Does It Matter That the LAPD Gang Units Are Walking Out?

Which Way LA? with Warren Olney attempted to answer the above question on Wednesday night’s show.

But before we discuss the most recent developments, it helps to review a little of the history of the matter:

For the last couple of years, LAPD officers working in the department’s gang and narcotics units have been threatening to transfer out of those units if they are forced to toe the line on the financial disclosure requirement that U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess has imposed as part of the federal consent decree that was put in place following the LAPD’s so-called Rampart scandal.

The LAPD’s union—the LAPPL—fought the financial disclosure requirement as long as it could, using whatever legal means it could find including a temporary restraining order.

Finally, however, all means of resistance were exhausted and there was nothing to do but comply—or not.

To refresh your memory: According to the provisions of the federal consent decree, LAPD officers at the rank of lieutenant or below who work in either gang or narcotics details have to sign disclosure agreements documenting all their personal finances and giving the department access to their financial records. The idea is to ensure that these officers are not stealing money, drugs or other “valuable contraband”—a preposterous notion since any bad apple cops who pilfer money from crime scenes, et al, do not run the cash through their Bank of America accounts or their Roth IRAs.

(Here are more details as to how the financial disclosure thing works, its history, and why it is a really dumb idea.)

Earlier this week, the department announced that nearly 80 of the gang unit officers in some of the city’s most sensitive areas had made good on their threat and were declining to work gangs because of the onerous $$$ disclosure requirement. The cops weren’t leaving the force altogether. They would be transferred to patrol or to other duties. But this meant that, as the LA Times reported Wednesday, those gang units were being disbanded and repopulated by new officers—meaning that much experience and street intelligence, was being lost.

This comes at a time when the LAPD’s resources are already being stretched by budget cutbacks and other demands on the uniformed workforce, like the newly downtown jail, which has drained 90 patrol officers, from working the street.

The question that is being asked around town this week is whether the loss of roughly 80 gang officers will reduce the effectiveness of the department’s gang enforcement at a critical time.

Wednesday night on Which Way LA? with Warren Olney, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and union prez, Paul Weber, discussed the issue. (I was briefly scheduled to be on the show should they not be able to secure the chief as a guest.)

Chief Beck did his best to reassure us that everything would be fine, and likely it will, but neither Beck nor Weber are terribly happy about the additional juggling and stress that Judge Feess’s poorly reasoned stricture has caused.

You can listen to the discussion here.