Pubdate: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 Source: Los Angeles Daily News (CA) Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Group Contact: http://www.dailynews.com/writealetter Website: http://www.dailynews.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/246 Author: Rachel Uranga, Staff Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States) GANG, NARCOTICS COPS THREATEN TO WALK Some 500 LAPD gang and narcotics officers are threatening to retire or change jobs if the city follows through on a proposal forcing them to reveal their personal finances, union officials said. A financial-disclosure proposal set to be considered by the five-member civilian police commission Thursday would be the last major hurdle to comply with a seven-year old federal consent decree meant to root out police corruption. Under the proposal, all gang and narcotics officers with the rank of lieutenant or below must provide a detailed list of their finances including all their properties, past-due credit card debts, outside income, stocks, bonds and checking accounts. "No other law enforcement agency in the country forces its officers to share this kind of information," police union President Tim Sands said in a prepared statement. "This financial disclosure plan is an unnecessary and ill-conceived intrusion into the private lives of LAPD officers, their spouses and their children." The decree, which arose out of the Rampart corruption scandal implicating several officers on a gang detail of framing and beating suspects, has been a top priority for LAPD Chief William Bratton, a former consent decree monitor. Bratton was vacationing Tuesday. First Assistant Chief Sharon Papa said she could not comment on a matter that would be considered by the Police Commission in closed session. Under the proposal, financial disclosure would be phased in over two years. Incumbent officers would not have to report for two years but all newly assigned officers must divulge their finances within 10 days of their assignment. In one Valley gang division, a supervisor predicted that the rules would spark an exodus from an already struggling unit. "Everyone here is walking except for one dope (narcotics) cop," said the supervisor, who declined to be named. Though decree reforms have been departmentwide, it's the gang units that have seen some of the most intense scrutiny. Many in the unit are already resentful of the amount of paperwork the heavily scrutinized officers must do, he said. "I already have a hard time recruiting here; nobody wants to leave a job that is good to come here," he said. The reform is only one of dozens forced by the federal consent decree that radically shifted the way the LAPD conducted day-to-day police work after the Department of Justice found "a pattern or practice of excessive force, false arrests, and illegal searches and seizures." Under the decree negotiated by then-Mayor James Hahn to head off a Justice Department lawsuit, the LAPD has implemented TEAMS II, a complicated officer-tracking system that aims to root out troublemakers. It also prohibited the use of secret informants, demanded that gang officers be uniformed, created an integrity section and instituted a massive audit division. But the police union and others doubt whether the financial-disclosure proposal will reveal bad officers who hide money in trust funds with family members, in property and elsewhere. "I am puzzled by this," said Robert Stern, the president of the nonprofit Center for Governmental Studies. "Usually, (financial disclosure) is meant to prevent conflicts, not corruption. I always say that the ones who want to be corrupt will be corrupt and won't disclose." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom