CLEANER COPS? CHIEF PARKS PUSHES FOR DRASTIC REFORMS.

Byline: Phillip W. Browne and Rick Orlov Staff Writers

LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks called on Thursday for sweeping reforms that other large police forces have embraced - measures he believes would have averted Los Angeles' worst police corruption scandal.

Parks said that during contract negotiations with the Police Protective League in January he will push for the use of drug and polygraph testing, as well as the right to review officers' financial records.

``It is minimal money spent, when you think about it, to have these integrity checks and safeguards - for what we are now going through,'' Parks said during a meeting with Daily News editors and reporters.

Parks said the current system of integrity checks of officers failed to catch former Rampart Division Officer Rafael Perez, who was convicted of stealing cocaine from an evidence locker. As part of a plea bargain, Perez told investigators his false testimony helped send an innocent man to prison, a revelation that triggered the suspension of 11 officers, a massive corruption investigation and appointment of an LAPD board of inquiry to thoroughly examine the department.

``If we would have been able to polygraph Perez on the integrity issue, we may have been able to identify a problem sooner,'' Parks said.

Parks said he believes the department's rank-and-file officers would support such changes, but he acknowledged: ``It's very hard to put something back once you've taken it away.''

``The main thing is the officers want their department to be clean, and we want it to be clean,'' Parks said. ``They don't want to get into a car and wonder if their partner is dirty.

``The financial checks will be a major debate, and so will the polygraphs and drug testing,'' Parks said. ``We will have to weaken the officer bill of rights and initiate legislation to do it.

City officials prohibited the use by the Los Angeles Police Department of widespread polygraph tests because of concern the department was ``misusing the polygraphs to determine sexual proclivity,'' Parks said.

However, officers applying for such sensitive assignments as narcotics and criminal intelligence may be subjected to testing, Parks said. Once when it was suspended for a short period and then resumed, the number of applicants fell off sharply, he said.

``Every department in our region uses the `poly' at entry level so you can imagine when people look around and say: I don't want to take the `poly' - where do they go? LAPD,'' Parks said.

The right to drug-test officers was lost in contract negotiations when the union demanded a vacation day for officers to take the tests, Parks said. The city administrative officer also deemed drug testing too expensive for the number of officers caught, he said.

The Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file officers, wants to safeguard the LAPD against rogue officers and is willing to negotiate some new policies, said Dennis Zine, union secretary.

But some powers Parks proposed already are in place, and others go too far, he said.

``They are already able to give polygraphs to new recruits and people working in certain divisions like narcotics and intelligence. Do they need to give everyone a polygraph every day?'' Zine asked.

According to Zine, drug testing was something program commanders abandoned about 10 years ago.

``They said there were so few positive results that they killed their own program,'' Zine said. ``We support random drug testing as long as there is a mutually agreeable policy to be followed.''

``We support random tests as long as they are negotiated,'' Zine said.

``Perez is a frightening signal for the entire department and we will work with the department to fix the policies,'' he said. ``We have an obligation to do that and we will do it. We will work with him on any reasonable negotiable point.

``As far as financial disclosures, they can do investigations if they see unexplained wealth,'' he said. ``I think the right thing to do would be to streamline the recruiting process, so that these officers meet the standards.''

In a related development, the author of the most far-reaching reforms in LAPD history is advising officials to use those changes to investigate corruption rather than to create another civilian panel, Mayor Richard Riordan said Thursday.

Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who chaired the panel after the beating of Rodney King, said those reforms should be sufficient to determine the extent of problems raised by a former police officer.

``I talked with Warren Christopher last Friday and he said what I say, that the Christopher Commission reforms should be given a chance to work,'' Riordan said before a graduation ceremony for 34 LAPD recruits Thursday.

Christopher, who did not return telephone calls, was named by former Mayor Tom Bradley to look into the LAPD and make recommendations for reforms following the Rodney King beating in 1991.

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Photo: (Color) Police Chief Bernard C. Parks wants to use drug and polygraph testing, and check officers' finances.

David Crane/Staff Photographer