LAPD REFORM ATTITUDE BLASTED MONITOR FINDS DELAYS, OFFICERS DISPARAGING CONSENT DECREE.

Byline: Mariel Garza Staff Writer

The Los Angeles Police Department has dragged its feet in complying with provisions of the federal consent decree and some officers have undermined the reform effort, according to a progress report filed Wednesday by an independent monitor.

The third quarterly report by Michael Cherkasky and his colleagues at Kroll Associates said the LAPD has fallen behind on collecting data to identify racial profiling during traffic stops and its internal auditing process is flawed.

But what most bothered the monitors was an attitude by some officers who they say have denigrated the court-approved consent decree.

``The LAPD is in noncompliance with a number of significant provisions of the consent decree,'' the report said. ``Most serious, the monitor found evidence that certain LAPD officers are intentionally undermining the consent decree and the LAPD's efforts at reform.''

After receiving tips from the community, monitors went undercover to community meetings where they heard LAPD officers, including members of the Consent Decree Task Force, disparaging both the reforms and the monitors, according to the report.

The report quotes officers as saying the reform efforts are ``unnecessary and time-consuming'' and that Kroll Associates was an ``auditing-type company, like Arthur Andersen'' that was inexperienced in day-to-day police work.

Mayor James Hahn said he was angry with the reports that some officers are making negative comments.

``It seems there's really not a solid commitment to reform here,'' Hahn said. ``It was very disturbing to me to find out ... that people in charge of implementation are going out to the public bad-mouthing the consent decree, and bad-mouthing the monitor.''

Since seeing the report, Hahn said, he has discussed the need for more oversight of the task force with Police Commission President Rick Caruso, Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who is chair of the council's Public Safety Committee, and interim Police Chief Martin Pomeroy.

Dissatisfaction over implementing the consent decree was one of the main reasons behind the mayor's decision not to support former Police Chief Bernard Parks in his bid for a second term.

Hahn said reform will continue to be an important issue in the search for a permanent police chief.

LAPD Cmdr. Gary Brennan, commander of community affairs, did not return phone calls.

The progress report said the department had made progress in some areas, such as developing a computerized warning system to identify potential misconduct issues and in promptly investigating serious uses of force by officers.

The LAPD entered into the consent decree with the federal government in June 2001 in the wake of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, which accused LAPD officers of improper behavior. One of the main provisions of the consent decree was that the department begin collecting detailed racial data on every person stopped by officers.

The report slammed the department for being behind in that data collection, but city officials note that the backlog is with the contractor hired to process it. Only one-third of more than 330,000 scan forms, which officers filled out during stops, have been processed.