CHANGING THE GUARD

After a couple of bruising campaigns,after a six month transition
period during which not all the wounds from the campaigns have been
soothed and after months of speculation, a new era in law enforcement
is beginning in Orange County.

District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Mike Carona might have
to spend a good deal of time and effort during their first few months
in office solidifying support within the departments they have taken
over. But it shouldn't be too long before the public begins to see
changes in policies.

Most of the changes the two men have promised to implement should be
for the better. But the proposals won't be easy to turn from theory
and campaign promises into reality.

The most dramatic changes are likely to come in the Sheriff's
Department, headed since 1974 by Brad Gates, one of the most skillful
and powerful politicians Orage County has seen, who opposed Mr.
Carona's election bitterly.

Mike Carona, who headed the county marshals before being elected
sheriff, has promised to liberalize the county's concealed-weapons
permit policy so that anyone who shows a need, passes a background
check and takes a safety class can get a concealed weapons permit.
Under former Sheriff Gates only 320 Orange Countians were granted such
permits, and the suspicion was that a disproportionate number were
Gates' friends and supporters.

Mr. Carona says he wants to treat addiction as a medical problem
rather than a criminal problem and wants to set up a secure
rehabilitation center for people arrested for personal possession
(though not for sale) of drugs. He also says he wants to implement
medical patients with recommendations from a doctor.

Mr. Carona is not as committed as Mr. Gates was to expanding the
Musick jail in Irvine, but might seek a regional approach to jail
overcrowding. As to departmental policies, he wants to rotate deputies
out of jail duty and onto the streets more quickly, study the idea of
three-day, 12-hour work shifts, cut the budget 5 percent by hiring
civilians to handle some administrative chores, and separate the
sheriff's department from the coroner's office.

It's an ambitious program, especially for somebody who still is viewed
as an outsider and perhaps an interloper by some.

Tony Rackauckas was a deputy district attorney and a judge before
being elected and now seems to have support from across the political
spectrum; so, his transition might be less difficult.

Mr. Rachachas' quest for office was no doubt assisted by outgoing
District Attorney Mike Capizzi's zealous prosecution of office-holders
and campaign workers for campaign violations, which alienated many in
the Orange County Republican power structure. Mr. Rackauckas says he
will leave minor campaign-law violation to the state Fair Political
Practices Commission.

He plans to give deputy DAs more latitude and autonomy in how they
prosecute cases and to end a Capizzi-instituted outright ban on
plea-bargaining (which Mr. Rackauckas prefers to call "pretrial
negotiations.") He promises to crack down on street gangs and push for
speedier trials.

We wish both men will and offer a few constructive
suggestions:

Encourage a focus on the victims of crime and ways of making them
whole. There's a constant temtation in law enforcement to focus on
apprehension and prosecution, a process that sometimes leaves the
crime victim the odd person out, useful to "the system" only as a witness.

Meet with Marvin Chavez and members of the Orange County Patient
Doctor Nurse Support Group early on to discuss ways to implement
Proposition 215.

It is a scandal that local authorities sought to ensnare and prosecute
Mr. Chavez rather than trying to work with him and to help him
undertake distribution of medical marijuana in a legal and above-board
fashion. That mistake should be corrected.

Approach political advocacy prudently. We applaud many of the reforms
Sheriff Carona wants to implement and note that most of them work of
existing law.But law-enforcement officials who are too zealous in
recommending changes in the laws run the risk of undermining their
reputation as impartial enforcers of the laws as they exist.

Those who establish a reputation for impartial enforcement first are
in a better position to be credible advocates of necessary reforms
than those who are out front too early and too often on political issues.

With that caveat, we still suggest that both men undertake or sponsor
independent studies of the results of the "three strikes" and drug
possession laws.

And good luck.