Blue Need Full-Time Watchdog, Not Just a Shuffle at the Top : Police: Daryl Gates must step down. To restore credibility, the city needs an independent oversight commission.

There is a scene in the movie “The Untouchables” where a veteran policeman, played by Sean Connery, counsels young Elliot Ness, played by Kevin Costner, against recruiting for their strike force from the ranks of a corrupt Chicago Police Department of the 1930s.

The old officer’s advice is that if you have a problem with rotten apples, you don’t look for a good apple in the barrel; you go to the tree. They solved their problem by going outside the department. Although Los Angeles in 1991 bears little resemblance to Chicago of 1930, the Rodney King incident has demonstrated that the LAPD is no longer capable of policing itself--that the keys to this crisis in public confidence lie outside the department.

The Los Angeles Police Department was once a model law-enforcement agency held up as an example for others to emulate. But perceptions can crumble in the face of reality:

-- Reality is what was recorded on videotape; the specter of officers and their supervisor standing mute, deafening testimony to the department’s “code of silence,” reflecting what has apparently become standard operating procedure.

-- Reality is the transcripts of radio communications revealing that officers feel free to fill their airwaves with racial slurs without any fear of accountability.

-- Reality is the $11.3 million the city paid out last year to settle lawsuits filed by citizens alleging police abuse.

While our sympathy goes out to King, who took the blows, he was not the only victim. The other victim is public confidence in the LAPD. Public confidence is not given--it is earned. When it become a widespread perception that the Police Department is beyond accountability, and is here only to protect some of us from the rest of us, we are sowing the seeds of civil disorder. As citizens we cannot stand mute and allow this to happen.

City officials are now considering proposals to address the immediate problem. Mayor Tom Bradley is establishing a privately funded panel of distinguished citizens to review police procedures and report directly to him and City Council. This is a step in the right direction.

Chief Daryl Gates has also come forward with a plan aimed at restoring public confidence. Important elements of his plan include a panel of distinguished citizens who will examine procedures on the use of force; an internal review of training procedures; spot inspections to review performance in the field, and random monitoring of radio and computer communications. These proposals are all department-oriented, and all report to the chief.

The problem with this plan is that the public no longer has confidence in the department’s ability to conduct or supervise an impartial review of itself. Indeed, the focal point of this distrust is Gates himself.

Although he did not condone the actions of the officers involved in the beating, Gates, through his attitude, a record of intemperate utterances and qualified apology to King, has made himself the symbol of the problems faced by the department.

Gates should retire, for he has demonstrated that he is not the person to lead the department out of this national disgrace. If he will allow his love of our community to supersede his pride, he will spare us the tortured public debate over his personal qualities--which is diverting public attention from where it belongs: on restoring LAPD credibility.

Great care must be taken in choosing his successor. The next chief of police must demonstrate an openness and sensitivity to the kind of diverse, multiracial community we live in; a person who can maintain the respect of a broad cross-section of our community. However, more than a leadership shuffle will be needed to restore credibility. The public must be assured that when allegations of police misconduct are made, they will receive a thorough, fair and impartial investigation. Today that assurance does not exist.

The Police Commission, the citizen watchdog agency, is a part-time body that draws its staff from the department. I am convinced that the continuing challenges confronting a department with 8,300 police officers and 2,700 civilian employees deserve the full-time attention of a full-time commission. It should have an expanded role, under its existing authority, to establish an independent staff of investigators from outside the Police Department. The full-time commission should have the resources it needs to provide credible and thorough oversight of all department functions, including allegations of misconduct.

The shameful conduct of a few officers has squandered years of hard-earned respect once enjoyed by the LAPD--respect earned by the personal sacrifice of men and women who have given their best. Our community must be able to trust the police. That trust is the thread that holds us together, and it must be repaired.