dictionary

Los Angeles mayor signs LAPD consent decree

CASE FILE LAPD Scandal  ALSO LAPD scandal a stark example of the failure of police reform

LEGAL RESOURCES Latest Legal News Law Library FindLaw Consumer Center Select a topic Bankruptcy Discrimination Divorce Estate Planning Landlord-Tenant Personal Injury Taxes

In this story: Decree follows long negotiations Decree includes list of reforms RELATED STORIES, SITES

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan on Friday signed a consent decree to reform the city's police department.

The agreement was approved Thursday in a city council meeting by a vote of 11-2.

The Justice Department had threatened to sue the city if it did not agree to sign the decree, which calls for sweeping reforms within the LAPD and the appointment of a federal monitor to oversee the implementation of those reforms.

For months, Riordan insisted he would never endorse such an agreement because, in his view, it would surrender the autonomy of the police department to the federal government.

Riordan said Thursday he felt it was time to accept the deal and move on.

Decree follows long negotiations

The 115-page decree is the result of protracted closed-door negotiating sessions between city officials, lawyers from the Justice Department's civil rights division and representatives of the LAPD.

The justice department claims that officers are engaging in a "pattern or practice of excessive force, false arrests, and illegal searches and seizures."

The Justice Department began focusing on the LAPD shortly after the videotaped beating of Rodney King in 1991. That incident and the department's current corruption scandal -- in which officers are accused of planting evidence, framing and even shooting innocent people -- brought the LAPD fully under the microscope.

Decree includes list of reforms

Some of the reforms listed in the decree include:

  •  Bolstering civilian oversight of LAPD

  •  Implementing a computerized system for tracking daily activities of all officers

  •  Improving internal investigations about the uses of force and misconduct complaints

  •  Increasing accountability of the police chief and police commission for police conduct

  •  Prohibiting retaliation against any employee who reports misconduct

  •  Accruing data at every citizen stop to ensure against racial profiling

  •  Answering to an independent monitor who will evaluate the city's compliance and implementation of the decree

City and federal officials have 90 days to pick a monitor. If they can't agree, each side will submit two names to the court, which will then make the selection, according to the decree.

Several city council members stressed that the decree does not mean the city was relinquishing all control to the federal government.

Defense in Los Angeles police corruption trial to finish Friday
November 3, 2000
Prosecution rests in LAPD corruption trial
October 30, 2000
LAPD officers testify they didn't see gang member with gun
October 26, 2000
Testimony in LAPD corruption trial centers on alleged gun planting
October 25, 2000
Indictments issued for two former LAPD officers
October 23, 2000
Witness testifies truck never hit LAPD officers
October 23, 2000
Judge rules testimony concerning alleged Perez murders is irrelevant
October 20, 2000

American Civil Liberties Union
Pittsburgh Police Bureau
Los Angeles Police Department Web site
Justice Department Civil Rights Division
Los Angeles County District Attorney
U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California
Federal Bureau of Investigation

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.