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LAPD Study Focused On Small Part Of Discipline System

LAPD Study Focused On Small Part Of Discipline System

By Richard Winton, Kate Mather, and Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES — The officers were blunt in their assessment of the Los Angeles Police Department’s disciplinary system: It was unfair and needed to be fixed.

“It’s all about who you know,” wrote one of more than 500 officers and civilian employees who participated in a written survey conducted by the LAPD. “It seems that people with more time on (the job) get more of a break,” wrote another.

The criticism was documented by LAPD officials who examined the agency’s discipline process in the wake of the Christopher Dorner shooting rampage last year.

But the review analyzed only a narrow segment of the LAPD’s expansive system for investigating and disciplining officers.

The report, which took 20 months to complete and was to be presented to the city’s Police Commission on Tuesday, focused mostly on officers sent to hearings for possible termination or lengthy suspensions after being accused of serious misconduct.

The review looked for disparities in whether officers of certain ranks, gender, or race were ordered to the hearings and ultimately penalized, concluding that data showed there was little merit to the complaints of bias.

Left unexamined, however, was the vast majority of the LAPD’s misconduct cases, which are handled by officers’ commanders.

The president of the union that represents the department’s roughly 9,900 rank-and-file officers dismissed the report Monday as a disappointment.

Tyler Izen was critical of what he said were efforts by officials to blame officers’ concerns on their poor understanding of how the discipline system works.

“They are saying the employees don’t get it … I think (officers) are afraid they are going to be fired,” he said. “I would like to see all the raw data because this report doesn’t tell me much.”

Steve Soboroff, president of the Police Commission, acknowledged that some officers believe the discipline system favors those with connections. But he praised the report, saying that it did a good job of analyzing claims of bias based on gender, rank and ethnicity. He said it would have been impossible to quantify all the complaints of disparities in punishments.

“You’ve got a perception that if you’re a friend of the chief’s, then all of the sudden it’s better,” Soboroff said. “You can’t quantify that. How do you do the statistics on that? So that’s a perception issue for the chief to work on. Nobody else but the chief. And he knows that.”

The concerns officers expressed during focus groups convened for the survey were briefly summarized in the 46-page report. The rest of the document was devoted to an explanation of how the discipline process works, a detailed statistical analysis of the rank, gender and race of those involved in misconduct investigations and a brief discussion of some planned changes meant to improve the system.

The most significant statistical finding showed that the ethnic, gender, and rank breakdown of officers sent to disciplinary panels for termination or lengthy suspensions roughly matched the demographics of the LAPD as a whole — a conclusion that department officials emphasized to rebut officers’ notions of bias. Officials acknowledged in the report that they did not conduct any “empirical analysis” on how officers were punished.

“The report was never intended to answer all of the questions raised about the disciplinary system, but it is a significant step toward answering the concerns about bias based on gender, ethnicity, and race,” said Arif Alikhan, a special adviser to Beck who oversaw the report since joining the department earlier this year. “This is an ongoing process and the Department will continue to work to improve the system with feedback from our employees.”

Alikhan said a wide-ranging search for bias in the discipline system would have meant trying to re-create and then compare the thousands of formal complaints filed against officers each year. Every case, he said, can conclude with department officials reaching any one of seven findings, while guilty officers face eight different types of penalties. Suspensions can range from one to 65 days.

“Such an analysis would be very challenging and beyond the scope of the department’s ability,” Alikhan said. Reviewing a sample of cases was also not feasible, he added.

Police Chief Charlie Beck launched the review after the February 2013 shootings by Dorner, a former LAPD officer who was seeking revenge for what he saw as his wrongful firing by the department. After Dorner killed the daughter of a retired LAPD captain and her fiance, he killed two police officers and wounded others during a massive search that lasted 10 days.

In a rambling online document, Dorner claimed that he had been the victim of racial discrimination within the department and a badly biased discipline system.

Though Dorner’s actions were roundly condemned, his allegations about LAPD discipline struck a chord among many officers who were also unhappy with how punishments were meted out.

Capt. Peter Whittingham, an outspoken critic of Beck who has sued the department over retaliation that he claims he suffered for refusing to fire an officer at a discipline hearing, said the report was “deeply disappointing.”

“I thought this was an opportunity for real transparency and for the department to show it really wants to address the core issues raised by officers,” he said.

Questions about discipline had dogged Beck before Dorner surfaced. The chief clashed repeatedly with members of the commission over what they saw as the chief’s tendency to give warnings to officers guilty of serious misconduct and the department’s track record for handing down disparate punishments for similar offenses.

That concern was reinforced in March when the Los Angeles Times reported on the case of Officer Shaun Hillmann, the son and nephew of retired LAPD officers Beck knew. After Hillmann was recorded outside a bar uttering a racial slur and then lied about it to investigators, Beck overruled recommendations to fire the young officer and, instead, gave him a lengthy suspension.

Despite not reaching a conclusion about the fairness of punishments, officials did announce in the report plans to start using a so-called penalty guide when deciding on discipline. The guide, which will act like the sentencing guidelines judges use, is meant to instill consistency as it gives commanders the penalty they generally should mete out for various types of misconduct.

AFP Photo/Kevork Djansezian

White House Plays Down New Report Of Secret Service Woes

White House Plays Down New Report Of Secret Service Woes

Washington (AFP) — A White House official on Sunday played down a report that it took the Secret Service days to realize a man shot at the presidential residence in 2011, while President Barack Obama’s daughter was at home.

The Washington Post report came amid new scrutiny on the agency tasked with protecting the president, after a series of recent security lapses, including one earlier this month that saw an intruder armed with a knife jump over a security fence and burst into the White House.

While Obama and his wife were out of town the night of the November 11, 2011 shooting, their younger daughter Sasha was inside with her grandmother Marian Robinson, the Post revealed, while older daughter Malia was due to return any time from an evening with friends.

At least seven bullets struck the upstairs residence of the White House, fired from a car parked some 700 yards (meters) away across the South Lawn, the report said.

And while Secret Service officers initially rushed to respond, they received a surprise order from a supervisor saying “no shots have been fired… Stand down,” the Post reported.

Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Tony Blinken did not refute the substance of the report, but said corrective measures were being taken.

“The Secret Service is investigating this, and they will take any steps necessary to correct any deficiency,” he told CNN.

“Let’s put this in perspective,” Blinken said.

“The men and women of the Secret Service put their lives on the line for the President of the United States, his family, and folks working in the White House every single day, 24 hours a day,” he stressed.

“Their task is incredible, and the burden that they bear is incredible.”

The Post report said the supervisor on duty believed the noise was a backfire from a nearby construction vehicle.

The newspaper said Obama and his wife were infuriated by the Secret Service response, and only learned of the incident days later.

The Secret Service later confirmed that bullets had indeed been fired at the White House, after a housekeeper noticed shattered glass and a chunk of cement on the floor from the gunfire.

The shots had been fired by Oscar Ortega-Hernandez, of Idaho, who was subsequently found guilty of attempting to assassinate the president and given a 25-year prison sentence.

Photo via Tom Lohdan via Flickr

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GOP Report: Republicans Have A Problem With Female Voters

GOP Report: Republicans Have A Problem With Female Voters

Republicans can no longer deny that their party has a major problem with women. A new report, conducted by conservative groups Crossroads GPS and American Action Network, found that women are “barely receptive” to GOP policy, and view Republicans as “intolerant,” “lacking in compassion,” and “stuck in the past.”

The report, titled “Republicans and Women Voters: Huge Challenges, Real Opportunities,” was presented earlier this month to senior aides in Washington and obtained by Politico. The results are based on eight focus groups across the country and a poll of 800 female voters. Politico describes it as “the most detailed illustration of the problem” so far.

“The gender gap is hardly a new phenomenon, but nevertheless, it’s important for conservatives to identify what policies best engage women, and our project found multiple opportunities,” American Action Network spokesman Dan Conston told Politico. “It’s no surprise that conservatives have more work to do with women.”

The study found that 49 percent of women see Republicans unfavorably, while only 39 percent view Democrats unfavorably. Republicans do “especially poorly” with women in the Northeast and Midwest, and “fail to speak to women in the different circumstances in which they live” (for example, many don’t understand that not all female voters are stay-at-home moms).

It also found that Democrats have an advantage when voters are asked which party “wants to make health care affordable,” “looks out for the interests of women,” and “is tolerant of other people’s lifestyles.” Women who care about the economy, health care, education, and jobs vote “overwhelmingly” for Democrats. Politico points out that even though Republicans say that jobs and the economy are their top priorities, Democrats have a 35-point advantage with women who care about jobs.

Republicans only have a 3-point advantage over Democrats when it comes to which party has “good ideas to grow the economy and create jobs,” and is “fiscally responsible and can be trusted with tax dollars.”

The only area where Republicans did overwhelmingly better than Democrats was among married women, who prefer the GOP 48 to 38 percent.

The report suggests that the GOP develop policies that are not “driven by a desire to aid employers or ‘the rich.’” Two policies that former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor pitched as ways to attract female voters — increasing access to charter schools and supporting more flexible work schedules — polled as the least popular policies. But the survey found that women think an equal pay policy would “help [them] the most.” So it’s clear that Republicans will continue to pay a political price by doing things like unanimously rejecting an equal pay bill.

The report suggests that the GOP “neutralize” the attack that Republicans don’t support fairness for women, and criticize Democrats for “growing government programs that encourage dependency rather than opportunities to get ahead.” It also tells the GOP that it needs to “deal honestly with any disagreement on abortion, then move to other issues.” Finally, it suggests that lawmakers do the “unexpected” and promote job-training programs, speak out against “gender bias in the workplace,” and actually support “expanding home health care services” through Medicare.

It remains to be seen whether lawmakers will actually follow the report’s advice. Though Republicans are likely to do well in the midterm elections, their lack of female support will drastically hurt them in the 2016 elections, especially if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee.

AFP Photo/Michael Mathes

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Asiana Crash: NTSB Report May Help Resolve Legal Claims, Firm Says

Asiana Crash: NTSB Report May Help Resolve Legal Claims, Firm Says

By Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Attorneys representing victims and relatives of those killed or injured when Asiana Flight 214 crashed in San Francisco last summer said a federal safety panel’s conclusion Tuesday that pilot error was to blame could help resolve pending lawsuit claims.

The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday delivered its final report on the litany of blunders that left three dead and 187 injured — some of them Chinese high school students headed for a Christian summer camp — when the wide-body Boeing 777 struck a sea wall and then slammed into the runway at San Francisco International Airport in July 6, 2013.

A four-member panel stated that the captain at the controls lacked the training to fly the jet manually and that his instructor, who had 3,200 hours in Boeing 777s, failed to supervise him properly or intervene at crucial times.

Also contributing to the issue was the complexity of the Boeing’s computerized flight systems as well as fatigue that probably degraded the performance of the pilots during the long flight from South Korea to the United States, the panel concluded.

Those findings bolster claims made by attorneys for Los Angeles firm Kreindler & Kreindler, which represents crash victims and relatives of the dead.

The findings, they said, could help resolve pending lawsuit claims.

“The conclusions contribute to our view that crew mismanagement on approach was initially caused by their confusion over Boeing’s automatic throttles,” Kreindler attorney Brian Alexander said.

The panel, which met in Washington, also blamed the pilots’ failure to monitor airspeed and altitude, and said they waited too long to abort the landing for another try.

Asiana officials said Tuesday that they agreed with the conclusions, stating that the NTSB “properly recognized the multiple factors that contributed to the accident, including the complexities of the autothrottle and autopilot systems, which the agency found were inadequately described by Boeing in its training and operational manuals.”

Overall, the NTSB made 27 recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration, Asiana Airlines, Boeing Co. and public safety agencies in San Francisco. They call for a variety of improvements in training, emergency communications and testing of aircraft evacuation devices, such as inflatable slides. Two opened inside Flight 214 after the crash.

Key among the recommendations is enhanced training for using Boeing’s automatic throttles and reviews to help the company refine the devices. The NTSB also called for a working group to come up with a better landing alert system for pilots that considers a number of parameters such as altitude, airspeed and the capabilities of jet engines.

©afp.com / Josh Edelson