Christopher Panel Prods Gates to Go

Taking aim at Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, the Christopher Commission on Thursday reported that progress has been made in reforming the Los Angeles Police Department, but cautioned that real change will require new leadership.

Although the group’s status report refrained from directly criticizing Gates, it suggested that future reforms depend on the chief stepping down soon--preferably before a June election over the commission’s proposals to amend the City Charter.

To drive home the point, the 27-page report concluded with copies of letters Gates submitted last summer, announcing what was then his retirement date of this April.

“I’m quite prepared to take him at his word,” said Warren Christopher, chairman of the blue-ribbon panel, which investigated the Police Department after the beating of motorist Rodney G. King.

The chief, in what has become a ritual of contradictory pronouncements, now says he intends to retire after the June 2 election. He has explained that he originally set the April date because he thought a special election would be held before then on the amendments recommended by the commission.

When asked to comment on the report before a speech at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills on Thursday night, Gates said: “I didn’t find much that was of great interest to me, or much that was new.”

About the report’s contention that real change will require new leadership, Gates said: “That’s total nonsense.” He said the department is implementing many of the reforms recommended by the commission and is waiting for City Council and voter approval to implement others.

“Those things that the Police Department can do, we’re doing,” he said.

The chief said he is annoyed by the tone of the report. “There was no chance to defend yourself, and I think that is highly inappropriate.”

Commission members are concerned that Gates will use his position to campaign against the proposed reforms, which would limit future police chiefs to two five-year terms and give more control of the department to the Police Commission, City Council and mayor.

Gates said he opposes the reforms, contending that they would politicize the department.

He said he is “especially irritated” that commission leaders may be trying to raise as much as $1 million to persuade voters to shift control of the department away from the chief. He predicted that voters will reject the idea.

Rather than launching a direct attack on Gates--a move the commissioners believed would make him more defiant--they instead couched their report in diplomatically worded phrases, urging that the search for a new chief “be completed as scheduled.”

Still, in interviews on Thursday, commission members said their subtle jabs at Gates are only a prelude to what they expect will be a bitter battle between reformers and the chief over who will control the department.

“This is the end of the high road,” said Leo Estrada, a Christopher Commission member. “It’s going to get nasty.”

Other sections of the report--a six-month update of the group’s initial findings published in July--described a mixture of progress and disappointment.

It applauded the department for rooting out a core group of 44 officers with histories of using excessive force and identifying as many as 300 more for review. There was also praise for the department’s community-based policing program, which was implemented this week in five of the department’s 18 divisions.

But the report criticized the department for still relying on too many existing policies that have proven ineffectual.

For any progress to take hold, it said, there has to be a “fundamental change in values” within the department that can only be accomplished by making leadership more accountable.

When the Christopher Commission’s original report was published, it enjoyed widespread support. Backers of the proposed amendments are hopeful the update will remind the public of the issue of police reform.

Meanwhile, opponents of the amendments are counting on the report being viewed as a political gimmick.

Councilwoman Joy Picus, who supports the proposed reforms, said Christopher Commission members would be better off spending more time working for passage of the charter amendments and less worrying about Gates.

The commission’s news conference to announce its findings was marked by the unexpected appearance of Los Angeles Police Lt. Kathleen Murcott, who serves as Gates’ executive officer.

As TV cameras rolled, she told commission members she was disturbed that so much attention had been focused on the chief and so little on the positive strides made by the department.

Mayor Tom Bradley was not available for comment, but an aide said that Bradley, like the Christopher Commission, hoped that Gates would step down on the date originally promised.

Police Commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum, who has sparred with Gates over implementation of the community-based policing program, said the selection process for a new chief was geared to an April retirement.

“It’s hard negotiating with candidates when there’s uncertainty about what the chief’s going to do,” Sheinbaum said.

The selection process for a new chief has been narrowed to 13 candidates, most of them from within the department. John Driscoll, general manager of the city Personnel Department, said that a list of six top candidates would probably be ready by March and that a new chief could be selected in April.

In addition to uncertainty about Gates’ departure date, the pace of the selection process also could be slowed by a challenge lodged Thursday by three Police Department commanding officers, who maintain that they were unfairly eliminated in the first round.

Times staff writers Josh Meyer and Rich Connell contributed to this story.