PUBLIC FORUM LAPD MANAGERS COULD USE EFFECTIVE PARENTING SKILLS.

Fixing the LAPD? Why not try a few simple parenting skills? A few thoughts on parenting the LAPD from a 28-year veteran of the department:

--It appears management is too focused on itself (i.e., promotions, status and increased salaries). Parents who focus on themselves and not their children get more ``material things,'' while their children feel neglected and often get into trouble due to lack of parental supervision and positive family team-building.

--Management is seldom observed making personal sacrifices for their subordinates. Officers are asked to sacrifice for the department but not vice versa. Effective parents regularly make unconditional personal sacrifices so their children are nurtured and cared for.

--Management and subordinates must be held equally accountable for their actions. Parents who set good examples and hold themselves accountable for their actions most often will have children who respect them and try to live by their example.

There is one common thread that runs through almost every officer. They come from families and understand family structure. The LAPD calls itself a family but seldom acts like it. Maybe, just maybe, applying proven, old-fashioned effective parenting to management principles will help in calming this storm. Let's become a family again.

- Ronald N. Moen

La Crescenta

Since the majority of the employees of the LAPD are hard-working, honest, dedicated and unable to recognize the criminals sitting next to them during roll call, it only makes sense to bring in the feds. If supporters of the department actually think the reform can come from within, they need to remember how the whole mess was started in the first place.

The rule of thumb is, the majority often has the final say in any situation. In this case, the majority has shown its true colors.

- Richard Mena

Pacoima

The consent decree is a start in curing the LAPD's ills. Local oversight is not a possible remedy. The Police Commission has been ineffectual or else the decades-long history would not have been documented by the Christopher Commission and others.

Those objecting to federal intrusion ignore history. Always the critics proclaimed ``one bad cop'' doesn't contaminate the many fine officers. The silence of the individual officer was assured by the fellow officers' silent treatment toward him. The police union rarely, if at all, condemned the actions of transgressing officers, no matter how serious the charge against the individual.

Local circumstances discourage any local remedy. Only federal intervention and judicial oversight will restore respect to the LAPD. Perhaps many high-ranking officers, silent during the creation of the above ``history'' will consider retirement.

- Glenn W. Rosen

Los Angeles 

If former President Harry Truman were either mayor of Los Angeles or its police chief and were asked, who is responsible for the Rampart Division police scandal, his answer would have been, ``The buck stops here.''

- Louis Robins

Van Nuys

The LAPD today is as defeated as the U.S. Army was at the end of the Vietnam War. As in that disaster, the primary responsibility lies with those directly in command. In Vietnam, it was the career officer corps of the Army. With the LAPD, it is the management class who are directly accountable. The parallels are striking:

The LAPD brass always has opted for the pursuit of numbers and ``re- cap'' of arrests, citations, and evidence seizures rather than the difficult, long-term struggle necessary to bring about community-oriented policing. From Chief Gates' Hammer Task Forces of the '80s through Parks' FASTRAC numbers game of the '90s, they always have preferred 1950s statistical puffery rather than substance. In so doing, they paralleled their Army predecessors who opted for search-and-destroy and body counts.

LAPD management has evolved into a self-serving class who send others out to fight while their own efforts have no other purpose than their next promotion and the acquisition of ever more perks (such as their taxpayer- paid take-home cars). They resemble the high-ranking officers in Vietnam who stayed in air-conditioned base camps in the rear while ordering others into the bush.

Like the Army brass in Vietnam, when things go wrong, the LAPD brass will do its best to put the blame on a convenient sergeant or lieutenant. Gates put the blame for the LAPD's failure in the 1992 riots on the lieutenant on duty at the moment. Now, in their Board of Inquiry report, brass are doing their best to blame the complete failure of their policies on police supervisors at Rampart.

No amount of lame excuses or finger-pointing at the politicians should distract us from these facts. Every LAPD command officer of the rank of captain or above should be subjected to a Board of Fitness review in order to reconstitute the LAPD. This process should begin with the resignation of Bernard C. Parks and the appointment of an interim police commissioner from outside the current command structure to run the department.

- R.E. Young

Lieutenant colonel, USAR (retired)

La Crescenta

A corporate executive would lose the job if he or she allowed $3 million merchandise to be checked out, taken home by a lowest-echelon employee. After 10 prior years supervising 85 percent of LAPD's division operations, with special authority for Rampart division, and after two years as chief executive, LAPD Chief Bernard Parks had no controls, allowed $3 million in cocaine evidence to be easily checked out - taken by Officer Rafael Perez. Clear parallel. Parks should go.

- Joan Taylor

Los Angeles

Recent reforms at the LAPD have been going on since 1992 when the voters passed Charter Amendment F, which transformed the chief of police into the political puppet we have today. Chief Williams could not play effective politics and make the LAPD work efficiently. LAPD's current management has been ineffective, as evidenced by the invasion of the U.S. Justice Department and the threatened civil rights lawsuit.

The Christopher Commission Reform package was introduced in 1992. While some of the proposals have been implemented, major modifications are still waiting in the wings. Following Christopher Commission Reform proposals, Charter Amendment F was passed in 1992 by the voters. The Charter Reform Commission also made recommendations for LAPD reforms. We now have the LAPD's own reform package, known as the Board of Inquiry Report. This report calls for more reforms.

When will we get it right? How many times and how many millions of dollars do we have to spend examining the LAPD before we finally get it right?

Who is responsible for the mess at the LAPD? Everyone, except for the dedicated and demoralized LAPD officers who continue working day after day.

- Ted Hunt,

President

- Dennis Zine,

Vice president

Los Angeles Police Protective League

A bunch of gangbangers who are guilty as hell are being let out of jail and are going to sue the city and collect millions of taxpayers' dollars. Why? Because a bunch of overzealous cops who had enough evidence to put these punks away had to make sure they would get convictions, so they planted evidence, falsified police reports, lied under oath and broke the very laws they swore to uphold.

Fixing the Los Angeles Police Department could be a snap, but of course I'm pipe-dreaming to even suggest what I am about to say. If the LAPD's pension fund had to pay for the lawsuits and judgments we taxpayers get stuck with because of bad apples and corrupt cops, you would soon see the code of silence go down the tube. You would see cops policing themselves, resulting in the cleanest, most incorrupt police force in the United States. But, like I said, I'm pipe-dreaming.

- Frank G. Carlisi

Calabasas

The LAPD is the preeminent police department of all the large cities in the USA because it covers a larger area, with a greater population, with fewer officers.

The old adage still applies: ``If it ain't broke, don't fix it.''

- Herb Wiener

Encino

So far, we have more than 70 people released from prison and three officers who may be charged with a crime. Hard to believe? It sure is.

We do need a complete investigation that includes the District Attorney's Office and the chief of police. We know the City Council approves payoffs to settle huge claims for the bad cops being sued. They then are allowed to remain on the force. Why? These payoffs should be made public along with the name of the officer charged. We pay the bill. We have a right to know what we are paying for.

We also need to question the prosecutors who knowingly prosecute people with tainted evidence.

We had Rodney King. No changes. We had O.J. Simpson and now Rampart, which is, of course, a joke. Rampart is the tip of the iceberg. A pattern and practice of the LAPD.

People are complacent because most of us believe nothing will change. Those in charge are part of the problem. It is revolting to see them fight to keep the status quo.

- Cora Byrd

Van Nuys

It is obvious from the May 16 story on the Supreme Court opinion (``Rape victims barred from filing federal suits'') that the takeover of LAPD by the Justice Department is unconstitutional and should be fought.

- Phil Kridler

Valley Glen

The Federal Department of Justice wants to take over the LAPD. The same Department of Justice that uses military assault troops to settle custody disputes. The department that presided over the wrongful killing of a mother holding her baby in her arms at Ruby Ridge. The same department that illegally provided elements in the White House with 1,000 FBI folders on their political enemies.

Under the Justice Department, the FBI criminal laboratories became so corrupt they fabricated evidence in hundreds of cases. The federal government cannot guard even our most sensitive information, whether at nuclear labs, the state department, or on laptop computers at the CIA. The same Justice Department that engaged in wrongful prosecution of innocents at the White House travel office and blocked investigation of military secrets sold to the Chinese. And the list goes on and on. These are the bureaucrats who would like to gain control over our LAPD.

We all know a great amount of work needs to be done with our Police Department. I trust Richard Riordan. Bernard Parks is not my first choice as chief, but I would much rather have him than the feds.

Ideally, I would like to see Mark Kroeker head up a commission of his own choosing. He is a man of unquestioned integrity who has unique knowledge of the LAPD and is tough enough to carry out the mission.

- Stewart Deats

Woodland Hills

There is no longer a Rampart scandal - what we have now is the Los Angeles city government scandal. We are faced with the unforgivable prospect of the Los Angeles Police Department being taken over by the federal government because our hopelessly inept City Council has been doing everything but seeing to the needs of the city.

Things like sports centers, convention halls, resisting implementation of the new Charter, the possible secession of the San Fernando Valley, and protecting their own little fiefdoms have been far more important than the reorganization of the police department.

With few exceptions, they are all political hacks, making deals and getting deals for their cronies, like not bidding out the new management contract for the Greek Theatre. If the people of Los Angeles don't know by now how badly they have been cheated and ignored by the city government, they will never, ever know. Maybe the feds should take over the city as well as the police department.

- Harlan Campbell

Tujunga

The purported federalizing of county departments in Los Angeles via consent decrees is not a threat to our sovereignty and is not surprising. Corruption and waste abound, evidenced by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, Los Angeles Unified School District and now the Los Angeles Police Department.

The amazing thing is, after all the legal fees have been spent and tax money depleted, no one has been indicted for the MTA and Belmont fiascoes, and no one has been fired or thrown out of office. The voters seem to consent to irresponsible leadership and are apathetic about conflicts of interest concerning the landfill in Granada Hills and civil rights cases for false arrest, which will cost Los Angeles millions.

It is a close call to see which federally aided disaster is bigger, the Northridge Earthquake or the alphabet agencies and departments of Los Angeles and their unacceptable instances of corruption, injustice and money squandered. Since our consent has been vitiated by fraud, perhaps we should rescind politicians' appointments and elections as soon as possible.

- Leigh Datzker

Woodland Hills

I would like reform of the LAPD to be handled by a consent decree and a full public investigation conducted by a truly independent entity completely separate and apart from the LAPD, Police Commission, Inspector General, or any other agency affiliated with the city.

These departments - and, yes, also the mayor, City Council, District Attorney's Office and city attorney, and our entire judicial system - have, for the most part, turned a blind eye to the truth and thus far have been ineffective in overseeing, acknowledging and rectifying officer misconduct.

I see no reason to think that this time things will be different.

- Harriet K. Bilford

Northridge

The most tragic thing to remember about the so-called Rampart scandal is that we are putting cops in jail and letting criminals out. Close examination shows that they are criminals. One of them went on to commit murder. We have also been told they were in jail because evidence was planted, but we now learn most of them are getting off for unreasonable search and seizure.

I concur with the Constitution's intent to protect innocent people from an overbearing government. But ironically, criminals get out of jail free, but innocent people have no recourse. Now the U.S. Justice Department - which conducts unreasonable seizures of innocent people - may be called in to discipline LAPD for conducting unreasonable searches of guilty people.

- Mike North

West Hills