Watchdog finds flaws in LAPD's 'biased policing' investigations

An independent examination of how the Los Angeles Police Department investigates officers accused of profiling people based on race, gender or sexual orientation found serious problems with a third of the sampled investigations, the inspector general for the L.A. Police Commission reported today.

In six of 20 LAPD investigations into allegations of “biased policing” — the LAPD’s new name for what traditionally has been termed racial profiling — police failed to interview witnesses, did not ask important questions or made similar gaffes, concluded Andre Birotte, the inspector general, in the 41-page report.
 
Birotte’s staff also found problems with how several of the cases were resolved, saying that decisions by supervisors to not discipline the accused officers were “not based on information gathered” or “appeared to be unsupported because the underlying investigation was incomplete.”

LAPD Cmdr. Rick Webb, who oversees internal affairs, agreed that some of the mistakes highlighted in the report had indeed been made, but disputed the conclusion that the errors affected the outcome of the investigations.

How the department handles claims of biased policing has become a high-profile issue over the last few years. The commission, led by its president John Mack, began pressing for reforms after it realized that at least since 2001, the department has dismissed all of the hundreds of allegations of profiling filed against officers each year.

Former Chief William J. Bratton defended the results, arguing that, without a confession from the officer, it is impossible to assess whether the officer made a traffic stop or took some other police action because of a secret bias.

The department set out to revamp how it investigates claims of bias and, last Spring, it adopted a new set of protocols for how investigators should be carried out. Both Webb and Assistant Inspector General Susan Hutson told commission members the cases reviewed in the report were concluded shortly after the changes went into effect and cautioned it was too early to assess whether the new guidelines were having an impact. The Inspector General is expected to return to the issue in coming months.

Despite intense efforts to train the department’s roughly 100 internal affairs investigators in the new protocols and improve quality controls, there will always be a risk of incomplete or imperfect investigations, Webb warned.

Instead of wading into the murky world of trying to determine the motives behind an officer’s decision to detain or search a suspect, Webb suggested, the department should focus more on the more discernible question of whether the officer’s actions were legal.

--Joel Rubin

Comments

[Jorge Rodriguez]

How disgusting! you give these people a ways and means to discover injustices and even criminal acts in past officer practices and they blatantly and shodily use the system to cover them up or worst yet, not uncover dirty deeds. If Bratton's logic was used agains criminals, "unless they confess" we'd have some empty jails wouldn't we?

[J. L. Ennis]

L.A. sheriffs profiling on a racial basis? Have you audited the jail populations? When was the last time you saw a 40-year old caucasion guy commiting a car jacking? Stealing a purse? Shoplifting? Who do think pays the taxes that feed the democrat tax-money spending machinery? Do you thing Obama could have spent 1 trillion dollars without middle-aged caucasion guys working 50 hour weeks? Even guys like Jesse James pay huge income taxes. Ever been to the L.A. coliseum? Looked at the local population? When was the last time you saw a 40 year old caucasion guy with 6 illegitimate kids?
Profiling? Are you kidding me? Quit it! What happened to observing the truth? Because the truth isn't pretty, does that make it untrue? Let the Sheriff deputies do their job like we do in the greatest country on the planet. Don't like it? Move to Mexico, Iran, Pakistan, Korea or Nigeria and compare our sheriffs to their police. Don't just think about it, do it, then come back and talk to me. I've seen it, we're lucky to have sheriffs that use profiling to keep the streets safe.

[Pesina]

My daughter just got a traffic violation citation in October and she already got a letter from superior court to post bail on November or warrant will be issued.I thought,it was 3 months from date of citation.Is the officer that cited my dauhter prejudice or what.

[donalds]

Police accountability is long overdue. Polygraphs should be implemented as a tool for internal affairs investigations. For the sole purpose of asking if the officer broke any laws they are sworn to uphold. The bad apples are not only destroying the lives of citizens, but are putting the brave and honest officers lives in even greater danger. This would finally break the code of silence. No more would a innocent officer put his own morals and job on the line to protect a bad apple for fear of retalliation. If the officers are to face a polygraph, maybe they would think twice about breaking the laws they are supposed to uphold.

[robert larsen]

Police will never investigate their own wrong doing or illegal activity without bias

[PC BS]

Still waiting for an investigation of 'biased policing' called affirmative action, or racial/gender quotas.

[whitey]

Racial profiling is the single most effective law enforcement tool is reducing crime as minorities are overrepresented as the grand prize winners in nerly every crime catagory.It is that simple and not that hard to see.

[DALE ADAMS]

I think its really a "catchers catch can" if the officer is working in predominate minority areas he's always going to be held on account of profiling when he's not left a point of referrence. In Germany the police dept. is national so if we based our policing areas on 4 major quadrants of the county or city then i feel it would be more defining. When you get officers always going in to minority areas when he could go in to more diverse areas then you can have a point of referrence for that assumtion. I am African American out of Compton i know i have been stopped under racial profiling, on the other hand if an officer is only working in Compton i'm bound to be stopped as well because of our proximity.

[steve rodriguez]

Let's let the gang bangers and hoods police our city! Do you think that would work?

[doug wallick]

I am sorry what is so disturbing hear, police do what they want and always will, because the politicians are gutless and corrupt.
So if they the politicians do not bother the police, the police will not bother them. A nice little game that the tax payers pay for.

Regards

[John]

In regard to profiling of 40 year old caucasions aka Europeans...well the reason you don't see them car jacking or at the Coliseum is because they are committing crimes overseas in the military while being lead by Europeans in the Pentagon. How many people have the US Europeans killed since World War II? How about Korea, Guatemala, Iran, Haiti, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Colombia, Honduras, Pakistan, and on and on. So yes, there should definitely be profiling, of the uber Euronational criminals.........................this is just killing and doesn't include the countless that have been raped, tortured or their property stolen..............

[Taxpayer]

IA ( internal affairs ) made out of bunch LAPD Sergents I don't get it it's just a joke give me a break ok Rampart . I would say 95% are crooks 5% hard working sincere honest officers but the rest nothing but thugs and gangster behind the badge that prey on poor people one more thing why do we need 2 officers in one car just waste of resources and money I can understand maybe like in bad area
like watts but not in venice beach marina delrey if other department can survive with one officer in car so can LAPD talking about productivity and donuts

[Rejoice]

This is why no one trusts the Police!!!
Criminals behind the badges, and Superiors that cover up for them.

[Stephen]

Let's take ethnic relations one step further... Let's talk about real differences. It's real to have experienced differences among the group of ethnicities in our country. I know differences by the thousands of experiences I have had. I know I like some differences and am put off by others. I know differences aren't a part of everyone in any ethnic group, but for the most part even those in that group will agree with the general experience in a given area/time.

If we only limit actions based on law too much latitude is granted for improper policing. I've experienced extreme differences when I'm with only my other white friends and when I have black and or brown friends in my car. This is why it's important to review that which is out of the expected norm for the area. If the area is mixed the stops should reflect the mix of the neighborhoods. Discussions of differences is real and real important.

[PC BS]

Let's see, who commits most violent crime?

1) Females of any age? No, males by better than 10 to 1.

So it's males, fine, but who?

2) Men over the age of 40 or under the age of 15? No, the vast majority of criminals are males between 15-40.

Ok, so is it evenly distributed, with Koreans, Swedes, Mexicans & Nigerians equally crime prone? Not a chance.

3) Per FBI stat's and global patterns, the lowest comparative violent crime rates are found in NE Asia & N Europe, with Mexico/Latin America about 3-4x higher, and Nigeria/sub-Saharan Africa about 10x higher.

No one quarrels with male crime as sexist, or younger criminals as ageist, but for some reason we want police to lie about the higher crime rates among black & Hispanic young men.

If you don't like these facts go work to stop crime from happening. But don't blame the police for noticing or others for commenting, stop shooting the messengers.

Any cop that spends their time stopping elderly Asian female drivers expecting to catch violent criminals should be fired. Profiling suspects for age, gender, clothing, race and more are required parts of effective policing.

[Los ojos]

Some critics think that people should be arrested in some affirmative action percentage relative to their numbers in the population, so that white on the westside and west valley would be most of those arrested for burglary in those areas. Guess what, if you see a truckload of Latinos or blacks OR white skinheads riding around in an old and maybe uninsured truck at night, maybe with a busted tail light, they're more likely to be upto no good in an area they don't belong in than a white OR a Latino or black person whose appearance and car "fit in."

If you see a dark-windowed very expensive black vehicle in Southeast or East L A at night, guess what, they're more likely to be dealing drugs than some others. I've been stopped for driving such a vehicle near the airport when I took a less common route home, and yes I was profiled until they saw me and I told them about getting someone at the airport,and I was shaken at the lights flashing and being pulled over, but when they explained they were looking for a vehicle similar to mine, I understood that driving at 2 a.m. in such a car was a logical reason to be stopped.

These situations ARE unquantifiable. If the PC crowd had their way, cops would have to treat us like the TSA does at airports: stop and search EVERYONE including babies, old ladies and nuns, just so the young people with Muslim names or who "looked suspicious" or were from countries hostile to America, couldn't claim "being profiled." We'd live in a hellish police state.

By the way - those who want to abolish SO40 so cops can demand citizenship papers of anyone who "looks like they might be illegal immigrant gangbangers" would surely lead to profiling too, and to avoid such lawsuits, result in ALL OF US getting stopped too - Bratton was right to hold the middle line on BOTH despite being attacked on the right by the police Political Union/ PPL for not defending cops ENOUGH, by the rightwing for not using SO40 to seek out illegals, and by civil rights groups for not demanding that cops arrest people by some PC quota.

I hope Beck will be as tough as Bratton when assailed by all sides, and stick to the right thing. MORE transparency than the PPL would like, but less pandering than the ACLU or rightwing groups want, is about right.

[Andy K]

Give me a break! If the liberals were in charge we would have no one in jail. The police have a very difficult job and liberals continue to second guess everything they do. Braton did a good job lowering crime, keep up whatever you are doing, it works

[jack]

For the love of God! Geez...drop the race card! You have a white male working the streets of South Central. WHO IS the OFFICER GOING TO STOP!? Let me guess...African American or Hispanic! Because there are no whites there!

[Jim Crow]

@ J.L. ENNIS You are right 40 year old white guys dont commit any crimes, And there are no hard working poor people. All I have to say when it dont happen to you, you dont understand

[Mufon]

We're still talking about this? Well, it's 2009 California, I guess you have to be the victim of something.

[donalds]

Bratton argues that 'without a confession from the officer, it is impossible to assess the reason of the officer's actions'.
You think!
Polygraphs!
The officers who would not consent to a polygraph as a condition of ongoing employment for the purpose of asking if they broke any laws they are sworn to uphold during internal affiars investigations, have no business being on the force.
It's time we break the code of silence.
Take the lead Chief Beck. Lead by good example and the country will follow your lead!

[jpl]

Robert Laren is way off when he says that police cannot investigate themselves...police go overboard when investigating themselves...it's how they make their careers and gain favor with their bosses to get promotions....the more misconduct an investigator finds when investigating other officers or deputies, the better they look to their superiors.....these police departments eat their young

[Mike]

John Mack is a stone racist plain and simple. He is obsessed with all things racial and will not rest until he paints every white cop with the broad brush of racism. The truth is that 99.9% of those stopped are stopped for legitimate reasons and use race as an excuse to attack officers. All of this politically correct nonsense and lies has to end.

[HOMERUN]

When they say they can't do anything to the accused police dude for an underlying incomplete investigation...
then why not follow through with interviewing witnesses on the situation ?...
taxpayers expect those receiving public pay do their job or if not ...be fired...
complete the investigation on accused wrongdoing public employees that are police...
given any other name...
they are still public employees.

[cam]

How do you prove bias, even if the police are bias or racist. They will pull you over because of a violation. They know better. Just try to drive safe, don't commit crimes, don't hang out with gang members, and stop beating your wives. There are 60K documented gang members and 55K of them are black or hispanic. So if you are 14 to 55 are black or hispanic, baggy clothes, you are going to get jacked up by the police and they should, especially when you are selling drugs, drinking in public, breaking the law period. More power to the police and suck it up.