Copyright 2000 Associated Press  
AP Online

March 1, 2000; Wednesday 5:27 PM, Eastern Time

SECTION: Domestic, non-Washington, general news item

LENGTH: 572 words

HEADLINE: Board Cites Lawless Culture at LAPD

BYLINE: CYNTHIA L. WEBB


DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

BODY:
    Officers in an anti-gang unit at the center of a police corruption scandal believed they were in a life-or-death struggle that entitled them to break the rules, according to an internal report released Wednesday.

The unit ''routinely made up its own rules and, for all intents and purposes, was left to function with little or no oversight,'' said the report from the Police Department's Board of Inquiry.

The unit's rogue behavior became known as the ''Rampart Way,'' referring to a district near downtown considered the toughest in the city. The report, released after a six-month investigation, concluded the unit ''developed its own culture and operated as an entity unto itself.''

The scandal has centered on allegations by former officer Rafael Perez that officers in the unit beat, framed and shot suspects. The scandal has led to 40 convictions being overturned and 20 officers being relieved of duty.

Authorities have estimated the financial toll on the city could exceed $125 million. Perez was sentenced last week to five years in prison for cocaine theft.

The report recommended 108 changes in department policies and procedures, but the board largely blamed the scandal on individual officers and supervisors rather than problems with the rules.

In one incident at the end of riots in 1992, a supervisor found the unit's members playing cards and working out when they should have been on patrol. Two days after complaining to a superior, the supervisor found the tires on his car slashed, the report said. After buying a new set, he found them slashed again.

''We think this is a very exhaustive investigation of our systems, our management style, our issues that we think may have caused the opportunity for this issue of corruption in Rampart,'' Police Chief Bernard C. Parks said at a news conference Wednesday.

The report targeted poor paperwork, lax supervision and poor understanding of police rules and policies. Mostly, it was a case of ''people failing to do their jobs.''

Parks earlier said a shortage of supervisors was partly to blame and recommended a $9 million reform package. It includes expanding the use of lie detectors and strengthening other procedures to weed out bad recruits.

Parks said the problems revolved around a small group of people, and the ''other 13,000 members of this department should not be broadbrushed.'' Those employees, he said, will work ''as hard as we can to bring back the luster to the Los Angeles Police Department badge.''

In a news conference after Parks spoke, Mayor Richard Riordan said the city police commission was well-equipped to investigate the scandal and independent review was unnecessary.

''The Board of Inquiry report is a great step forward toward achieving accountability throughout the LAPD,'' he said.

The scandal might have been avoided if supervisors had noticed a troubling series of red flags first raised in the mid-1980s, the report said.

''Pursuits, injuries resulting from uses of force, officer-involved shooting and personnel complaints had a clearly identifiable pattern. ... Yet no one seems to have noticed and, more importantly, dealt with the patterns,'' the report said.

The FBI and U.S. attorney's office announced last week that, at Parks' request, they were joining the investigation.