Warned by federal officials that the LAPD is inadequately investigating racial profiling complaints against officers, Chief Charlie Beck and a civilian watchdog on Tuesday defended the agency but acknowledged there is still work to be done.
Nicole Bershon, the inspector general for the civilian Police Commission, issued a report expressing concern at how officers handled complaints. She also found fault with how the Los Angeles Police Department's new Constitutional Policing Unit investigated its first 10 cases in which officers were accused of detaining a suspect based on appearance, race or ethnicity.
"Police officers are human beings who come from varied backgrounds and life experiences, and there may be individual instances of biased policing within the department," Bershon wrote. "We also recognize that ... one complaint is too many, especially for those who believe they have been the victim of biased policing."
According to the report, some supervisors or sergeants improperly tried to dissuade members of the public from making complaints, suggesting they were simply trying to get out of paying tickets.
Also, CPU investigators failed to adequately evaluate the credibility of officers' claims that a traffic stop did not have anything to do with race or appearance, according to the report. And investigators sometimes asked accused officers leading questions or did not push hard enough for answers, according to Bershon.
But Bershon noted that CPU investigations showed a "noticeable improvement" from the LAPD's previous investigation of racial complaints and pointed out that just three of the 10 cases could not be resolved.
Beck, who recently marked his one-year anniversary as chief, assured the commission that racial profiling would not be tolerated and any complaint would be thoroughly investigated.
The department needs "to ensure at the front end that these things are reduced as we ensure at the back end that they are investigated effectively," Beck said. "It is not one of our goals. It is our No. 1 goal."
The LAPD has employed substantial resources to address racial profiling complaints and Internal Affairs spends about 90 hours investigating each case, Beck said. In addition, officials have proposed additional training for those who take complaints and interact with the public.
Racial bias complaints against an officer are immediately reported to the area commander - a contact that was previously made only when an officer was arrested.
"It's a long journey," commission President John Mack told Beck. "We have not gotten to the finish line, but maybe we're in the red zone."
About 200 complaints of biased policing have been made this year out of the 3 million contacts police have made with the public, according to Beck.
By comparison, those complaints represented 4 percent of the 194,674 arrests, 581,307 citations issued and 789,366 calls to which officers responded in 2009.
"It is the department's goal to not only improve the quality of the investigative process, but also to reduce the number of biased policing complaints," Beck said in a statement. "The ultimate goal would be to have none."
Despite Beck's assurances, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the department, saying that there was no proactive approach in identifying biased policing. The Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file officers, expressed concerns that the report would hamper officers and endanger public safety.
The CPU was formed in February as part of LAPD's compliance with a federal consent decree imposed in 2001 in the wake of the Rampart corruption scandal.
