Pubdate: Sat, 08 May 2004
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Maureen Murray
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rampart.htm (L.A. Rampart Scandal)

POLICE SCANDALS OFTEN MORE THAN 'BAD APPLES'

Tough to Clean Own House, Expert Says

Sweeping Reforms of 'Culture' Needed

After blowing the whistle on widespread police corruption in New York City 
in the early 1970s, undercover officer Frank Serpico was shot in the face 
during a drug raid.

His fellow officers didn't come to his aid -- indeed, some believe his 
colleagues set him up.

Three decades later, police officers in North America still fear being 
labelled a "rat" -- a code of silence that protects corrupt cops and makes 
it tough for police forces to clean their own house effectively, said Erwin 
Chemerinsky, a law professor at the University of Southern California who 
has examined several U.S. police scandals.

In Toronto, the police force is reeling from its worst scandal in recent 
history, with 14 officers facing a slew of criminal and internal charges in 
three separate corruption cases. Chief Julian Fantino has made it clear he 
views the scandals as the work of a few "bad apples" among the force's 
5,100 officers, not a systemic problem.

Adamant the Toronto Police Service can do its own housecleaning, Fantino 
has ordered internal reviews and appointed a retired judge to implement 
recommendations from a 2003 inquiry into corruption.

But law-enforcement experts argue that's not enough, and point to how other 
jurisdictions have responded to similar crises with far-reaching reforms.

In the aftermath of scandal, police in Los Angeles, New York and London, 
England have taken -- or had imposed on them -- drastic measures to 
overhaul the culture of policing, including instituting powerful civilian 
watchdog agencies, encouraging and protecting whistle-blowers and 
developing early warning systems to weed out rogue behaviour.

Four years ago, Chemerinsky was asked to analyze a weighty report produced 
by the Los Angeles Police Department's board of inquiry into a massive 
corruption case that came to be known as the Rampart Scandal, after the 
LAPD division embroiled in the affair. Members of the Rampart anti-gang 
squad were implicated in crimes ranging from stealing cocaine to planting 
drugs and guns on suspects and shooting unarmed individuals.

The scale and violence of the Rampart scandal are far beyond what is 
alleged to have happened in Toronto, but the fallout from it is a textbook 
exercise in examining the response of a beleaguered police department with 
its ugly underbelly exposed.

There was much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth by the LAPD and the 
police board of inquiry ultimately produced a 362-page report. Numerous 
criminal cases are being reviewed and a slew of convictions have been 
overturned.

But in the end, Chemerinsky found that the whole process missed the mark.

"The response to Rampart was 'This was just a few bad apples; this was just 
a few bad cops,'" Chemerinsky said in a telephone interview from L.A. "I've 
looked at enough police scandals. It's always the institutional response to 
try and minimize the problem."

Chemerinsky said the investigation into the LAPD scandal failed to 
adequately consider whether the incidents of police corruption were part of 
a systemic problem. "The board of inquiry report fails to recognize that 
the central problem is the culture of the Los Angeles Police Department, 
which gave rise to and tolerated what occurred in the Rampart division," 
Chemerinsky wrote in his 150-page critique.

He recommended a comprehensive independent review of the force take place 
and a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate police misconduct in 
Los Angeles.

Ultimately the Rampart scandal led to the city's police force being 
directly accountable to the U.S. Department of Justice. The federal 
government threatened to pursue a civil-rights lawsuit against the LAPD for 
police misconduct. Settlement of the suit took the form of an extensive 
"consent decree" setting out in minute detail a plan to promote police 
integrity and prevent misconduct.

The consent decree set a host of standards for the LAPD, covering 
everything from use of force to the stopping of motorists. The L.A. police 
force must also publish regular audits so the internal workings of the 
department can be independently assessed. The reforms of the department 
were also to be monitored by a U.S. federal judge for five years.

Chemerinsky said the LAPD has come a long way in cleaning up its act, but 
not far enough. For example, there still isn't enough protection for those 
who speak up about corruption. The LAPD officers he had spoken to, 
Chemerinsky said, "were afraid that if they blew the whistle, the next time 
they were in trouble, no one would be watching their back."

In Toronto, Fantino has promised the force will introduce whistle-blower 
protection and dedicated phone lines where officers can report on dirty cops.

But the recent scandals in Toronto make it a good time to start asking 
tough questions about the culture of the police force, rather than just 
focusing on a few rogue cops, said Simon Holdaway, a visiting professor at 
the University of Toronto's Centre for Criminology.

"There seems to be quite a basket of rotten apples there and that means 
there is something wrong with the barrel," said Holdaway, who is the 
director of the Centre for Criminological Research at the University of 
Sheffield in England.

"A moment will be lost in this great city if this is just limited to 
looking at police corruption and a few bad apples. You have to look at 
police culture."

While Canadians are quick to compare themselves with the U.S., Holdaway 
thinks that, in the case of policing, it is more appropriate to look to 
England.

"Policing in America is highly politicized. A police chief is appointed by 
the mayor. The chief is more accountable to the mayor than to the public."

Holdaway, who worked as a police officer for 11 years, believes the current 
crisis in Toronto would be unfolding very differently if it had occurred in 
his homeland. "I don't think we would have got into Fantino orchestrating 
everything if this had been London."

Holdaway also was critical of the Toronto Police Services Board for not 
taking a more proactive role in setting up its own review of the problems 
plaguing the force.

"There is a question mark over the Toronto force," he said. "The chief can 
help this by opening up the door and the police services board can help by 
pushing at the door."

In England, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary -- which reports to 
the British Home Office -- would be deeply involved. Its stable of 
independent inspectors routinely monitor police forces throughout England 
and Wales and keep a close watch on scandals, sometimes conducting their 
own investigations, Holdaway said.

There is also a national civilian oversight agency called the Independent 
Police Complaints Commission, which has recently had its powers broadened. 
Its mandate includes investigating serious or organized allegations of 
police corruption.

As a result of a spate of corruption cases about 20 years ago, London's 
Metropolitan Police Service established an extensive internal 
anti-corruption branch, Holdaway said.

In 1998, the anti-corruption squad was doubled to 120 officers and the top 
police brass informed the public they feared there were up to 250 crooked 
cops lurking in the force of 30,000 officers.

"The anti-corruption branch is very vigorous. If an officer is suspected by 
the anti-corruption branch, they will set someone up to leave money or 
drugs and see if the individual takes the bait," Holdaway said.

In New York City, a civilian watchdog keeps a similarly close eye on the 
police, the result of a long history of corruption cases.

"Historically, about every 20 years a scandal has broken out in the NYPD," 
said Julie Block, who heads up the Commission to Combat Police Corruption, 
which was set up in 1995 to break the cycle.

A major commission has followed each crisis, including the Knapp Commission 
where Serpico made his stunning 1971 revelations of systemic bribe-taking 
and links to organized crime.

Following yet another scandal in the early 1990s, a permanent civilian 
entity was established strictly to monitor the issue of police corruption. 
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani set up the Commission to Combat 
Police Corruption, a permanent civilian entity that monitors how the force 
addresses and investigates allegations of internal misconduct.

"We sit down with investigators," said Block. "We randomly choose cases and 
do spot checks. We look at whether they have been adequately investigated 
and closed properly."

The agency also publishes studies analyzing how various aspects of the 
NYPD's anti-corruption procedures are operating. Block said the city's 
police department has come to accept that they are stuck with the agency 
for better or worse.

"It's kind of like a bad marriage. We've decided to stay together for the 
sake of the kids," she said.

But Block praised the concerted efforts of the senior command in the last 
decade to institute a number of internal measures to stamp out corruption.

There is a special number the public can call to report alleged police 
wrongdoing and it's advertised on the department's Web site. There is also 
a private number police officers can call and their conversation won't be 
recorded, Block said.

The New York force has a Profile and Assessment Committee made up of 
high-ranking officers, who are responsible for identifying and more closely 
supervising police who have a high number of complaints filed against them 
with the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board. A separate unit identifies 
and monitors officers seen to have disciplinary problems. As well, each 
police precinct in New York has an Integrity Control Officer, whose role is 
to watch for and report misconduct at the station level.

"I think there has been a change in the climate of the department itself," 
Block said. "In the old days, people were protecting a house of 
prostitution and the payoff went all the way up the chain. Now the cases 
you come across are more on an individual basis."

Still, reports by the Commission to Combat Police Corruption suggest the 
force's internal mechanisms do not operate perfectly and could be supported 
with greater resources.

Block argued this is why it is so important to have a hybrid of internal 
vigilance within the police department, coupled with close civilian monitoring.

The bottom line, she said, is the police shouldn't be policing themselves.

"Just the fact we exist has value. If you know someone is looking over your 
shoulder, human nature is going to make you dot your I's and cross your T's."
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager