Action Demanded on Police Misconduct

Citing their own statistics, several civil liberties groups charged Wednesday that police misconduct in the city and county of Los Angeles has reached “epidemic proportions” and called for formation of citizen review boards, appointment of special prosecutors and legislative hearings.

Members of a coalition of civil and human rights organizations, including police activist Don Jackson, made the charges at a press conference in front of Parker Center. The Los Angeles Police Department quickly responded by saying there has been a decrease in complaints of excessive force filed with the department.

The critics said there has been a 322% increase in complaints against the department over the last three years, including 652 in 1988, filed with the Police Misconduct Lawyer Referral Service, a private nonprofit organization. And, they said, there was a 198% increase of such complaints against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department during the same period, with 401 filed last year.

“We think something needs to be done, and we’re here to call for something to be done,” said Antonio Rodriguez, director of the Latino Community Justice Center.

The Police Misconduct Lawyer Referral Service has staged “sting” operations aimed at exposing police misconduct during the last two years. Mark Forte, associate coordinator of the organization, said the complaint totals were based on citizens who called his agency. He acknowledged that the rise in complaints may partially reflect a greater public awareness of his group.

The callers complained about beatings, shootings of unarmed citizens, attacks by police dogs, the filing of false reports and false arrests, according to Rodriguez, who claimed that “many of the police attacks appear to be racially motivated.” More than half of the complaints to the referral service were from blacks, the group said.

Rodriguez said the police critics want to see the city and county establish citizen review boards to oversee law enforcement, the naming of special prosecutors to prosecute offending officers and public hearings held by the state Legislature to explore the issue.

Lt. Fred Nixon, an LAPD spokesman, said that he could not cite statistics in every area raised by the critics. But he said that he could offer Police Department statistics under the category of use of excessive force.

“When I look at that category for 1988, I find 293 allegations, as compared to 356 in 1987,” Nixon said. “If you compare those numbers, rather than a dramatic increase, you see an actual decrease of nearly 18%.”

A spokesman said Sheriff Sherman Block will reserve comment on the charges of misconduct until his monthly meeting with reporters next week.

Gates, Block Accused

Don Jackson, who participated in a videotaped “sting” against Long Beach police, accused Block and LAPD Police Chief Daryl F. Gates Wednesday of failing to deal with police violence, which he said is “on the rise.”

Jackson, a black Hawthorne police sergeant on administrative leave, accused Gates of exploiting the “terrible tragedy” of South-Central Los Angeles for his “own political gain” by appearing with former First Lady Nancy Reagan at a recent drug raid.

“We will be in very serious trouble when Chief Gates becomes concerned about the opinion of Don Jackson,” Nixon said. Attorney Robin Toma of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said the ACLU receives hundreds of calls every week, and “the majority come from citizens complaining about police abuses.”