THE SECRET SIDE OF LAPD DESPITE PAST SCANDAL, BIG BROTHER ACTIVITIES GO UNCHECKED.

Byline: Beth Barrett and Josh Kleinbaum Staff Writers

Mandatory annual Police Commission audits of the LAPD's anti-terrorism activities haven't been conducted for more than seven years, in defiance of a requirement intended to end police abuses of keeping secret dossiers on prominent individuals, the Daily News has learned.

Anti-terrorist efforts have expanded dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, but the last Police Commission audit on record is for fiscal 1997, heightening concerns of civil liberties groups as well as some police officials about the potential for abuse.

``It looks like Big Brother is back in town,'' said Mark Rosenbaum, the ACLU of Southern California's legal director and one of the attorneys who negotiated the settlement with the city. ``They need to explain why (the audits) have not taken place, and set up procedures for an audit to take place immediately.''

A copy the 1997 audit, which was obtained by the Daily News, offers a rare public window into the often secret activities of the LAPD's anti- terrorism unit.

The department-mandated audits of the Major Crimes Division, which contains the Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Section, were a key condition of a $1.8 million settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California in 1984 after a high-profile department scandal.

While the settlement conditions expired in the mid-1990s, LAPD departmental guidelines continued to require the Police Commission to perform the audit.

Lt. Paul Vernon, an LAPD spokesman, said Chief William Bratton would not comment because it is a Police Commission matter.

Saul Romo, the civilian head of the commission's policy section, provided no explanation why the audits were discontinued other than to say ``workload issues'' came up.

Commission Vice President Alan Skobin, the civilian board's liaison to LAPD's anti-terrorism unit, said he became aware the audits were not being done about a year ago. He said he was waiting until the department's inspector general, Andre Birotte, had sufficient resources to restart the monitoring program.

In the meantime, Skobin said, he received regular briefings from the department that ensured the section was running properly.

The audits became required under department guidelines after the ACLU settlement involving disclosure of the activities of the LAPD's Public Disorder Intelligence Division, which kept extensive secret files on public officials and prominent civilians. Then the department was accused of numerous abuses involving how those files were used after then-LAPD Detective Jay S. Paul was found to have stored more than 100 boxes of sensitive dossiers in his home and garage and shared some of the material with right-wing individuals and groups.

The LAPD in 1983 disbanded the tainted PDID, replacing it with an Anti-Terrorist Division.

``The public audit process was an indispensable part of the settlement with the city because in the past the police had operated very much secretly in compiling dossiers on individuals and groups on political dissent; it was a political surveillance operation (with information) shared with private organizations and individuals,'' Rosenbaum said.

``The settlement would not have taken place without assurances it was monitored so the public (would be) assured there would be no Big Brother operation.''

The settlement included court monitoring, which ended in the mid-1990s.

Councilman Bernard Parks, LAPD chief from 1997 to early 2002, said he assumed the audits were being done because the department had committed itself to retaining the same guidelines after the court monitoring was lifted. He said that during his tenure, the department did its own internal audits of the anti-terror unit, even temporarily shutting it down after internal investigative files were found improperly stored in a detective's desk.

``We had tight controls and overview of what was going on; it was my assumption (the commission audit for the public) was done routinely,'' Parks said.

Retired Cmdr. Walt Mitchell, who oversaw the Anti-Terrorist Division from 1986 to 1989, said it was his understanding that when court oversight ended, the commission intended the audits and oversight guidelines to continue.

Mitchell said without the audits, the department would ``risk flipping back to what got it in trouble in the first place.''

Retired Deputy Chief Ron Bergmann, who was a lieutenant with the Anti-Terrorist Division from 1987 to 1990, said he was surprised the audits had stopped.

``It was something required by the guidelines and done religiously when I was there,'' Bergmann said. ``It's hard to believe someone at the commission would just stop doing them. That's the check and balance built into the guidelines, that the commission will oversee what ATD is doing to make sure they (are) not keeping investigators' notes they're not supposed to have, and to ensure ATD doesn't become another PDID.''

Gus Drulias, a lieutenant with both the former Public Disorder Intelligence Division and the Anti-Terrorist Division, believes the department's internal checks and balances are sufficient.

With the LAPD working with more classified information in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Police Commission audit may not be feasible, said Drulias, who does contract work with the Department of Homeland Security for a private company.

``With the Patriot Act and other things that have changed the way our society operates, it may not even be appropriate or legal to do (a public audit),'' Drulias said. ``It's a tough call. As an outsider looking into the department, I don't see anything that would make me feel the least bit insecure.''

Because of changes in the department's counterterrorism division after 9-11, the Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Section is now part of the Major Crimes Division under the Counter-Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau - and the department must re-evaluate the scope of any new audits.

That scope is being discussed, Skobin said, with the old audits - which he said he hadn't yet seen - serving as benchmarks. Skobin said he'll be personally involved in the audits.

``I didn't want to rush in without the resources and not do it right,'' Skobin said.

The current guidelines for the annual Major Crimes Division review require auditors - under the supervision of a committee made up of two commissioners appointed by the commission president - to prepare a confidential written report for the board. The board then is to prepare a public report.

The audit is to include a review of all intelligence investigations conducted in the prior year, interviews with personnel, and a review of all materials gathered, received, developed or maintained.

According to the 1997 audit, there were 132 open terrorist investigations - 95 on individuals, 28 on terrorist groups and nine on potential victims.

That was down 42 percent from 1995 and the audit concluded the drop was due to guidelines implemented after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which made it easier to open new investigations.

Under the previous guidelines, detectives were hesitant to close cases because they would be difficult to reopen, according to the audit.

``During the public discussions of the proposed changes to the guidelines in 1995 and 1996, many members of the public and groups such as the ACLU indicated a fear that relaxing the guidelines would allow ATD to resume the disregard for privacy and constitutional rights for which the defunct Public Disorder Intelligence Division had been accused,'' the audit said. ``The changes appear to have had the opposite effect.''

The audit noted that by scrutinizing the cases and closing those that ``consumed scarce resources for little evident gain,'' the unit was better able to concentrate on the individuals and groups ``who present the most significant threats.''

Beth Barrett, [phone]

beth.barrett(at)dailynews.com