EDITORIAL A REAL REFORM COOLEY CONSTRUCTS A FRAMEWORK FOR ENFORCING THE LAW WITHIN LAW ENFORCEMENT.THE good news is that, in his thorough, Rampart-inspired investigation of the Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . , District Attorney Steve Cooley Stephen Lawrence ("Steve") Cooley (born May 1, 1947 in Los Angeles, California) is a veteran prosecutor who was elected as Los Angeles County's 36th District Attorney on November 7, 2000. He was sworn in for his second term on December 6, 2004. found no widespread abuses by cops. The bad news is that a handful of dirty cops was more than enough to terribly damage the department's reputation and its ability to function at a high level. Their malfeasance The commission of an act that is unequivocally illegal or completely wrongful. Malfeasance is a comprehensive term used in both civil and Criminal Law to describe any act that is wrongful. resulted in more than 100 people's release from jail, some $40 million in settlements with millions more to come and an onerous federal consent decree A settlement of a lawsuit or criminal case in which a person or company agrees to take specific actions without admitting fault or guilt for the situation that led to the lawsuit. A consent decree is a settlement that is contained in a court order. . Whether the number of dirty cops is nine or one, it's too many. And in a department known for its code of silence, ferreting out the miscreants is a daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin task. As the LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. begins its struggle to regain the public's trust and restore its own morale, a critical element is developing a system for detecting criminality without tying the hands of the overwhelming majority of honest, law-abiding cops. Cooley has provided the framework to make it possible. At a press conference last week, he unveiled a historic agreement between his office and 70 county law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is a term used to describe any agency which enforces the law. This may be a local or state police, federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). , including the LAPD and the Sheriff's Department, that will establish uniform protocols for investigating and prosecuting police misconduct. This marks the first time in the 151-year history of the District Attorney's Office that such a systemwide, coherent structure has existed. The cooperation of law enforcement officials at all levels will help to make the county not only a safer place, but a more just one - somewhere where truly no one is above the law. The protocols set clear guidelines for when Cooley's Justice System Integrity Division will review charges against an officer and what a deputy district attorney should do if he or she suspects an officer of breaking the law. The protocols also mandate that the District Attorney Response Team go to all officer-involved shooting scenes and investigate any time someone dies in police custody. The reforms offer the promise of ending the ability of top brass to cover up crimes by officers and the potential for cozy relationships between prosecutors and police officials to conceal wrongdoing wrong·do·er n. One who does wrong, especially morally or ethically. wrong  do . This will help make it easier to identify dirty cops before they do the kind of massive damage that Rafael Perez and his buddies caused. At last, there's hope that local leaders will be able to get a handle on police corruption and put an end to it. |
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