officers - The Black Vault

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possible stage of the selection process.
A five-year ierm would be sufficient
to permit implementation of a management
philosophy and to ensure that a
police chief will administer the department
in accordance with the public will
and the Constitution. Making it five
years would keep the process out of the
normal election cycle ana minimize
partisan politic~! influence. , , .
The essence of our constitutional
form of government is the system of
checks and balances. The power given
·to an official by the people must be
equaled by the power ·PUt into checks
and balances . to protect against abuse
of that official power. A limited term of
office would restore to Los Angeles
some institutional and democratic
checks on the enormous .authority
delegated to the chief of police.
Under such a charter amendment,
the people could expect a chief who is
disposed to respecting the Constitution
and the public he or she is sworn to
serve, and who would provide exemplary
leadership to the entire Police
Department and law-enforcement
community. Equally important, the
public could then expect a chief who is
interested in providing sensitive and
thoughtful comment, and who refrains
from racially insensitive and senselessly
provocative "free speech."
Such a reform would also provide
Los Angeles residents, through their
democratically elected representatives,
with the means to select a new chief of
police at the ~nd of his or her term of
office, should tht;l people's will be
ignored.
Meir J. W.estreich and R. Samuel Paz
are civil-rights attorneys in Los Angeles;
Paz is a member of the Hispanic
Advisory Commission. Joseph H. Duff is
president of the Los Angeles Branch of
the National Assn. for the Advancement
of Colored People.