Thin Blue LieLos Angeles Police Department Chief William Bratton has won praise on this page and elsewhere for both his efforts to reform the LAPD, and determination to build stronger ties between the department and communities of color that have for too long maintained a wary-to-adversarial relationship with the city’s law enforcement. In a moment that stands out for its candor and clarity of thought, Bratton once acknowledged to the executive editor of this newspaper, in 2004, that the LAPD may indeed contain institutional racism. This is a fact that comes as no surprise to Black and Latino residents of L.A., but nonetheless tested a line of disclosure that even the city’s two consecutive African-American chiefs did not possess the fortitude to venture across. As worthy of commendation as the chief may be, the events of this week demonstrate that when it comes to certain topics, old habits die hard. At a packed hearing of the Police Commission this week, Bratton flat-out rejected the findings contained in an American Civil Liberties report on racial profiling showing that Blacks and Latinos are far more likely to stopped, searched and arrested by LAPD officers than are Whites. Made public last fall, the ACLU analysis was based on 810,000 field stops conducted between July 1, 2003-June 30, 2004. The report found there were 4,569 stops per 10,000 Black residents, compared to 1,750 stops per 10,000 White residents — a ratio approaching three-to-one. “This police department does not — let me make this very clear — does not believe in racial profiling,” Bratton told the commission. “We have one of the most ethnically diverse police departments in the United States. It is a minority majority police department.” On one hand, it is easy to understand the temptation Bratton must feel to defend his department in the face of one of the most stubborn forms of evidence that exists: dry statistics. After all, he has overseen a sharp reduction in crime while simultaneously producing a noticeable shift in how the department behaves and is perceived by the public. At that same hearing, a deputy chief highlighted the many ways that officers are trained to avoid even the appearance of biased policing, including required visits to the Museum of Tolerance and a mandatory eight-hour workshop on how to prevent racism in law enforcement. New recruits are even required to conduct research projects on the communities they will serve. Perhaps the chief and other top LAPD brass feel that the disclosures in this report only undermines these real efforts to undo a problem decades in the making. However, what the LAPD must understand further is that it will only truly — and completely — break free from its tricky reputation when it becomes as common for it to acknowledge obvious problems, as it has been in the past to deny the undeniable when facts come to light. Only then can it begin to fully establish the credibility required to effectively police our communities, and the mutually trustful relationship it needs to keep our neighborhoods safe. Most Popular
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