result of the scandal that has enveloped the
anti-gang unit at the Police Department's Rampart station. Officers at the
statiion, in a gritty neighborhood just west of downtown, have been accused
of planting evidence on people, lying in court to convict them, and in some
instances of robbing and shooting innocent people.

Four prison inmates have been freed as a result of the scandal and 11
convictions have been overturned.

A Board of Inquiry appointed to investigate has recommended that officers
be rotated out of the department's CRASH unit, which stands for Community
Resources Against Street Hoodlums, every three years to avoid being corrupted.

Police officials have said the unit will be renamed, and Parks said
Wednesday that future CRASH officers will be subjected to stricter
supervision.

"In many instances our personnel may not have been following their training
and the rules and regulations in place, so that's a major issue and that
comes about over and over again," he said.

The scandal was uncovered after Rafael Perez, a former Rampart anti-gang
officer, was convicted of stealing cocaine from a police evidence locker.
Cooperating with investigators in hopes of a lighter sentence, Perez has
told of innocent people being framed and attacked by police.

After his news conference, Parks took part in the first of what are to be
regular monthly appearance on a local talk radio show.

One caller, who identified himself as a police officer, complained that
discipline is handed down unfairly between patrol officers and commanding
officers.

"I don't see that unfairness," Parks said. "Command officers and
lieutenants and sergeants will confirm they do get an extra boost on
penalties, particularly when it negatively affects their subordinates."

Parks, who is black, also said he opposes analyzing statistics to determine
if minorities are being stopped in disproportionate numbers by police, a
practice known colloquially as "Driving While Black."

"I believe we have to address it by looking at individual complaints," he
said. "I do not believe we have any ability to resolve that perception by
statistical analysis."