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<DIV><EM>I thought that you might find this thought provoking article
interesting and something that provides food for thought as well.</EM></DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=N4287@lapd.lacity.org
href="mailto:N4287@lapd.lacity.org">BRIAN BUCHNER</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> February 19, 2013 9:22 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=policeoversight@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:policeoversight@yahoogroups.com">policeoversight@yahoogroups.com</A>
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<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [police oversight] WaPo Opinion: After Christopher Dorner’s
rampage, how to build community trust in police</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
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<P>After Christopher Dorner’s rampage, how to build community trust
in<BR>police<BR><BR>By Sunil Dutta, <BR>February 15, 2013<BR><BR>The Washington
Post<BR><BR>Sunil Dutta is an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department.
The<BR>views expressed here do not represent the LAPD.<BR><BR>Christopher
Dorner, the former L.A. police officer who died Tuesday<BR>after allegedly going
on a murder spree, said racism was behind the Los<BR>Angeles Police Department’s
decision to fire him in 2009, after he<BR>accused another cop of kicking a
mentally ill man. In a perverted<BR>mission of vengeance, Dorner allegedly
killed two civilians and two<BR>officers.<BR><BR>“I know I will be vilified by
the LAPD and the media,” Dorner wrote<BR>in an online manifesto. “Unfortunately,
this is a necessary evil that<BR>I do not enjoy but must partake and complete
for substantial change to<BR>occur within the LAPD and reclaim my
name.”<BR><BR>Given its history of scandal, the LAPD has spent a decade building
a<BR>kinder, gentler organization and making significant strides
in<BR>community-based policing. Even past detractors, including civil
rights<BR>lawyer Connie Rice, admit that the LAPD has changed since the
early<BR>1990s. But people still associate the department with events of 20
years<BR>ago: the acquittal of officers accused of beating Rodney King,
the<BR>subsequent L.A. riots and the resignation of Chief Daryl
Gates.<BR><BR>The department’s problems aren’t all in the past, either:
In<BR>November, a jury awarded former officer Pedro Torres $2.8 million
after<BR>finding that officials retaliated when he verified claims about
an<BR>allegedly racist supervisor. During the past decade, 17 officers
have<BR>won million-dollar-plus verdicts in lawsuits claiming
harassment,<BR>discrimination and retaliation. African American officers,
including<BR>some supervisors I’ve spoken with, say in private that they
don’t<BR>feel like they are part of the system and don’t trust
it.<BR><BR>Indeed, some people even sympathize with Dorner, despite
his<BR>unconscionable acts. “He’s been a real-life superhero to many<BR>people,”
Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill told CNN.<BR>“People aren’t
rooting for him to kill innocent people —<BR>they’re rooting for somebody who
was wronged to get a kind of<BR>revenge against the system. It is almost like
watching ‘Django<BR>Unchained’ in real life.”<BR><BR>Police Chief Charlie Beck
said he would reopen the case that led to<BR>Dormer’s termination — not to
appease an alleged murderer but to<BR>prevent the ghosts of the LAPD’s past from
being resurrected.<BR><BR>While Beck made a wise move, it doesn’t go far enough
to assure<BR>people of the LAPD’s integrity. We need to change the way
complaints<BR>against police officers are adjudicated, putting investigative
power in<BR>the hands of the people.<BR><BR>As long as police have existed,
officers have been accused of racism,<BR>brutality and covering up for their
friends. In the past, a lack of<BR>accountability often meant that police
organizations did not pay serious<BR>attention to or even record citizen
complaints. As a result, many<BR>citizens still don’t trust police departments
to investigate their<BR>own. Similarly, officers do not trust internal affairs
investigators or<BR>disciplinary processes.<BR><BR>I worked as an internal
affairs investigator in the LAPD for about<BR>three years. When I visited police
divisions to look into complaints<BR>against officers, I was usually greeted by
the same question: “Who are<BR>you going to burn today?” Officers often believed
that internal<BR>affairs was out to get them on flimsy charges.<BR><BR>At the
same time, when I interviewed community members who had filed<BR>complaints
against officers, I was disappointed to learn that, despite<BR>my reassurances
and best efforts to conduct impartial inquiries, many<BR>complainants believed
that a fair investigation was simply not possible.<BR>Nor do misconduct
investigations satisfy a skeptical public. If an<BR>officer is exonerated, the
community often believes that malfeasance is<BR>being covered up.<BR><BR>Police
serve the community — any concerns about their integrity must<BR>be
transparently, expeditiously and judiciously resolved. Relying on<BR>cops to
police cops is neither efficient nor confidence-inspiring.<BR><BR>The solution?
Abolish internal affairs units and outsource their work<BR>to external civilian
agencies.<BR><BR>Police have slowly started to incorporate civilian oversight in
their<BR>misconduct investigations. For example, the LAPD’s office of
inspector<BR>general has oversight over the department’s internal discipline.
Yet,<BR>while the inspector general’s staff receives copies of every
personnel<BR>complaint filed and tracks and audits selected cases, it does not
have<BR>the authority to impose discipline. Nor do most civilian review
boards,<BR>which are not empowered to conduct independent investigations.
This<BR>leads detractors to say that such boards are ineffectual.<BR><BR>Police
have long resisted external oversight. Some of us say that those<BR>who aren’t
in uniform do not understand the intricacies of law<BR>enforcement. Won’t
civilian investigators be harsher toward officers<BR>— unsympathetic to the
challenges faced by beat cops battling armed<BR>bad guys?<BR><BR>These
self-serving arguments perpetuate archaic policies. Outsourcing<BR>misconduct
investigations to civilians would directly address community<BR>concerns about
the “blue wall of silence.” Officers who fear<BR>retaliation for reporting
misconduct would feel more comfortable working<BR>with an external agency. In
this system, complaints such as Dorner’s<BR>about the vindictiveness of
superiors would all but disappear.<BR><BR>Using sergeants and detectives as
internal affairs investigators costs<BR>police departments a lot. These
supervisors are paid more and have more<BR>seniority. Assigning seasoned
officers to internal affairs also depletes<BR>the number of field personnel who
could prevent mistakes and misconduct<BR>by patrol officers in the first place.
Outsourcing misconduct<BR>investigations would be far less expensive and would
let veteran<BR>supervisors do the jobs they should be doing.<BR><BR>And why
shouldn’t every police contact with the community — every<BR>traffic stop, every
interrogation — be recorded on video? If Dorner<BR>and his partner had had a
cop-cam, his claim that his partner used<BR>excessive force might have been
resolved the same day. There’s just no<BR>excuse for not recording police
contacts with the public. Technology has<BR>made cameras effective and
affordable. Some officers already record<BR>their arrests to protect themselves
against false allegations of<BR>misconduct. This should be standard operating
procedure.<BR><BR>If even one citizen thinks that Dorner may have had a point,
that’s<BR>too many. The only answer to those worried about police conspiracies
is<BR>transparency. Only by opening our doors can we build trust, and
truly<BR>serve and protect.<BR><BR><A
href="mailto:sunildutta911%40outlook.com">mailto:sunildutta911%40outlook.com</A>
<BR><BR>Read more from Outlook, friend us on Facebook, and follow us
on<BR>Twitter.<BR><BR>The Washington Post Company<BR><BR></P></DIV><!--~-|**|PrettyHtmlStart|**|-~-->
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