Inglewood Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks addresses reporters during a press conference earlier this year. Her department has been plagued by a series of questionable fatal shootings that are the subject of a new report by the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review. The city is reviewing the report before it will be released to the public. (Photo by Gary McCarthy)
Story Published:
Sep 16, 2009 at 7:51 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Sep 16, 2009 at 7:51 PM PDT
INGLEWOOD — City Council members here are reviewing a newly concluded Los Angeles County study of the city’s police department, which was prompted by a series of deadly officer-involved shootings, a city spokesman said Wednesday.
The county’s Office of Independent Review, an agency created to oversee the Sheriff’s Department, spent almost a year on the report, which focused on use-of-force procedures and tactics used by Inglewood police.
The report has not been made public because of legal issues, but it will be released “eventually,” city spokesman Ed Maddox said.
The review was begun in 2008 “to conduct a sweeping evaluation of the Inglewood Police Department policies, procedures, tactics, and training,” Maddox said in a statement.
“The goal of the review then and now is to inform the public of the reform efforts now underway — and help officers serve the community at the highest level,” he said.
The Inglewood City Council voted in August 2008 to hire the Office of Independent Review in response to calls from elected officials and community leaders outraged by a series of officer-involved shootings.
In one, Kevin Wicks, a U.S. Postal Service employee, was shot to death July 21, 2008, by an Inglewood officer who went to his home at 124 N. Hillcrest Road in response to a report of an argument involving a man and two women, police said.
Police said Wicks answered the door with a gun in his hand, but relatives and community activists said officers went to the wrong apartment and should not have opened fire.
A separate investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice is under way.
The same officer who shot Wicks, Brian Ragan, had just returned to active duty following a deadly shooting that May in which he was involved. A 19-year-old man, Michael Byoune, was fatally shot by police near Crenshaw Boulevard and 111th Street.
In May of this year, 31-year-old Marcus Smith of Compton was shot to death by police at a party, where police said he drew a gun.
It was not immediately known when the report would be issued to the public, Inglewood police Lt. Mike McBride said.
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