PARKS PLEDGES COOPERATION CHIEF SAYS DILIGENT ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE TO IMPLEMENT CONSENT DECREE.

Byline: Alexa Haussler Staff Writer

Despite his earlier predictions that a federal consent decree could hamper law enforcement efforts and crush officer morale, Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks said Wednesday that the department will ``enthusiastically'' carry out the reforms in an agreement accepted a day earlier by the City Council.

``The council has spoken and we will be guided by whatever the document is in its final form,'' Parks said. ``We are not going to drag our feet in our commitment.''

The Los Angeles City Council agreed Tuesday to enter into a legally binding agreement, known as a consent decree, with the U.S. Department of Justice. The deal would include a host of police reforms to be implemented under the supervision of a federal monitor.

The reforms - subject to final approval by federal and city negotiators - range from recording the race of individuals stopped by police officers to determine whether racial profiling occurs, to installing a computerized system for tracking complaints against individual officers.

Parks said department staff members, in a meeting Tuesday to discuss the consent decree, agreed to ``diligently attempt to implement it.''

Meanwhile, police union and community leaders reacted with hesitation to the agreement.

Ted Hunt, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents LAPD officers, said the council's vote occurred too early.

``The opinions of the public and the rank-and-file police haven't been considered. They are putting the cart before the horse,'' Hunt said. ``I believe we need consensus before a consent decree.''

Tuesday's vote follows months of negotiations between city and Justice Department officials, who have threatened to file a lawsuit against the city for what they call a pattern of police misconduct and civil rights violations.

Federal officials have been pushing for the consent decree - a police reform tool being used in a handful of other U.S. cities - because they said Los Angeles failed to implement reforms suggested by the Christopher Commission after the Rodney King beating case.

``I know that there are some problems with the LAPD and I believe there should be some kind of reforms. But I'm apprehensive about the federal government injecting itself into our local law enforcement problems,'' said Brendan Breslin, a volunteer police community representative for the Neighborhood Watch program in Van Nuys.

``I don't want them coming down here and mandating that we do things that could adversely affect our department,'' Breslin said.

Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, also expressed doubts.

``We should have never reached this point, had the mayor and the City Council and the Police Commission done what they were supposed to do and done what the Christopher Commission came up with,'' Murley said.

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Bernard C. Parks

Says LAPD won't drag feet

los angeles; police; lapd; issue; reform; consent decree; justice dept; reaction; chief bernard parks; city council