SKID ROW SETTLEMENT ORDERS POLICE TO UNDERGO CIVIL RIGHTS TRAINING

LOS ANGELES - Police officers patrolling the city's Skid Row area must
undergo special training and face new restrictions on how they can
search people and run parole status checks, under a settlement with a
civil rights group announced Thursday.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California initially
sued the Los Angeles Police Department in 2003, claiming officers in
Skid Row were unconstitutionally searching people or running criminal
checks after they had been stopped for trivial offenses such as
jaywalking or littering. The city's Skid Row area, spanning about a
square mile on the east side of downtown, is home to thousands of homeless.

"(Officers) didn't have probable cause," said attorney Carol Sobel,
who worked with the ACLU on the case. "They'd ask them for their ID,
if the person said, 'No,' they would take them into custody."

The LAPD does not acknowledge any wrongdoing, city attorney spokesman
Nick Velasquez said.

Paul Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League
union, said officers in Skid Row have always been "sensitive to the
special needs and conditions of the people who live in the community."

Under the settlement, officers will undergo mandatory training on
federal laws that prevent trivial offenses being used as a
justification to search or detain someone or as a pretext to checking
their parole or probation status, ACLU attorney Peter Bibring said.

The ACLU won a temporary injunction against the Police Department

The ACLU won a temporary injunction against the Police Department in 2003
that was meant to halt such practices, and it filed for an extension
in 2006 after a crackdown at Skid Row saw an increased police presence.

The so-called Safer Cities Initiative put 50 extra patrol officers and
24 narcotics officers on the streets to target drug dealers and
enforce laws that forbid jaywalking and camping, sitting or sleeping
on sidewalks.

Attorneys involved in the lawsuit will litigate with the city over who
is responsible for paying legal fees.

The Safer Cities Initiative has seen a spike in the number of
citations for minor violations. Reported crime in the area has dropped.