Maisha Elonai Elonai is finishing her
last quarter as an English student at UCLA. Like a good columnist,
she’ll stick her nose in anybody’s business. Feel free to return
the favor at emaisha@hotmail.com.
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Veteran Los Angelenos think we know what’s going on with
cops. We saw the Rodney King beatings and the Rampart police
scandal. We can list unarmed victims of police slayings, racial
profiling and general brutality in our sleep. These terrors enacted
on our doorsteps and sensationalized in the media all lead to one
overwhelming question:
What is wrong with the Los Angeles Police Department?
Wild guesses are easy to make. Maybe urban crime is so insidious
that it eventually wears down the most honest officer’s
psyche. Or maybe po-po hopefuls are forced to plant dope on ex-cons
and beat unarmed kids to prove their merit during cadet
initiation.
Whatever our conjectures, no accurate diagnosis of the problem
has been recognized, and while massive government agencies roar
about “finding a cure,” an effective remedy for crime
and corruption still seems far off.
The obvious fact is that the LAPD is in desperate need of
reform. Tens of L.A.’s finest left duty this year when former
officer Rafael Perez admitted to a unit-wide corruption scandal
involving planted evidence, doctored crime scenes and false
arrests.
In response, the U.S. Justice Department threatened a lawsuit
for civil rights violations unless the LAPD agreed to a consent
decree implementing wildly novel reform policies such as tracking
problem cops and improving officers’ psychological
screening.
 Illustration by JASON CHEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff But
while the departments bicker over the fine details of a plan that
will probably only make small reforms, police corruption and
violence continues to run amok on the streets. Just last month, Los
Angeles police officer Ronald Orosco was charged with shooting an
unarmed motorist in the back. That same week, three more officers
from the department’s Northeast division shot and killed a
man they were pursuing for a traffic violation. According to a
police statement, the officers believed the unidentified man was
armed with a gun, but, as with the slaying of Amadou Diallo in New
York, no such weapon was retrieved at the scene.
Have coffee and doughnuts wired the LAPD so high that
they’ll shoot at air? Is an extra Rorschach test really the
solution to those itchy trigger fingers?
Maybe officers’ violence and susceptibility to corruption
is not the problem we should be working on. Maybe it’s just
that Los Angelenos and the LAPD are looking at policing from the
wrong angle.
It doesn’t seem possible that so many officers could be
corrupt, hyper-aggressive authoritarians. Certainly there are a few
bad cops and other officers easily pushed across the fuzzy line
between law and lies.
It might just have something to do with the constant stress that
police are exposed to. Officers face the potential of dealing with
life-threatening risks any given day. Citizens go postal and cops
get shot ““ that’s a reality as present as corruption in
law enforcement agencies.
We only compile that stress with our unrealistic expectations of
what a good officer should be. The public and police management
both make high demands on cops. We want our streets cleared of
crime, and we expect the police to deliver, quick.
Is it any wonder that some cops crack?
A real officer’s job is to “serve and protect”
as far as the law allows. If cops can’t do that with guns, we
should try another system.
Police deserve a beat with fewer life-threatening activities.
Instead of being hurled into sudden, inexplicably violent
situations, it might be helpful if they were familiarized with the
communities and people they serve.
Fantastic as it sounds, such a policing program does exist.
Once upon a time in faraway Redlands, Police Chief Jim Bueermann
came up with a new policing program. An outgrowth of the Community
Oriented Policing movement, this program targets areas in San
Bernardino County where young residents have the highest exposure
to gang violence, poverty, domestic instability, drugs and other
factors believed to lead to criminal behavior.
Officers visit the troubled area once a week to offer recreation
and educational activities such as mini-carnivals, neighborhood
clean-ups, parenting classes and study groups held in SWAT
buses.
Not only have the officers been able to form friendlier
relationships with their community, but according to Bueermann,
crime in the county has dropped by 36 percent as a result of the
program. Officers report that formerly uncooperative locals finally
trust them enough to describe suspicious activity, making it easier
to solve crime. And kids have begun to actually like the officers,
according to a story by the Associated Press. (Associated Press,
Sept. 23)
Perhaps this program is exactly what the LAPD needs.
Stressed-out cops might do well to enjoy a potato sack race with
elementary school kids every once in a while. And if they talk with
high-schoolers about their growing pains, maybe those frustrated
students will be more likely to overcome their difficulties rather
than resort to criminal solutions.
It might be difficult to organize, but this program could have
multiple benefits on a large urban scale.
It could serve as an educational boost for students in an area
where outreach is sorely needed.
It could provide poverty-level teens with friends and mentors,
and maybe help them overcome life challenges.
Most importantly, it might give police officers enough exposure
to their community so, when cops are up against frustrated
criminals, they can relate with their targets instead of shooting
them.
Yes, community-oriented programming is a drastic change in
police officer’s traditional duties, but maybe it could help
the LAPD become good guys again.
If the public learns to recognize our officers as human beings,
while officers learn to recognize their targets as human beings,
perhaps the overwhelming stresses and pressures of police work
would ease up a little. Communities would see the benefit,
education could take a boost, and cops could live up to their
motto.
The fairy tale just might be worth a try.