EDITORIAL FAILURE OF WILL CIVIC LEADERS HAVE DUCKED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE LAPD'S PROBLEMS FOR DECADES.

IN Los Angeles, there's no end to the problems that civic leaders are willing to identify and study. Gangs, chronic homelessness, business tax reform, police abuses -- all of those subjects and more have at least one report gathering dust on some City Hall basement shelf.

When it comes to turning those studies into action, however, and fixing those things they've identified as problems, well, there's a severe shortage of political will among L.A.'s civic and political elite.

That's the short explanation of why five studies and seven years of ``reform'' later, the Los Angeles Police Department is still plagued by the same flaws, the same ``warrior mentality,'' the same ``upside-down culture'' that fostered corrupt anti-gang cops Rafael Perez and Nino Durden at the LAPD's Rampart Division.

That's why the latest Rampart aftermath report, conducted by a blue-ribbon commission under the watch of civil-rights lawyer Connie Rice, finds that the LAPD is still at risk for other Rampart scandals, other Rodney Kings.

The Rice report stems from a review of the original investigation, analysis of departmental changes and interviews with 270 officers and other law enforcement personnel.

What the group found was that despite a lot of talk about building up the LAPD's ``thin blue line,'' in the four decades since the Watts Riots, very little has been done to make officers less outnumbered on the streets.

Outside of the one bright spot in the report -- the Rampart Division itself, which adopted a very different policing structure after being rocked by scandal -- the same problem spots persist. There's still understaffing of officers in the heaviest crime areas. There's still significant tension between the police and the public. There's still a disconnect between the beleaguered officer on the street and the department brass.

What will it take for elected officials to put their promises of reform into action? How many more reports must show that real reform has yet to occur before city leaders act?

In fact, there's more will to build a new $370 million LAPD headquarters than there has ever been than to beef up the department and give officers the training they need.

It ought to start today, which is when the blue ribbon commission report is officially presented to the City Council.

This is the chance that elected politicians have missed for more than 40 years that could finally turn the LAPD into a modern police organization that respects the public and is respected by it.