Rampart Case Not Closed Yet for LAPD

In the five years since the Rampart Division corruption scandal stunned the city and voided more than 100 criminal convictions, the Los Angeles Police Department has struggled to reform itself under a controversial court decree. Officers today face more rigorous training and supervision, confidential informants are monitored more closely, and use-of-force incidents are more thoroughly investigated. Yet, by its own admission, the department has fallen short in important areas. As a result, U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess is expected as early as May 15 to extend the five-year federal consent decree for at least two more years, a move that would not only embarrass city officials and LAPD brass but serve as a costly and continuing distraction. LAPD officials say the city has substantially complied with 149 of the 191 consent decree mandates agreed to under threat of a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice. In the Rampart scandal, members of the LAPD's Rampart Division anti-gang unit were accused of shooting and beating suspects, planting evidence and using confidential informants without registering them with the department, leaving their reliability unchecked. One officer, Rafael Perez, admitted that he and a partner obtained an assault rifle from an informant and shaved off the serial number before planting the weapon on a wounded man. In another case, officers were accused of providing crack cocaine to an informant in exchange for information. A review of cases handled by the rogue officers caused more than 100 criminal convictions to be overturned, and about a dozen LAPD officers resigned or were fired. The city also paid $70 million to settle lawsuits by more than 200 people, many of them suspected drug dealers and gang members who alleged that they were shot, beaten or framed. [MORE]