AS LAPD'S SCANDAL UNFOLDS

The news bite last week was that former Los Angeles policeman at the center
of the LAPD scandal will have his sentencing on a conviction for stealing
cocaine from an evidence locker delayed while authorities seek more
corroboration of allegations he has made about fellow officers. The bigger
story continues to unfold, undermining respect for what had been, until this
decade, one of the most respected police forces in the country.

The case ought to cause soul-searching and perhaps some quiet investigation
within police forces throughout the country.

Former LAPD officer Rafael Perez, convicted on the cocaine theft charge in
September, admitted as part of a plea agreement that he and a former partner
had shot a drug gang member, paralyzing him for life, then planted evidence
that put him in prison. That man's 23-year sentence has been thrown out and
he has been released.

But the scandal is much larger. Four men have been released from prison, 11
convictions have been overturned and 13 officers have been dismissed or
relieved of duty. With Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti's office
looking into the entire history of these 13 officers - and perhaps others
about whom allegations have been made that haven't yet been made public -
some 3,300 cases going back 10 years are now under review.

If the damage and wrongdoing were limited to Los Angeles it would be bad
enough. But in 1995 eight dirty cops were convicted on corruption charges in
Philadelphia, leading to 116 wrongful convictions being overturned. This
year in Detroit six officers were accused of robbery, beatings and stealing
money as a result of illegal searches.

It is difficult not to believe that much of the corruption is linked to the
war on drugs and the way some police agencies have chosen - indeed, have
been urged by the most respectable of figures - to fight it. Reliance on
asset seizures to fund day-to-day police expenses can lead to a
corner-cutting mentality. Efforts to catch dealers and users in the act of
selling or buying require penetration of private homes, sometimes by dubious
means. The huge quantities of money extant in the illegal drug trade have
led to corruption before and will do so again.

It is heartening that Mr. Garcetti seems committed to pursuing the scandal
aggressively. "We will go wherever the investigation takes us," he recently
told NBC News, and so far he seems to be holding to that promise.

Once this scandal has been exposed, however, it would behoove state and
local lawmakers to take a fresh look at laws that seem to be impossible to
try to enforce without tempting at least a few police officers into corrupt
behavior.