A LITTLE PAST COKE USE OK, SAYS LAPD HIRING POLICY POLICE RECRUITMENT RULES DRAW THE LINE AT METH, HEROIN.

Byline: KERRY CAVANAUGH Staff Writer

To help alleviate concerns that the Los Angeles Police Department has loosened its drug policy for hiring recruits, the Personnel Department and the LAPD said they've committed to rejecting applicants who have tried methamphetamine, heroin and hard drugs other than cocaine.

Personnel and police officials noted Wednesday that they haven't actually hired anybody who has experimented with those drugs, but they wanted to make it clear they won't consider recruits who have tried hard drugs other than cocaine.

And they said they will reject candidates who tried any hard drug as a mature adult.

The decision comes after several council members questioned the LAPD's hiring standards, which were revised in 2003. The new standards allowed the department to hire officers who had tried hard drugs once or twice as teens if they were otherwise strong, responsible candidates.

The department had hired six officers who had experimented with cocaine -- less than 1 percent of the officers hired over the last 2 1/2 years.

Councilman Dennis Zine, a retired police sergeant, had joined Councilman and former Police Chief Bernard Parks in challenging the hiring standard. Zine, who heads the council's Personnel Committee, hailed LAPD's revised decision.

``I was concerned about the other drugs,'' he said. ``To know that since the controversy and the motion came out, those have been taken off the table makes me feel better.''

Personnel and police officials have argued that the LAPD hiring process is stronger after the 2003 changes, particularly since requiring a polygraph test.

``We have no intention of reducing the standards of the Los Angeles Police Department and we do think the process now gives us a better picture of who we are hiring,'' LAPD Assistant Chief Sharon Papa said.

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