COURT'S THUMB COULD STAY OVER LAPD PAST '06.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

Police departments under federal court orders for reform have struggled to meet what some call unreasonably strict rules, costing millions of dollars and hurting officer morale - a situation the Los Angeles Police Department could face longer than its leaders hoped.

From tiny Steubenville, Ohio, to Pittsburgh, Pa., police departments that have been slapped with federal decrees to prevent police abuses have seen court supervision extended beyond their scheduled expiration dates.

The LAPD is three years into a five-year decree that is among the most complex and detailed in the nation. Recent reports have suggested that the LAPD is falling short of many of the federal targets, raising fears the department could remain handcuffed by federal rules that already cost $30 million to $50 million a year.

``The fears that we (mentioned) at that time are still there,'' said Gilbert Gallegos, who headed the national Fraternal Order of Police when officials in Los Angeles and several other cities entered consent decrees with the U.S. Department of Justice.

``It's almost as if the federal government is taking over state and local law enforcement agencies, which is not necessarily in the best interest of local communities,'' said Gallegos, the police chief in Albuquerque, N.M.

Los Angeles police say they're embracing the reform goals of their consent decree, which requires new training procedures, changes in investigations of officer-involved shootings and better tracking of data about individual police officers, among other things.

But reports by the consulting firm tracking the LAPD's compliance with the decree show the department lagging in several key areas, particularly in installing a computer system to analyze mountains of data about police officers.

LAPD officials publicly express optimism that they will come close enough to meeting federal goals by the planned expiration date on June 15, 2006, for the consent decree to be lifted. But some city officials say privately that the decree may remain in place in whole or in part - particularly on federal oversight of the $32 million computer system to track data on officers.

The experiences of other cities under consent decrees upset Los Angeles officials who hope a federal judge will unshackle them from the decree in 2006.

Steubenville, a city of 20,000 on the banks of the Ohio River near West Virginia, remains under a consent decree dating back to 1997. Pittsburgh's decree, also entered into in 1997, remains partially in force. A consent decree on the New Jersey State Police is scheduled to expire in December, but the decree's monitor reports that the police remain out of compliance on some provisions.

The U.S. Department of Justice has backed off from seeking consent decrees as a tool to force local police to reform, but decrees already in place are being enforced as actively as ever, analysts say.

For Los Angeles, that means court enforcement of 152 federal provisions that govern everything from the separation of officers at shooting scenes to holding periodic meetings with reporters to discuss the record in meeting the federal goals.

The decree will be lifted in June 2006 if the LAPD has shown what federal monitors and a judge consider ``substantial compliance'' with the decree's provisions for two straight years.

Although the monitor's most recent report found the LAPD out of compliance in 21 of 45 measurements, police leaders express confidence the department will be found in compliance in 2006.

``I think we are certainly on track with a commitment to reform,'' said Police Commission President David S. Cunningham III. ``Are we on the right track? Yes. Do we understand what we need to do? It's not a check-box; it's making real reforms.''

In May, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess faulted the LAPD for a lack of progress in several areas, including a computer program to identify problem officers. Deputy Chief David Doan, who is in charge of the program, said work will accelerate with the hiring of a chief technology officer for the LAPD, and the program should be up and running by next summer.

Still, Doan said he couldn't predict whether Feess would declare the LAPD in compliance after only a year to evaluate the effectiveness ot the program, which is the linchpin of efforts to root out problem officers before any pattern of abuse occurs.

Some city officials speculate that Feess might extend his oversight of the computer program while lifting other aspects of the consent decree, which has tied up about 300 police personnel.

The scenario echoes the experience of the Pittsburgh Police Department, which in 1997 became the first law-enforcement agency to enter into a consent decree with the Department of Justice under a 1994 law that authorized the orders.

Pittsburgh police reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to track officers' behavior and monitor citizen complaints to end a pattern of abuses and excessive-force problems dating to the mid-1980s.

The order was largely dissolved after five years, but a judge continued federal oversight of the department's internal affairs office.

Steubenville remains under a consent decree for the seventh straight year, although officials say it could be removed this year. It has cost the small, 50-officer department more than $500,000 to comply with the decree.

Other police agencies still under consent decrees include those in Montgomery County, Md.; Detroit; Highland Park, Ill.; and Cincinnati.

The Department of Justice aggressively used consent decrees to force police reforms under Attorney General Janet Reno in the Clinton administration. ``We sense there's a little more room to work it out,'' S. Gary Repella, Stuebenville's law director, has been quoted about the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft in the Bush administration.

But police union leaders say agreements entered during the Reno years - including the LAPD decree - are being relentlessly enforced.

Union officials say the consent decrees are often heavy-handed, cumbersome tools with excessive paperwork and Byzantine rules that distract officers from going after criminals.

``I think that, particularly in the last three years, anyone who's under a consent decree is chafing under the costs,'' said Chuck Canterbury, president of the Fraternal Order of Police. ``The economics in most of these cities was tough anyway.''

Lou Reiter, a former LAPD official who has worked as a consultant for the Department of Justice on six consent decrees, said the money is well spent if it curbs police abuses and leads to fewer lawsuits claiming police brutality.

``I think that, with those who are crying, you have to look further and (ask) have they been progressive over the years, or have they been arrogant and bullheaded when it came to reform?'' said Reiter, putting the LAPD into the latter category.

``L.A. has always wanted to do it L.A.'s way and not look at what other departments are doing.''

Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, a retired LAPD sergeant, agreed that mismanagement of the department in the past is largely to blame for the costs and headaches of the consent decree.

Zine said he is disturbed that the federal monitor continues to find problems with the department.

``When we find trouble today - where arrest reports aren't being reviewed properly and signed properly - that's a problem,'' Zine said. ``What's going on? The taxpayers are paying tremendously for this.

``I hope we do come into full compliance. This has been a full-employment act for those attorneys and those monitors.''

James Nash, [phone]

james.nash(at)dailynews.com