LAPD Revered For Decline In Racism, Brutality & Corruption
Sadly, the terms "LAPD" and "corrupt" have been considered synonymous for decades. However, the department has apparently made an admirable transformation over the years, "offering itself up — in a way that not so many years ago would have been unthinkable — as a model police agency for the United States," according to the NY Times.
“It’s been an amazing transformation,” said John W. Mack, a former head of the Urban League who is the president of the Police Commission, the civilian board that oversees the force. “The L.A.P.D. of today is very, very different than 10, 12 years ago, when I was one of the people who was constantly battling them.”
Polls show that the once allegedly "racist, homophobic, authoritarian and corrupt" department is seen as "more friend than foe" by most Angelenos, including black and Hispanic residents.
Constance Rice, a civil rights lawyer who regularly sued the department two decades ago, said, “We’ve gone from a state of war to becoming partners here.”
Let's take a look at some stats to understand how this metamorphosis is justified.
*A 2009 poll by The Los Angeles Times found that 8 in 10 voters strongly or somewhat approved of the performance of the department, with 76 percent of Latinos and 68 percent of blacks giving the agency positive grades.*Officials announced last month that the violent crime rate had declined 9.6 percent from last year, the ninth consecutive year of decline.
*The number of homicides last year, when 297 people were killed, was the lowest since 1967, when the city was one-third smaller.
*"We are on track again this year to have under 300 homicides — that’s a number I thought I would never see in Los Angeles,” Chief Beck said.
The drop in crime reflects the success of the previous chief, William J. Bratton, a former New York police commissioner.
“Bratton took them from the police force with the biggest police corruption scandal in the country and the biggest riot in American history on its résumé to a police force that was producing declining crime, had won the confidence of a liberal police commission and won the respect of the black middle class,” Ms. Rice said. “The L.A.P.D. was hated by everybody. Bratton didn’t only reduce crime. He created a new policing atmosphere.”
His reform work when staffed in Los Angeles proved challenging.
“The L.A.P.D. was a very proud organization, was resistant to change, very resistant to me coming in as an outsider," said Bratton.
One officer notes the drastic decrease in the number of shootings related to gang violence, a battle which the force continues to fight.
“When I came here in 2000, we were still rolling to shooting after shooting after shooting,” Officer Hauter said as she drove along West Adams Boulevard, her cruiser’s windows kept open so that she could hear gunshots. “Now we don’t roll out to many shootings at all.”
The department has also opened its arms to more minorities over the last two decades. In 1991 (recall the infamous beating?) the department was 61% white and 87% male. As of July 2011, the LAPD is 36% white and 81% male.
In 1994 Joe Domanick wrote a book on the department - To Protect and to Serve: The LAPD’s Century of War in the City of Dreams.
“It had this reputation for being America’s cops, which wasn’t true,” Mr. Domanick said. “They weren’t good. It wasn’t just that they were brutal and all that. They were not effective.”
Shocked by the department's revolution, Domanick is currently penning a sequel. We cannot wait to read it.
