LAT: L.A. in Peril of Another Rampart Scandal, Panel Finds

[DeepModem Mom]

L.A. in Peril of Another Rampart Scandal, Panel Finds
A task force urges the department to add officers and replace 'warrior policing' with methods that are community-friendly.
By Patrick McGreevy, Times Staff Writer
July 12, 2006

Despite extensive reform in the seven years since the Rampart Division police corruption scandal, Los Angeles is at risk of similar crises unless the LAPD is significantly expanded and trades its "warrior policing" model for a more community- friendly problem-solving style, a city task force warned today.

The Blue Ribbon Rampart Review Panel set out to provide a final accounting of what city officials characterize as one of the most serious police corruption scandals in American history.

Nine officers were criminally charged and 23 were fired or suspended, 156 felony convictions were invalidated due to suspected police misconduct and the city paid $70 million to settle civil rights lawsuits brought by victims.

Yet even now, the panel found, police supervisors fail to provide adequate oversight and control of officers — a key problem in the Rampart scandal. And the panel faulted the criminal justice system in Los Angeles for lacking sufficient checks to prevent officers from lying or fabricating evidence.

The panel was appointed in 2003 by the city's Police Commission at the request of Chief William J. Bratton to examine the LAPD's response to allegations of widespread abuse by officers from the Rampart Division's Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) unit, which was formed to crack down on street gangs....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rampart12jul12,0,110386.story?coll=la-home-local

[saigon68]

1. 'warrior policing'

OOO GOODY

[MadHound]

2. "Another" scandal?

Puhleeeze, the LA Police Department has been nothing but one long, ongoing, multi-chaptered scandal for the past forty plus years.

[Barkley]

3. Ya still think O.J. wasn't framed?

"Yet even now, the panel found, police supervisors fail to provide adequate oversight and control of officers — a key problem in the Rampart scandal {and in the movie "Crash" and the movie "Biggie & Tupac"}."

And the panel faulted the criminal justice system in Los Angeles for lacking sufficient checks to prevent officers from lying or fabricating evidence {a key problem in the O.J. Simpson trial and the Murder of Tupac Shakur}.