A Los Angeles County sheriff's lieutenant recently sent an internal memo to deputies in Norwalk encouraging them to consider an individual's past and career potential before making a felony arrest.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore says the memo is in line with department policies. (Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images / August 2, 2010)

In the memo, Lt. Bill Evans offers the hypothetical example of a student "who seems like a decent kid" from Biola, a nearby Christian university, being caught with an illegal folding pocket knife.

"Are you really going to put a felony on this guy..." reads the e-mail. "Here is a kid that could have been planning on going into the military, being a cop or fireman, and/or just being a guy with a career."

The memo, obtained by The Times, offers an inside look at the challenges deputies face in balancing the need for efficient policing while avoiding bias in arrests, law enforcement experts said.

Merrick Bobb, an attorney who monitors the Sheriff's Department and reviewed a copy of the memo, said he agreed with its general message that police do not have to cite every lawbreaker they come across. But he described discretion in police work as a "two-edged sword."

"What if the same kid was a black student with long dreadlocks at Dorsey High? What if the same kid was a Latino and undocumented? A single-parent with a young child at home?" Bobb said. "I would hope the same ability to empathize and exercise compassionate discretion would be triggered in those instances also."

Evans said he intended the memo to spur discussion on the issue.

"The main message was to reinforce the practice of using common sense and good judgment in enforcing/applying the law," Evans wrote in an e-mail to The Times. "The use of the terms 'common sense' and 'good judgment' preclude the use of bias or discrimination in the enforcement decision making process."

Carlos Ramos, director of public safety for the city of Norwalk, which contracts with the Sheriff's Department for police services, declined to comment specifically on the memo - but said the city's stance on policing is one of objective enforcement.

"We believe in following the rules and objectivity," Ramos said. "It's not a personal matter. There's a violation that exists or there isn't."

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the memo is in line with department training.

"We would take issue with anyone saying it puts deputies in a gray area," Whitmore said. "If the law can only be interpreted by attorneys, where would the justice system be? When you stop somebody you take into consideration the whole situation."

The Norwalk lieutenant's internal e-mail stands in contrast to a 2007 incident in which another lieutenant encouraged sheriff's deputies patrolling various southeast Los Angeles County cities to participate in competitions for arrest counts and other law enforcement statistics. In one of the competitions detailed by The Times, deputies were challenged to seize as many cars as possible in a one-day event called Operation Vehicle Impound.

The competitions at the Lakewood station were condemned by Sheriff Lee Baca, police accountability experts, civil libertarians and defense attorneys.

Hubert Williams, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Police Foundation, which promotes innovative policing strategies, agreed that officers have to exercise discretion when making arrests. Resources have to be focused, he said, on major offenses and issues - like violent crime - that have been prioritized by department leaders.

But when making arrests, he said, police should consider the behavior, not the individual.

"The moment you start saying 'take the individual into account,' you've opened the door to allow bias into the decision-making process," Williams said.

Earlier this week, Baca alluded to the issue of selective policing in connection with the discovery of the skeletal remains of Mitrice Richardson, a Cal State Fullerton graduate who disappeared after being released from sheriff's custody last year. At a news conference, Baca questioned the grounds on which she was initially jailed - an unpaid restaurant bill.

"Is an $89 bill enough to take someone into the jail?" he said. "There is more than one way to handle a problem."

Capt. Patrick Maxwell, a supervisor at the Norwalk station where Evan's memo was distributed, said the message would have been better communicated in a staff meeting, where follow-up questions and dialogue on its subtleties would have been possible. But he said he supported the advice of his lieutenant.

"There's spirit of the law and letter of the law," Maxwell said.

Maxwell said there was no incident that prompted the e-mail. Evans, he said, is simply a legal buff.

The lieutenant ended the internal e-mail emphasizing the effects an arrest could have had on the station's own deputies.

"We've all done stupid stuff in our lives and, if you're reading this, I guess we have to be thankful that we didn't have the misfortune of running into some hard-line cop when we were doing it," he wrote.

"Some people need to come to jail and some don't," he wrote.