officers - The Black Vault

FP~5C (R~v. 5·8·81 )
. . ..
·
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
i lnexpenence
of officers cited
··in King beatiiig
· By Jaxon Van Derbeken
Daily News Staff Writer
At least 10 of the LAPD officers at the
scene of the Rodney Glen King beating -
.including two offour who have been indicted
·-had less than four years experience on the
force, officials said Wednesday.
Chief Daryl F. Gates acknowledged at a
hearing before the City Council that the King
case is an example ofilie type ofbreakdowns
.that can occur because the department has a
large number of inexperienced officers.
Officials said 2, 197 of the Los Angeles Police
Department's 5,774 patrol officers- 38
percent - have three years or less experience,
and rookie officers are often trained in
the field by officers with little more experience.
· . . ,
Gates told ilie council that he has ordered
(Indicate page, name of
newspaper, city and state.)
Date: DAILY NEWS
Edition: THURS • MAR 21 , 1991
FRONT SECTION, PAGE 1
TiHe:
INEXPERIENCE OF OFFICERS
CITED IN KING BEATING
Character: CIVIL RIGHTS
or
Classification: 80 _ 3 3 B
Submitting Office:
IDS ANGELES
Indexing:
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SEARCHED·--- INOEXED·---1
5£AIAIJZED·--- fiLEQ.-._. ___ 1
MAR 2 6 1991
FBI -
LOS ANGELES
number of retirements and trans- training milkS that was approved
fers to other departments.. by the City Council in July
a "brick by brick" review of the Virtually all of new officers are 1990. ·
department's training procedures assigned to patrol duty, officials to counter a shortage of expeto
determine whether officers said. rienced training officers to pair
have been properly instructed to "Virtually ev.ery car i.n the with rookies, the plan elevated
use force only when necessary. ·... street has a. (rookie) probat10nary about 600 patrol officers to the
"I h. kind f- .d . . officer working in it these days," role of temporary field training .
. n t at ? rap_1 mcrease said Capt. Dan Watson of the de- . officers .
. m_Personnel, were gou~g to have partment's Planning and Re- Each ofthe temporary training
failures ~nd ~e ce~8:mly hav~ search Division. officers had to pass the same
had a f9;llure m th1s mst~nce, . Of the 21 LAPD officers who written and oral tests that perina- ·
Gates said. J were at the scene of King's beat- nent training officers face, and
. "Even though I think our train- 'ing on March 3, at least 10 have they were given the same 5.5 per- :
ing is the best we could possibly less than four years experience- cent pay hike that goes with the ·
have, I've ordered up a complete including Laurence Powell and expanded duty.
examination of our training; Timothy Wind, who are among But the emergency order rebrick
by brick, _in the area of use the four officers indicted in th~ quired that they revert to·thei t
of force;" he said. ·case. - former rank of patrol officer aft
"We've 'h~d a problem with Wind was a rookie who was completing the training of r
having enough training officers · ·hired last year and had not yet ies assigned to them. At least d
to provide the direction (to rook- completed his .Probationary year · temporary training officer