AUDIT STUDIES POLICE CUSTODY DEATHS.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

An LAPD study of 101 people who died in the department's custody has determined that illegal narcotics were either the direct cause of death or a contributing factor in 72 percent of cases, while officer actions played a role in 19 percent of deaths.

The audit released Friday by Police Chief Bernard C. Parks recommends that the department study the feasibility of developing a profile to help officers identify suspects who might be susceptible to dying from a combination of drug intoxication and police-applied restraints.

It also called for medical treatment to be required for at-risk suspects who have been controlled with specific restraint devices.

The report looked at 101 deaths of suspects in Los Angeles Police Department custody from 1984 through 1996.

``The findings show that relatively few of these cases were the direct result of police action,'' Parks wrote in a letter to the Police Commission, which will consider the report Tuesday.

``Although 19 percent of the cases involved police action significant enough to be listed in the coroner's report as a factor, the primary cause of death was determined to be police action in only 4 percent of the cases.''

The police-action cases included incidents where suspects were injured during arrest by blunt-force trauma, electric stun guns, a modified carotid-artery hold, and a hobble restraint in which handcuffs binding the hands are attached to a leg strap binding the legs.

The LAPD is studying alternatives to the hog-tying technique, which was banned by the City Council in January after the council paid $750,000 to the family of a Sunland man who died in the restraint.

Similar lawsuits are based on the theory that using a prone hog-tie restraint on a drug user can lead to death by ``positional asphyxia.' That was found to be a factor in only two of the 101 in-custody LAPD death cases.

The audit found that the depletion of oxygen in the blood of some suspects who engaged in extreme exertion during their arrest ``may have contributed to some deaths.''

The largest single cause of death found by the audit was ``acute cocaine intoxication,'' which was cited in 32 deaths. Heart attacks were the cause of seven deaths, followed by cocaine-alcohol intoxication in six deaths.

One suspect died after jumping from a second-floor window, while another fell from a fourth-floor balcony. One suspect died from chest injuries from a flash-bang grenade, and another died after a plastic bag of cocaine became stuck in his throat.

Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union and Police Watch declined comment until they review the audit.