LOW USAGE OF LAPD COMPUTER SYSTEM RAISES CONCERN.

Byline: Dan Laidman Staff Writer

The Los Angeles Police Department has been striving to implement a computer system to track patterns of misconduct that is key to the federal consent decree overseeing the department.

Now, an audit released Tuesday has illuminated another problem, beyond simply getting the Teams II system up and running: Cops have to actually use it.

A review of usage of the predecessor Teams I system by the LAPD's Audit Division shows widespread noncompliance. With Teams II set to go online in the coming months and a federal judge set to decide in June whether to extend part or all of the consent decree, members of the Police Commission said they were surprised by the findings.

``It is so important as Teams II comes on to have the kind of compliance we were hoping for,'' Commissioner Andrea Ordin said.

Ordin, a former U.S. attorney, was a member of the Christopher Commission, which pushed an electronic system to gather information on officers to warn of potential abuse in the early 1990s in the wake of the Rodney King incident.

LAPD Chief William Bratton has said he expects part of the decree to be extended because of delays in implementing Teams II. The Justice Department and the LAPD entered into the consent decree in 2001 as a result of the Rampart corruption scandal.

Gerald Chaleff, head of the LAPD's Consent Decree Bureau, said department officials are working on educating supervisors about making use of the Teams system.

Chaleff added that the audit looked at a relatively small sample, and that any compliance is an improvement over the past.

``We have improved significantly from where we were when there was no compliance,'' he said.

The audit looked at whether supervisors are properly completing and reviewing Teams reports for officers who transfer into a new division or area.

Some important citywide units, including the Juvenile, Narcotics and Robbery-Homicide divisions, were found to be noncompliant. The majority of the Valley Division was in full compliance.

Commissioner Anthony Pacheco said the audit raises concerns that all of the time and money being spent on the early warning system, and in a larger sense on post-scandal reforms, could be wasted if there isn't enough follow-through.

``What we're talking about is the cultural shift in the department,'' he said. ``On this particular issue we think it's important and we're going to follow up on it.''

Dan Laidman, [phone]

dan.laidman(at)dailynews.com