NCJ Number
184101
Date Published
2000
Length
404 pages
Annotation
In late 1997 and early 1998, three incidents occurred in which Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers were identified as suspects in serious criminal activity; investigations of these incidents revealed that the suspect police officers were closely associated with and all but one were assigned to Rampart Area.
Abstract
The first incident involving a bank robbery led to the arrest of a police officer and his girlfriend, a bank employee. The second incident involved the false imprisonment and beating of a handcuffed arrestee, while the third incident involved the theft of 3 kilograms of cocaine from the LAPD's Property Division. Two police officers were terminated following Board of Rights hearings, a third police officer was found not guilty by his board, and another police officer entered a guilty plea but received a reduced prison sentence in return for his cooperation in providing information on corruption within the LAPD. In September 1999, a Board of Inquiry (BOI) was convened to assess the totality of Rampart Area corruption. The BOI determined corruption occurred because a few individuals decided to engage in blatant misconduct and, in some cases, criminal behavior. The BOI also found the police officers allowed their personal integrity to erode, with a deleterious effect on other police officers. In developing its recommendations, the BOI focused its efforts on issues that were critical to insuring a corruption-free police department and achievable with minimal budgetary impact. The BOI categorized its recommendations into the following general areas: testing and screening of police officer candidates, personnel practices, personnel investigations and risk management, corruption investigations, operational controls, anti-corruption inspections and audits, ethics and integrity training, job-specific training, and BOI work that should continue. Details are provided on the profiles of the police officers involved in corruption, LAPD procedures for police officer management and supervision and for administrative investigations, corruption investigative protocols, and police integrity systems. Tables