Parks Seeks 2nd Term as LAPD Chief

Police Chief Bernard C. Parks announced Thursday that he will seek a second term as head of the Los Angeles Police Department, setting the stage for a pitched political battle in coming weeks over whether he should remain in the job--one of the city’s most prominent but controversy-racked public positions.

“I am formally transmitting my request to the Los Angeles Police Commission for a second five-year term,” Parks said at a dinner in Hollywood marking his 37th anniversary as a member of the force. “I do intend to go forward. I believe I’ve made an impact.”

Following a process laid out in the City Charter, the commission, a group of five civilians appointed by Mayor James K. Hahn, will decide whether to reappoint Parks by mid-May--or earlier.

Controversy has been brewing for months over whether the chief should be granted a final five-year term.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file officers, wants him out and has pledged to spend about $1.5 million toward that goal.

But Parks’ supporters, among them organizations representing minority officers, have responded with increasing intensity.

This has spawned a series of tit-for-tat media events and demonstrations in which the union criticizes Parks, while his defenders--including Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas--strike back with blistering condemnations of the union’s tactics.

At the center of this storm is the enigmatic, paradoxical LAPD veteran, a tall man whose slightly wooden way of carrying himself blends easily into descriptions of his leadership.

Parks’ enemies portray him as aloof and unbending; his friends, as strong and incorruptible.

Such descriptions have helped create a highly recognizable public image, further popularized by his inclusion on a 1998 People magazine list of the 50 most beautiful people in the world.

As chief, however, his record evades simple labels. Parks, 58, has made far-reaching reforms in officer discipline while being called a reactionary by some. He is a decentralizer accused of being autocratic, and a man who purports to eschew politics, while emitting a crackling political aura.

He is also the straight-arrow chief who was in charge when revelations of corruption within the LAPD came to light. The Rampart Division scandal involving violent drug-dealing officers was investigated on his watch, with the result that the LAPD’s reputation became stained in the public’s mind even as Parks was striving to be seen as a disciplinarian.

Even his most steadfast supporters say some of the changes he has made have been problematic, while, oddly, his staunchest critics sometimes praise him the most.

For example, Mitzi Grasso, his nemesis as president of the officers union, lauds his integrity and work ethic, saying, “He could have been the best chief the city ever had.”

Blamed for Low

Morale Among Officers

Grasso blames Parks for low morale among the rank and file, a failure to recruit more officers and ineffective leadership. Recently, 93% of LAPD officers who responded to a union poll said they have no confidence in him.

“What we are looking for is someone who is willing to collaborate,” said Grasso, “and who is not afraid to admit if they are wrong.”

Parks’ supporters retort that the chief is scapegoated precisely because he has been so effective at making reforms that--especially in the area of discipline--have made officers uncomfortable.

“Chief Parks did everything that [former Police Chief Willie] Williams was supposed to do and didn’t,” said Deputy Chief Michael J. Bostic. “That has not been popular.”

Under Parks, the department has been riven by controversy. He clashed with then-Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti over the Rampart investigation, and with civil libertarians over police shootings of civilians.

He objected to Mayor Hahn’s efforts to allow some officers to work three- and four-day weeks, a perk that the union furiously lobbied for.

The union prevailed, and compressed workweeks are being introduced at area stations. But acrimony lingers.

A similar battle erupted over senior lead officers--community policing specialists--which placed Parks in conflict with many community activists. He moved to place the officers back in patrol cars. But last year, then-Mayor Richard Riordan ordered the program reinstated.

In what may be his most controversial change, Parks revamped the LAPD’s disciplinary process in ways that have resulted in more public complaints being investigated, and more officers censured or fired. Previously, the LAPD had been criticized for failing to follow up on citizen complaints.

Community activists such as Msgr. John Moretta, whose Boyle Heights parish is in a neighborhood troubled by gang violence, said officer morale has fallen to harmful depths under the chief’s leadership.

Although he calls Parks, “a very righteous man,” Moretta faults the chief for not seeing “that there is a different way of doing things. Not just his way.”

But Lawrence Tolliver, owner of L. Tolliver’s Barbershop, argues that Parks is well qualified and deserves another term.

Tolliver was among several hundred South-Central Los Angeles residents, most of them African American, who turned out for a meeting of the Police Commission this week at Ward African Methodist Episcopal Church. So popular is the chief, who is black, that the meeting had the air of a pep rally, with attendees waving signs that said, “Five More Years.”

“People from all walks of life are saying [the LAPD] has changed since Parks has taken over,” said Tolliver. “You are treated better than you were before.”

Mike Feuer, a former city councilman and now a lawyer in private practice, praises Parks for his integrity and dedication, and especially for his willingness to carry out difficult policies in the face of resistance.

But at the same time, Feuer said Parks’ seemingly uncompromising approach to such suggested changes as compressed work schedules for officers showed a certain lack of political finesse--something that might make him more effective.

“It’s part of the complicated character that he is,” Feuer said. “There is a lot to admire in someone who assesses the merits of things before just rolling over. But [Parks] so often doesn’t listen to a contrary point of view [that] he creates a situation of conflict.”

In making his announcement Thursday night, the chief said his aim is to provide the city with a Police Department that “both ensures safety and treats people properly.”

Rick Caruso, president of the Police Commission, said the panel will decide within two weeks what criteria it will use to evaluate Parks’ leadership of the department.

Caruso said that the commission will bring in outside counsel to advise the panel through the process but that the commissioners will do the evaluation themselves.

“We’re hoping to make it a quicker process than a longer one,” he said. “If we can do it within 30 to 45 days, that would be great. Our No. 1 priority is doing a thorough job and making it fair. We’re dealing with someone’s job here.”

Hahn said Thursday that he will express his opinion about the chief sometime during the evaluation process, but he backed away from previous statements that cast the decision as his to make.

“My opinion is just one opinion,” the mayor said on a radio call-in show. “I hope the Police Commission will consider it along with opinions of a lot of different community leaders, but the important thing is that the Police Commission, as an independent body, make that decision.”

Mayor’s Formal Role

in Process Is Limited

Hahn acknowledged that as mayor, he plays no formal role in the reappointment process unless the Police Commission fails to act. And he said he would not put political pressure on his appointees.

“I hope they listen to my opinion, but I’m not going to tell them what to do,” he said.

The City Council could also eventually play a role, having the authority to review and reject the commission’s judgment.

Parks’ bid for a second term puts Hahn in a tight political pinch between supporters in the African American community and backers in the rank and file. The mayor has repeatedly said political pressure will not affect his opinion.

“It’s one of those great political no-win situations, and if you can’t win either way, then the best thing to do is always to do the right thing, do what is the right decision anyway,” Hahn said. “The best way to evaluate any decision that comes to you is to make that decision on the merits.”

With the imperviousness that drives his detractors up the wall, Parks in recent weeks has said he was ignoring the political swirl.

“Five percent of the public loves us for everything we do; 5% hates us for everything we do. We should ignore both and pay attention to the 90% in the middle,” he said.

And improbably, given that his staff routinely holds news conferences to rebut the union’s charges, Parks claims not to be paying attention to the reappointment battle.

“I do what I do for the right reasons,” he said. “Consistently, and for the right reasons.”