Mayor Garcetti: Strengthen LAPD Civilian Review Board
- by: Susan V
- recipient: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
The US Commission on Civil Rights supports controlling police misconduct by giving civilian review boards full subpoena power and a final say in disciplinary measures. But the Los Angeles Police and Sheriff Departments continue to resist these recommendations.
As a result, reports TruthOut, “heated disagreements” have ensued between LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and the LA review board (LA Police Commission) when Beck failed numerous times to take proper punitive action after the board found police wrongdoing.
Although LAPD is by far not the only city that limits review board powers, “Chicago, Philadelphia and San Diego all have civilian oversight panels with subpoena power,” says Southern California’s Public Radio KPCC. Nevertheless, adds KPCC, LA’s Sheriff Jim McDonnell also wants to limit civilian review boards by excluding subpoena power.
With growing public concern over police brutality, it’s time for LA to take under serious consideration CCR recommendations and a new example being set by Newark’s mayor - a civilian police review board with binding authority.
Sign this petition to insist LA give more power to its civilian police review boards to help curb the rise in police brutality.
We, the undersigned, agree with USCCR recommendations for civilian police review panels.
As CCR notes in its Chapter on “External Controls,” internal review measures are criticized as being “inherently flawed and lacking and objectivity. Consequently, many citizens and civic organizations support aggressive external controls, “such as powerful civilian review boards, “as the most effective means to combat police misconduct and brutality.”
Of course the idea of the police policing themselves is obviously flawed. But there are also problems with external monitoring by federal and state officials, which has proved ineffective “in part, because local prosecutors are reluctant to prosecute the officers upon whom they must rely for the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases,” adds CCR.
Decades ago the Commission says it documented in Who Is Guarding the Guardians? “several problems that existed nationwide with the external review of police misconduct”
CCR made recommendations based on this report and continues to emphasize the need for “Officials at every level of city government” to “make a concerted effort to eliminate all forms of police misconduct.” This effort should include, says CCR, an independent civilian review board “with full subpoena power and final discretion regarding disciplinary measures.”
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Despite these recommendations, says CCR, “most civilian review boards remain without disciplinary power or meaningful authority over internal investigations into police misconduct,“ and “City government officials continue to be perceived as being tough on crime but soft on police brutality. Police misconduct remains largely unchecked because most officers and police officials view any form of outside “interference” as unnecessary and intrusive.”
There should be little doubt that this failure to implement CCR recommendations is at least partly responsible for the alarming rise in recorded incidents of police brutality.
Now, with added concerns over changed disciplinary policies in the LAPD, in addition to KPCC’s report of more than 20 Sheriff’s deputies “indicted on a range of charges including inmate abuse at the jails and obstruction of justice,” LA has no excuse for continuing to ignore CCR recommendations.
We insist that Los Angeles give more power to its Civilian Police Review Boards.
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