LAPD AUDIT FINDS ERRORS IN 20% OF GANG ARREST REPORTS.

Byline: RACHEL URANGA

Staff Writer

LAPD anti-gang officers failed to adequately document arrests and reports in 20 percent of cases sampled in an internal audit, which sometimes led to inconsistent booking of evidence, authorities said Tuesday.

The lapses -- as high as 52 percent in the San Fernando Valley's Mission Division -- drew criticism from the civilian Police Commission, which compared the failures to activities in the Rampart corruption scandal, which forced the department into a costly, ongoing federal consent decree.

And it comes as the LAPD and its gang and narcotics officers spar over a mandate that they disclose their personal finances -- a requirement of the decree -- and as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Chief William Bratton wage a high-profile war against gangs.

"This is a warning bell where we don't have proper documentation about Miranda responses made by arrestees, documentation of booking searches, inconsistency in the recovery and booking of evidence, lack of adherence to established search warrant procedures," Commissioner Anthony Pacheco said at Tuesday's Police Commission meeting. "That is serious stuff. That is not just paperwork deficiencies."

The Police Protective League, which has taken a harsh stance against the financial-disclosure requirement meant to weed out corrupt officers, did not have a position on the audit.

Conducted from October 2004 to October 2006, the audit covered most of the Los Angeles Police Department's 600 anti-gang officers and their supervisors. It found that officers lacked proper supervision and often failed to follow department policies.

"Most of these things were administrative in nature and with the proper oversight, we think a lot of these things would not exist," said Detective David Kennedy, officer in charge of the gang-evaluation section. "It's not to the level of misconduct. Nobody is trying to hide anything."

In a review of 655 arrest reports, auditors found discrepancies in 20 percent, ranging from failure to document booking evidence to strip searches conducted without the required supervisor's signature.

Legal reasons lacking

Officers also failed to produce sufficient legal reasons for arresting or detaining suspects.

"The paperwork at issue is supposed to document some of the most important protections against police abuse," said Peter Bibring, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. "It's the only tool we have to know that those protections are in place. Without this documentation, we are not going to find out lapses until they blow up in another scandal."

The LAPD created the audit office in 2001 after entering into a federal consent decree meant to avoid a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department, which had accused the LAPD of widespread corruption and abuse after a Rampart Division officer convicted of stealing evidence implicated dozens of his co-workers.

Ruling in June

In June, a judge is expected to rule on whether the decree should continue.

In most of the areas, auditors declared LAPD anti-gang divisions in compliance with policy. For instance, of the 1,522 detention logs auditors reviewed, only 4 percent were out of compliance.

In the Mission Division, where Villaraigosa unveiled his anti-gang plan last month, auditors found the highest rate of policy violations.

In more than half of the 31 cases surveyed, Mission anti-gang officers and supervisors neglected to properly fill out arrest and booking reports, the report found. As a result, the LAPD initiated training there. Capt. Jorge Villegas, the division's head, declined to comment.

Overall, none of the findings has resulted in charges of misconduct against any officer.

"If we don't have (gang) suppression that is careful, thoughtful and adherent to constitutional principles, it's going to undermine what we are doing as police," Pacheco said.

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

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