officers - The Black Vault

1
FD-350 (Rev. 5-8-81)
•
(Mount Clipping in Space Below)
! More ihall-150 at :Foothill
I are cooperating with FBI
By Jaxon Van Derbeken
Daily News Staff Writer
Although many officers initially
blocked investigators by invoking
their constitutional rights,
more than 1 SO Foothill Division
LAPD officers have agreed to answer
questions in the FBI's civil
rights investigation, officials said
Thursday.
Thomas Jones, the FBI's chief
spokesman in Washington, D.C.,
·described the interviews as
"courteous and professional,"
and said the officers did not
claim they were pressured to cooperate
- which under FBI policy
would have prevented the
. questioning.
,See FBI I Pg. 13
, Officers claim ._o_ pressure to talk:
, FBI I From Page 1
"The key to this is that they were
not subjects on an investigation,
but witnesses," Jones said.
George Aliano, the president of
the Los Angeles Police Protective
1 League, which advised officers to
, claim they were under duress before
answering questions, said he
was surprised so many officers
chose to ignore that advice.
"I'm surprised in that we were
left with the impression that people
were going to follow the advice,"
Aliano said. "I guess they
had nothing to hide."
On March 25, federal agents be-
, gan an investigation of the 240-officer
Foothill Division to determine
whether the March 3 beating of
Rodney King was part of a pattern
of civil rights abuses there.
!
FBI officials planned to question
all officers who worked at the divi- I
sion, but were forced to terminate
1
dozens of interviews after officers ~
- on the advice of the union - 1
stated at the outset that they were :
under duress to cooperate in viola- i
tion of their constitutional rights. :
FBI policy permits only volun- .
tary interviews of witnesses in an .1
investigation, Jones said - and ~1
more than 150 officers ev~ntually I!
1
came forward and agreed to be
questioned without claiming they 1
were pressured to do so.
I
The interview phase of the investigation
was completed this I
week. Jones said. :
· The deadline to complete a pre- :
liminary report of the FBI investi- 'I
gation was initially set at 21 days, I
·but Jones said the limit is not set in 1
stone.
1,
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