REINVENTING THE LAPD

It would be a profound mistake to believe that the acquittal of O.J.
Simpson of double murder was simply the jury's response to the LAPD's
sloppy investigation, faulty handling and analysis of the evidence, or
to the racism of Mark Fuhrman. It certainly was that. But it was also
much more - a vote of no confidence in the Los Angeles Police
Department.

Once, when I was on foot patrol in Harlem, an African American woman
with a head wound approached me. "Officer," she apologized. "I know
you're very busy, but I've just been robbed." I wasn't at all busy,
but I wondered what we white cops were doing that caused a victim to
apologize for reporting an armed robbery.

The LAPD should view the Simpson verdict as a similar call for self-
scrutiny. If the Police Department were a private business, it would
long ago have gone bankrupt because significant numbers of its
customers have no faith in its product. Unfortunately, the LAPD, like
the Postal Service, does not have to worry about customers taking
their business elsewhere. Yet, effective policing requires that the
department understand why it is distrusted, why it is losing
credibility, and try to stop it.

When I was hired to run the San Jose Police Department, it was known
as a little LAPD - a reference to a military style of policing that
alienates minorities. There was no communication between rank-and-file
police and the neighborhoods they patrolled.

Then, for a number of years, beat officers were directed to leave
their patrol cars and attend school and neighborhood meetings and to
hear what the people thought of them. At times, it was painful. But in
the end, mutual respect developed; the public began to participate
more in police issues.

Officers learned what services were needed. At the same time,
procedures were improved for receiving and investigating citizen
complaints. A number of cops who refused to get the message ended up
in other occupations. Most important, officers began to realize that
unless people reported crimes. provided evidence, served as witnesses
and - when on juries - believed police testimony, criminals would not
be convicted.

Training was provided for the police to learn about the diverse
cultures that made up San Jose. This helped eliminate some of the
negative stereotypes that can all too easily flourish in departments.
Interestingly enough. the police made more arrests than ever, and
crime decreased to the point that San Jose became one of the safest
large cities in America, a city of minorities.

There are no panaceas to prevent crime, but the military model of
policing, which is supposed to scare criminals into obeying the law,
is a failure. What the LAPD must realize is that it is, above all, a
service agency obligated to provide communities with the kind of
lawful policing they desire and deserve. Community condemnation of
crime is a stronger deterrent than police-state methods. which create
sympathy for criminals.

In addition to establishing real communication with neighborhoods and
a sense of partnership, the police should abandon drug-war tactics and
strongly support campaigns to treat and educate drug users.
Criminologist Alfred A. Blumstein has described the drug war as an
assault on the African American community that would not be tolerated
by whites. A study released by the Sentencing Project bears this out.
African Americans and Latinos, the study concludes, constitute nearly
90% of offenders sentenced to state prison for drug possession. Ending
the drug war would eliminate many of the racial inequities in the
criminal-justice system and would be a step toward rehabilitating the
image of officers in minority communities.

The police did not create America's race problems and will not solve
them. Nonetheless, denying that the police and law enforcement need to
be improved only aggravates an open sore. Disclosure of police abuses
during the civil-rights movement forced a healthy self-scrutiny in law
enforcement and led to increased community efforts to improve
policing. The result was a steady improvement in police relations with
minorities.

It is time to acknowledge that much of that progress has eroded. The
minority community, which has the highest crime rates. must come to
realize that it suffers the most when law enforcement fails to punish
violent criminals. It is not enough to merely criticize the police and
celebrate police failures. Minorities must work with the police to
reduce racial polarization by establishing trust in justice and better
safety in neighborhoods.