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Rescinding term limits for LAPD Chief
What do you think?
by Bill Murray
LA Community Policing
March 26, 2009
In a move that's bound to provide controversial discussion across the City, Councilman Herb Wesson has proposed a change in the city charter that would allow an LAPD Police Chief the possibility of a third 5 year term.
A second proposal to extend the popular Chief's time at LAPD has emerged from the president of the LA Police Protective League (the local rank and file police union), Paul Weber, by making the job elective, as the county sheriff's is, but with term limits.
Following the Rodney King
beating, acquittal of officers and subsequent riots in 1991, the Christopher Commission placed term limits on the LAPD chief (a maximum of 2 five year terms) as one of it's central recommendations. No chief since had been reappointed to a second five year term .. until Chief Bratton .. who has served LA for about seven years and has about three more years left.
Councilman Wesson's motion, if accepted, will
likely result in a series of public hearings where community comment will be sought. The residents will be given the opportunity to speak to the issue across the city.
This will be a seminal community policing
moment in Los Angeles, similar to the one that resulted in Chief Bratton's original appointment. Unlike the Sheriff, who is an elected county official. a Police Chief in Los Angeles is selected by the Police Commission and Mayor, and affirmed by City Council.
But in 2002, LA found a way to include the voice of the community ..
Once he understood he'd not be offered a second term, Chief Parks had resigned his post, and an Interim Chief had been hired. In a series of Police Commission community meetings across the city, events that we followed, documented and reported on here at LACP, the residents were queried about what character traits, abilities and job skills were most important in a Chief of Police.
Our work resulted in an almost 40 page report that we presented to the Police Commission.
The five Commissioners eventually created a criteria and methodology to attract the best candidates from across the country.
Over 50 applicants emerged, from both inside and outside the department, and they were whittled down by the Police Commission to 17 "semi-finalists," which in turn became three. These names were forwarded to then-Mayor, James Hahn, who ultimately selected Chief Bratton. The City Council's confirmation became the final step in his being given the job.
Chief Bratton has been both controversial and popular, as he's led the LAPD toward a more robust 10,000 officer police force (still far fewer per capita than other major American cities) while at the same time significantly reducing crime year after year.
But this decision will not be about Bratton per se, as many will no doubt suggest it could signal a return to old-style policing .. a style that resulted in the constrictions of the Justice Department's Consent Decree, which Los Angeles is still struggling to accommodate and escape.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: What do you think? Be certain to take the opportunity to express your position at the upcoming hearings, soon to be announced. The concept of community policing depends on everyone's participation.
Here are two local newspaper articles, one from the LA Times and another from the LA Daily News, that discusses the issue:
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Councilman proposes rescinding term limits for LAPD Chief
William J. Bratton could be allowed to serve a third term if a proposed city charter change is approved. Councilman Herb Wesson calls for public hearings on the idea. By Phil Willon and Joel Rubin
March 26, 2009 - LA Times
Los Angeles City Councilman Herb Wesson called Wednesday for public hearings on whether to rescind the two-term limit for the city's police chief, a change that would allow William J. Bratton to serve as head of the Los Angeles Police Department until 2017.
Removing the term limits would require voter approval and revise one aspect of the police reforms that stemmed from the riots after four LAPD officers were initially acquitted of brutality in the 1991 beating of Rodney G. King. Those reforms limited the police chief to two five-year terms.
Bratton is the first LAPD chief to serve a second five-year term since voters approved the reforms in 1992. Previous chiefs Bernard C. Parks and Willie L. Williams each served one term and were not reappointed by the city's civilian Police Commission.
"Why would you not want to have an option to retain a person who is doing a good job?" asked Wesson, who plans to bring a motion before the City Council on Friday seeking public hearings. "I think at this point, we just want to begin the conversation."
The councilman said the idea of changing the city charter is "not about Bratton" but about whether the city should have the option to retain a seasoned and successful police chief. Still, he said, Bratton is a prime example of a chief the city would be wise to keep around.
Bratton, in a brief interview, said Wesson mentioned "in passing" a few weeks ago that he was considering a move to lift the term limit but that they had not discussed the issue since.
With more than three years left in his second term, the 61-year-old Bratton said it was too early to say whether he would be interested in signing on for another five-year term. He said, however, that abolishing the term limit would be an important step in moving the department out of the shadow cast by the King beating.
"For me personally, it might be an option down the road. . . . But it also, I think, would be an important step toward putting a very tumultuous period behind us," he said.
Under Wesson's motion, the chief could be appointed to an additional term only if four of the five police commissioners recommend the move. It then would require the mayor's approval, as well as confirmation by at least a two-thirds vote of the City Council.
Police Commissioners Alan Skobin and Andrea Ordin said they were opposed to the idea but welcomed public hearings to hear the rationale of supporters.
Skobin recalled former LAPD Chief Ed Davis telling him that "the right amount of time for a police chief is eight to 10 years. He believed it takes five years for someone to make their mark and to put things into place, and another few years to make sure those changes have been institutionalized. After that it is time to step aside to make sure the chief doesn't become part of the institution. I have always felt that he was right."
"At some point, even the very best person needs to step aside and let someone else step in," Skobin said.
Paul M. Weber, president of the union that represents rank-and-file officers, said he supported a wholesale change in how the chief is selected.
"It is time for city leaders to explore making the LAPD police chief position an elected rather than appointed position. With the elected chief, the public will know exactly who is in charge and therefore responsible and accountable."
Former Mayor James K. Hahn picked Bratton to be police chief in 2002. The former Boston street cop and New York City police commissioner applied to serve a second, and final, five-year term as LAPD chief in 2007 and received the Police Commission's unanimous approval.
"It's clear that the city parents want to keep him as long as they possibly can," said Raphael Sonenshein, a political science professor at Cal State Fullerton who has long studied police-community relations in Los Angeles. "The real bar is the mayor. If the mayor really doesn't want someone to be chief, then it really doesn't matter what the Police Commission or the council want to do."
Placing term limits on the chief was among the recommendations made by the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, known as the Christopher Commission, after the King beating and subsequent riots.
"You need to have new blood after a certain time, new energy," said Los Angeles attorney Richard E. Drooyan, who served on the Christopher Commission. "Ten years is a very good term, longer than most elected officials serve."
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An elective police chief proposed for L.A.
by Rick Orlov, Staff Writer
March 26, 2009 - LA Daily News
With city crime rates at the lowest level in 50 years and the popularity of Police Chief William Bratton at an all-time high, two new efforts have been launched to keep him on the job beyond his 2012 term limit.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League thinks the police chief's job should be elective, as the county sheriff's is, but with term limits.
In another proposal, Councilman Herb Wesson would keep the job appointive but allow a third five-year term.
"I'm open to anything," Wesson said. "What I want is for us to have a full debate, including the neighborhood councils, homeowners groups, blocks, clubs to weigh in on how the city is governed.
"We've been criticized in the past for rushing things on the ballot. I want us to have a citywide debate on this."
Bratton, through a spokesman, declined comment. In the past he has said he was satisfied with the limit of two five-year terms in Los Angeles and has made no career plans for later.
Bratton, 61, is one of the most popular figures in local politics and played a prominent role in the re-election of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and in the campaigns of Councilman Jack Weiss and Councilwoman Wendy Greuel.
He also is a sought-after speaker and consultant around the world, admired in other police agencies.
He was first hired by Mayor James Hahn in 2002, and his contract was renewed in 2007 under Villaraigosa.
Paul Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said it is time to review the term limit for the police chief, among reforms recommended by the Christopher Commission after the Rodney King riots and adopted by voters. "We think having an elected chief will make him more accountable to the public," Weber said. "It will increase civilian oversight because he will have to come before voters every four years. You also would have term limits in place, so there is no danger of one person creating an empire."
But Raphael Sonenshein, who served as executive director of the Appointed Charter Reform Commission, said the Christopher Commission proposals should remain standing.
"The Christopher Commission was the gold standard and looked at this very, very closely," said Sonenshein, a political science professor at California State University, Fullerton. "We did not feel it should be changed.
"There was this concern about the chief having civil-service protection and being able to create his own empire, and the term limits solved that problem," Sonenshein said. "Likewise, an elected chief of police creates a whole other set of problems."
While Weber believes an elected chief with some form of term limits would be fully accountable to the public, some others fear it would give the police league, which already has great power among city officials, even more influence with a chief who would need to raise money to be elected and be independent of control from a mayor or City Council.
Police Commissioner Alan Skobin, who had high praise for Bratton's work, said he did not want to see any changes.
"I'm willing to listen to any proposal, but I think that two five-year terms for any chief is long enough," Skobin said. "It's healthy for an organization to have some change after a period of years." |
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