PARKS PANS EXPANDED POSITION OF INSPECTOR GENERAL.

Byline: Deborah Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer

In a sharply worded letter, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks declared that the City Council's recommendations for broad expansion of the LAPD inspector general position could jeopardize law enforcement and divert the position from its role as a watchdog for community complaints.

``Expanding the Inspector General's role to include non-disciplinary matters is far beyond the role envisioned by the Independent Commission and opens a plethora of conflicts between disciplinary oversight and protection of this city from crime and disorder,'' Parks wrote in the letter to the commission, obtained by the Daily News on Thursday.

Parks added that the ability to discipline officers is encoded in the City Charter, not in municipal ordinance. ``That was an extremely prudent decision which effectively precluded subjecting officers to the political winds which blow through any large city,'' he wrote.

The letter follows a report by the city attorney released Tuesday that advises the council that it has little authority over the inspector general position, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Police Commission and City Charter. And it represents the latest chapter in an ongoing debate over the position's scope and mission.

A staff report attached to Parks' letter analyzes each of six council recommendations, concluding that the wide-ranging powers proposed could compromise crime-fighting efforts of the Los Angeles Police Department and even threaten those of other prosecutorial and law enforcement agencies with which the LAPD cooperates.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, who chairs the council's Public Safety Committee and developed the council recommendations, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

``The council member is looking forward to a very thoughtful discussion on this matter on Monday'' in the committee meeting, said her press deputy, Kristin Vellandi.

The report argued that the inspector general position has drifted too far from its role as envisioned by the Christopher Commission.

``Expanding the inspector general's responsibility to include the conduct of investigations whenever he or she feels it to be appropriate will dilute that office and further remove it from its mission, which is oversight of the manner in which the Department handles community complaints,'' a staff report released with Parks' letter stated.

The report also questioned the recommendation of unrestricted access to department records, noting that ``absolutely no one in the entire department, except for the Chief of Police, has that level of access.''

Providing that power to the inspector general, the statement added, would ``inevitably compromise criminal investigations and severely hamper the department's ability to exchange sensitive information with the intelligence community,'' including other state, local and federal law enforcement agencies and prosecutors.