L.A. officials considering federal oversight of police

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Los Angeles officials began debating a proposal by the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday to give the federal government oversight of the city's scandal-plagued police department.

Most Los Angeles officials, including Mayor Richard Riordan and police chief Bernard Parks, have agreed to sign a binding agreement giving the Justice Department oversight, but some city council members remain opposed.

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The council began working its way through the 84-page "consent decree" as Riordan and Parks met in Washington, D.C., with Attorney General Janet Reno to update her on the status of Los Angeles Police Department reform.

"In sharing with Ms. Reno the status of City Council deliberations on the recommendations of our negotiating team, I expressed confidence that an agreement can be crafted to meet both the Department of Justice's interests and the city's interests," Riordan said in a statement.

After a four-year investigation into the LAPD, which has spent the past year mired in the so-called Rampart Station corruption scandal, the DOJ issued city leaders an ultimatum: Accept the agreement or face a federal civil rights lawsuit.

"We think if we honestly sit down and roll up our sleeves in good faith negotiations we should be able to resolve these issues," City Attorney James Hahn said.

The Rampart scandal, which broke last year when rogue officer Rafael Perez confessed to stealing cocaine from an evidence locker and began detailing pervasive corruption in the station, is considered one of the worst scandals in the department's history.

More than 30 officers have been suspended, fired or forced out in the scandal, in which officers framed, beat and even shot innocent people. Some 90 convictions stemming from arrests by Rampart officers have already been overturned.

Meanwhile, the LAPD has never fully recovered from the reputation damage it suffered over the treatment of Rodney King, a black man whose beating at the hands of four white officers was captured on videotape.

When those officers were acquitted by a state court jury the city erupted into the worst urban riots in recent American history. Two of the officers were later convicted in federal court of violating King's civil rights.

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

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