BETTER POLICE-TRACKING VOWED CITY LEADERS SET DEADLINE WITHIN 1 YEAR.

Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer

Mayor Richard Riordan and two Los Angeles City Council members pledged Sunday that an improved system for tracking problem police officers will be operating within a year.

The computerized system is designed to alert officers' supervisors to a pattern of problems, such as numerous citizen complaints, said Deputy Mayor Manuel Valencia. The personnel and risk-management data system would also evaluate possible solutions in each case, from increased supervision or more training to harsher measures, he said.

Sunday's announcement came as city leaders prepared for a meeting today with an official from the U.S. Department of Justice. The Justice Department has reportedly threatened to file a federal lawsuit to hasten reforms in the wake of the Rampart Division corruption scandal in the Los Angeles Police Department.

On Friday the council voted to allocate personnel, equipment and space for the tracking system's contractor, LPI of Pittsburgh, Pa., where the company built a similar system for police.

``This is yet another among many significant steps demonstrating that the City Council and my office, along with the Police Commission and the police chief, are committed to strong oversight systems and procedures for the police department,'' Riordan said in a written statement. ``Our city's leadership has the will and the determination to bring about necessary reforms,'' he said.

Riordan called for the one-year deadline to have the tracking system functioning, and he was backed by council members Mike Feuer, chairman of the Budget Committee, and Cindy Miscikowski, chairwoman of the Public Safety Committee.

``This system is something that had been recommended by the Christopher Commission,'' Miscikowski said Sunday night. She said some of the problems at Rampart might have been avoided with an early-warning tracking system.

The city received federal funding for a system as part of a grant for community-oriented policing, Miscikowski said, but the contract was never awarded because of a problem with the winning bidder. When Justice Department officials found out recently the system had never been implemented, she said, ``they were quite upset.''

The LAPD implemented an interim tracking system, but the new one will be more comprehensive, Valencia said. And a 12-month deadline is aimed at avoiding delays, he said.

City officials are scheduled to meet today with Bill Lann Lee, chief of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Miscikowski said Lee has not yet told city officials the subject of the meeting.

Citing a pattern of abuses within the LAPD, federal officials have threatened a civil-rights lawsuit but are offering a deal to enter a consent decree instead, the Los Angeles Times has reported.