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~~~~~~~~~~~~~:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~e: LOS ~GELES TIMES
Edition: THURS . I-1AR 28 , 19 91
FRONT SECTION, PAGE 1
Gates Offers Plan to Revive.
Confidence in the LAPD
'
-• Police: Ex-state. Justice Arguelles will head panel
examining misconduct. Rights leaders criticize program.
By HECTOR TOBAR
TIMES STAFF WRITER
In a sweeping program to restore
confidence in a Police Department
tarnished by the videotaped beating
of Rodney G. King, Chief Daryl
F. Gates announced Wednesday a
10-point plan to examine the caus- _
• KING INVESTIGATED
New armed robbery allegations
against beating victim Rodney
King are being investigated. 81
es of police misconduct and improve
community relations.
Gates said he has asked retired
state Supreme Court Justice John
Arguelles to chair a five-member
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LOS ANGELES A
panel that will examine incidents in
which officers have used excessive
force and recommend reforms of
LAPD policies.
. Other elements of the plan include
a psychological profile of
officers who commit violent acts
and an extensive review of department
training procedures ..
"We must look for any and all
conditions that may have contributed
to the development of attitudes
and patterns of behavior that
could have led to this kind of gross
misconduct," Gates said.
The chief added that the Police
Department must develop improved
methods for teaching recruits
"a reverence for the law"
and "a more compassiopate_!JJlderstanding"
of the city's cultural
diversity.
High-ranking department officials
said the plan was the product
of 2lh weeks of meetings between
the chief and his top assistants as
the . department attempts to. re-
. !;!pond to one of the worst crises in
its recent history.
One of the LAPD officials involved
in drafting the plan, Cmdr.
Bob Gil of the press relations
section, said the beating .had
prompted a much-needed self-reflection
within the department.
Gil said the department recognizes
it has its share of bad officers.
"Officers are found guilty of a
whole range of things," he said.
"We discipline those people; it
exists. This [the King beating]
shows that things were getti~g a
little lax ..•. Something happened
here. Let's look at our:.
selves."
Gates and the Police Department
have come under intense criticism
since the March 3 beating of King,
whQ was struck more than 50 times
by officers wielding batons. Recorded
on videotape, the incident
has become a national symbol of
police brutality, prompting calls for
Gates to resign.
The Los Angeles County Grand
Jury indicted four officers in the
incident on March 15.
T~: GATES OFFERS PLAN TO
REVIVE CONFIDENCE IN THE
LAPD
CIVIL RIGHTS
Character:
or
Classification: 8 0-3 3 B
SUbmitting Office:
LOS ~GELES
Indexing:
I ·The measures announced
Wednesday by Gates were almost
immediately· criticized by civil
rights leaders who have called for
the chief to step down from the
post he has held for 13 years.
"These are minor, insignificant
steps, designed to quell the
.calls for Chief Gates' resignation,"
said Ramona Ripston of the American
Civil Liberties Union.
"We welcome any changes that
the Los Angeles Police Department
is going to implement to
make itself more responsible to this.
community," Ripston continued.
"'However, this does nothing to
solve the problems of the department.
The department needs new,
vigorous leadership with inn ova­
Uve ideas about policing."
In a 'tacit admission that the
pub!ic has lost confidence in the
department's ability to police itself,
the chiefs 10-point program includes
sending teams of police
supervisors to make unannounced
spot checks on field officers. The
program will also establish a tollfree
telephon.e hot line for citizens
to report complaints of excessive
force. ·
.Other elements of the program
announced by Gates:
• Dr. Martin Reiser, .the department's
chief psychologis~. ·wm profile
officers involved in the King
beating and other cases of police
abuse. His findings will be used in
the department's screening of new
recrui~. ·
• The depariment will strengthen
its system of random monitoring
of both voice and computer communications
between officers.
Some of the officers who partici-.
pated in the King beating were
found to have made racial slurs in
computer mes~ages just before the
incident.
• The LAPD's Planl}ing andRe~
search Division will conduct quar~
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