Earlier this week, the Los Angeles City Council confirmed LAPD Deputy Chief Charlie Beck as the new chief of police. The mayor chose him from a group of highly qualified candidates selected by the Los Angeles Police Commission.
Beck has big shoes to fill. Former Chief William Bratton had an extraordinarily successful seven years in which the LAPD was transformed in many significant ways.
In order to continue the progress that has so dramatically improved the LAPD, Beck needs to call on his fine political acumen, his proven leadership capabilities, his clear reform-minded vision for the LAPD, along with the creative strategies required to achieve his and the mayor's goals within limited budgets. Central to the success of this effort will be Beck's demonstration of his sincere respect for the value of civilian oversight of the LAPD.
One of Bratton's legacies was to make much of the LAPD as transparent as possible within the limits imposed by California law. That transparency - the opening-up of the LAPD to informed public scrutiny - is crucial to continuing the LAPD's progress.
In our democracy, protection of our freedoms requires the assurance that our police operate lawfully, with the utmost honesty and integrity, and that each citizen receives equal treatment under the law. That assurance is especially important here in Los Angeles, where, unfortunately, some of our police have not always met these rigorous standards and when a few years ago, the LAPD was not responsive to the public or the mayor.
Under the City Charter, the Police Commission serves as the head of the LAPD, setting policies for the department and overseeing its operations. The commission does so in coordination with the chief of police, who reports to the commission. It is in part because of this strong civilian oversight of the LAPD that the city is no longer under the tight control of many hundreds of specific requirements agreed to in a consent decree that was necessary to settle a federal lawsuit charging the LAPD with civil-rights violations.
But for the Police Commission's independence and prominence, it is hard to imagine that the federal court would have ended the expensive outside monitoring of the LAPD without some other assurance that the department would continue to be monitored independently to ensure that it would provide effective and constitutional policing.
We expect our police, as public servants, not only to protect us from harm, but also to protect our rights. We expect the LAPD to protect us from criminals, of course. But, also, when we choose to exercise our constitutional rights - for example, to assemble peacefully or to protest lawfully - we expect the police to protect our rights to do so.
Constitutional policing is not easy. We call upon our police to do just about everything - from basic social work to some of the most dangerous activities imaginable. We rely on them to respond to some of society's most intractable problems. And we expect them to face those challenges while also complying with the highest ethical and professional standards. It is for those reasons that it is so important that the LAPD operate under civilian oversight.
One of Charlie Beck's attributes as a candidate for chief was the key role he played as a command officer for Bratton. Along with others, their hard work transformed the LAPD, reducing crime, diversifying the police force, and implementing reforms designed to end corruption and excessive use of force.
As we welcome Beck as chief, we should be careful to remember that the permanence of those reforms relies on the civilian oversight of the LAPD that monitors them.
Robert M. Saltzman is a member of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners and the former vice president of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. He is an associate dean at the USC Gould School of Law.
