LAPD'S PARKS SHOULD BE COMMENDED ADMITTING WRONGDOING FIRST STEP TOWARD DEPARTMENT ACCOUNTABILITY.

Byline: Dana B. Taschner

WE must give credit where credit is due.

LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks has made three very remarkable statements in the past two weeks: He has called for dismissal of some 99 Rampart Division cases; he estimates that Rampart civil settlements could hit $125 million; and he has told the Police Commission that lax oversight and poor adherence to policies helped ``corruption to flourish'' in the Los Angeles Police Department.

Wow.

Is this remarkable? Actually, it is historic. For the first time, a LosAngeles police chief is saying that we have done wrong; our wrongs will costtaxpayers millions of dollars; and we have a cancer within the LAPD.

No more stonewall. No more denial. Parks is taking the problem - our collective problem - head on.

The 1991 videotaped beating of Rodney King was a snapshot of one side ofthe LAPD. King was beaten - at the direction of a sergeant nearby - byLAPD officers with 56 baton strokes while he was kicked in the head and body and stunned with a taser gun. It has been argued that many of the components of the King incident are common in less publicized cases. Now the LAPD is facing what is likely to become the biggest police scandal in U.S. history: At least 99 people have been framed, beaten or unjustifiably shot by LAPD officers. Some estimate that the Rampart scandal ultimately may affect upward of 3,000 cases at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Although his remarks will almost certainly provide a basis for increasedcivil awards against the city, Parks is standing up and admitting whatso many have suspected for so long - police corruption. Unlike his predecessors and unlike his counterparts from major metropolitan cities to small towns around the country, Parks is publicly admitting that his department has serious problems and is searching for a solution. After decades of brutal behavior by officers, poor management by prior chiefs, andracist attitudes expressed at all levels within the department, Parks wants to move the LAPD into the new millennium with a new core of attitudes, performance and accountability.

The flaws in the LAPD are mirrored in police departments around the country. According to a report by the United Nations, police abuse remains one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States. Human Rights Watch finds that police brutality and corruptionexists in most of the large cities of the nation. Police officials nationwide typically respond to reports of brutality and corruption with denials or explain that such acts are ``isolated incidents'' or an aberration.

Unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings and rough treatment persist because overwhelming barriers to accountability allow outlaw officers to escape punishment and repeat their offenses. In 1994, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act included a new statute under which the U.S. Justice Department was asked to collect data on the frequency and types of police abuse complaints filed nationwide. To date, no such complete report has been issued. The systems designed to address police abuse fail with numbing regularity.

It is true that the LAPD has a long-standing reputation as a foot-dragger when it comes to clamping down on police brutality until a high profile case embarrasses them into taking action.

Some four months after the King beating, the Christopher Commission found a fundamental problem of police abuse in the LAPD resulting from lack of supervision, management and leadership. In response to that and other findings of the commission, Mayor Richard Riordan took laudable steps seeking a wholesale increase in the number of uniformed officers.

It is that effort that Parks suggests is partially to blame for the corruption. In a curious caveat, Parks suggests that in the department's haste to meet the mayor's mandate for hiring additional officers, inexperienced recruits were rushed to the streets with badges and guns which created the climate for corruption. Park's finger-pointing seems misplaced.

Most police chiefs around the country would be overjoyed to have a fattened budget to put thousands of uniformed officers on the streets of their city. It is up to the Police Department - not the Mayor's Office - to uphold its hiring standards and training. While Parks' candor about department corruption is commendable, he (and we) must also salute the efforts by the mayor and others to improve the LAPD.

We must collectively move beyond finger-pointing and recognize that Riordan and Parks are trying to achieve a lasting solution for the city in an environment of crisis and criticism. Indeed, the city crossroads in history - must welcome and support leaders who, instead of hoping the media maelstrom will pass, are honestly committed to change.

In the weeks and months ahead, the Rampart scandal will easily eclipse the King and O.J. Simpson debacles, not necessarily in media hoopla, but in creating a climate for real and meaningful change within the LAPD and the city of Los Angeles.

The colossal Rampart Division scandal presents the opportunity to do what can only be achieved in Los Angeles - to redefine ourselves and the institution that is vested with the power and privilege to preserve and protect.