LAPD Reformed as Federal Oversight Lifted, City Leaders Say
Los Angeles leaders say the Los Angeles Police Department has undergone a dramatic transformation since federal oversight of the agency was ordered 12 years ago.
The dismissal Wednesday of the so-called consent decree, which arose largely out of the Rampart corruption scandal and addressed basic problems of accountability that stretched back decades, delivered a largely symbolic, but nonetheless important milestone for the LAPD as it continues to disassociate itself from a past marked by abuses and turmoil.
“In these last 12 years the Los Angeles Police Department did not just comply with the consent decree, they took it to heart. They used it as a guide to change their culture,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a news conference with Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck and members of the Police Commission, the civilian board that oversees the department. “The entire department, from the officers on the beat in the neighborhoods to the top brass downtown, have made these reforms their reforms.”
Beck credited the department’s officers for adopting the changes imposed on them from the outside. He reserved special praise for an advisor, Gerald Chaleff, who worked closely with him and Police Chief William J. Bratton on putting the decree in place.
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