Civilian Police Review Board Comes Under Scrutiny Itself : Law Enforcement: Critics say the group lacks independence, is secretive and does not do its job. Supporters say the commission’s role has evolved, but it performs an important service in looking into allegations of misconduct.

A civilian review commission charged with investigating complaints of misconduct against Long Beach police looked into more than 200 allegations of unnecessary or excessive force last year.

It sustained one.

That statistic is one reason questions have arisen about how the commission operates.

Created in late 1990, the Citizen Police Complaint Commission was touted as the city’s first public forum in which residents could air their grievances against police. Proponents pictured open hearings where complainants and officers would square off before a civilian commission that would conduct independent investigations and subpoena witnesses when necessary.

Instead, the commission operates in secret, depends on the Police Department to investigate most claims, almost always sides with the police officer, and has never used its subpoena power. Complainants can wait months for a decision, and even when the commission sustains a claim, it does not disclose how the officer is disciplined.

Clearly, the commission did not turn out the way it was envisioned.

In fact, the 11-member board has evolved into one of the weaker citizen review panels in California, said Eileen Luna, executive director of the Citizen Law Enforcement Review Board in San Diego and the former head of similar groups in Berkeley and San Francisco. Frank Berry, a regional director for the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People who worked to get the commission established, said, “I’m less than pleased with the way it’s turned out. There’s no way for the public to evaluate what’s going on. Everything is hush-hush.”

Barbara Shoag, the commission’s first chairwoman and a key organizer, praised her group’s work. But she also conceded that the commission has shifted from its original intent.

“It’s turning out to be not so much an independent investigation but an independent review (board),” Shoag said. But, she added, “the commission is serving an extraordinarily valuable, although quiet and discreet, service to the Long Beach community.”

Police Chief William C. Ellis also defended the group, which was created in the wake of allegations of racism in the force, as an independent outlet for “people who feel uncomfortable contacting the Police Department with complaints.”

In addition, he said, the department has adopted some of the commission’s recommendations. For example, in response to complaints, the department improved the way police document and process a prisoner’s money and personal items.

Others, however, question the effectiveness of the group and point to a report released earlier this year that shows the commission sustained only a fraction of the allegations it reviewed.

In 1992, the Citizen Police Complaint Commission received 216 complaints containing 627 allegations of misconduct, including 264 allegations, or 42% of the total, for use of excessive force. After reviewing 80% of the cases, the commission sustained 17 allegations.

Those 17 include one for excessive use of force; one each for improper entry, improper search and discourtesy; two for harassment; three for profanity; and four for failing to take a report.

Discipline ranged from letters of reprimand to suspension, City Manager James C. Hankla said. Citing the officers’ right to privacy, Hankla declined to say which allegation received which discipline.

“Of all those cases, look at how many they sustained. We can’t say they did their job,” said Ernest McBride, an NAACP leader who pushed to establish the review board.

Commissioners said the numbers might be higher if more complainants could provide independent witnesses or evidence to support their claims. When it’s the word of an officer against that of a complainant, the commission cannot do much, they said.

Typically, witnesses are either police officers or friends or relatives of complainants. Either could be biased, commissioners said.

“Even if we have a hunch that something went wrong, without the corroborating evidence, we can’t do anything,” Commissioner Shoag said.

Joe Rouzan, the commission’s executive director and a former police chief in Compton and Inglewood, said the number of cases sustained also may be low because, in his view, the city has few bad police officers.

“I’ve been a cop for 35 years, and I’ve seen some real bad police departments, most of them back East, and I don’t find that kind of cop in Long Beach,” said Rouzan, who plans to leave Long Beach this month to become executive director of the Los Angeles Police Commission.

As a youngster growing up in Los Angeles, Rouzan said, he was told that blacks and Latinos were not welcome in Long Beach. But, he continued, “I don’t see that (now).”

Nevertheless, last year 37% of the residents who filed claims with the commission were black, although they make up only 13% of the city’s population. In 1991, 47% of the complainants were black.

For years, some minority groups accused Long Beach police of racism. In 1988, the NAACP complained to the district attorney’s office and the county grand jury that officers discriminated against blacks. It requested an investigation and suggested a civilian review board be established. Hankla, most the of the City Council and the Police Department were opposed. Nothing was done until 1989, when a videotape was nationally televised showing a Long Beach police officer appearing to push black activist Don Jackson through a plate-glass window during a traffic stop.

Reacting to the ensuing outrage, the City Council, in a split vote, placed a measure for such a board on the 1990 ballot, with the backing of the Police Officers Assn. The complaint commission was established later that year.

Officials firmly defend the operations of the commission.

Rouzan, the commission’s executive director, said most of its findings are based on investigations done by the Internal Affairs Division of the Police Department because of the commission’s small staff. He said the group has never used its subpoena power mostly because it hasn’t felt a need.

Aside from Rouzan, the commission has only three part-time investigators--two of whom also are former police chiefs. They interview complainants and witnesses in no more than 20% of the cases, Rouzan said. In other cases, they analyze the Police Department’s investigation.

And despite the small staff, the workload has increased. Last year, after Ellis took over as police chief, the department began sending copies of all its complaints to the commission, quadrupling the number the commission reviewed, from 52 in 1991 to last year’s 216.

Regarding the secrecy of the commission’s process, city attorneys said the hearings must be closed to protect the privacy of officers.

Even when citizens complain that an officer was rude or acted improperly, the resolution of the case is kept secret. Long Beach resident Rudi Schlapak, for example, has yet to hear what type of discipline was meted out to a police dispatcher he complained about in May, 1992.

Schlapak, 30, called the Police Department to report an illegally parked car on his street, and an officer ticketed the car, which belonged to a neighbor’s friend. The next thing Schlapak knew, the neighbor was beating him up. The neighbor’s brother was a police dispatcher who disclosed that Schlapak was the caller.

“When (my neighbor) learned it was me, he assaulted me. He threatened to kill me, and he said he’d put poisoned food out for my dog,” Schlapak said.

After numerous letters and calls to the Police Department, Schlapak was interviewed by the Internal Affairs Division. He also wrote to the Citizen Police Complaint Commission.

Nearly a year later, Schlapak finally got a letter dated March 29 from Hankla, the city manager. It says the complaint was sustained and “appropriate disciplinary action has been taken.”

But Schlapak is not sure what “appropriate disciplinary action” means.

“I don’t know what happened to this person,” said Schlapak, a customer service representative for United Airlines. “As a citizen in this town, I’d rest easier knowing this behavior is not tolerated.”

Hankla said that any information about discipline involving an officer, even the officer’s name, is confidential. No details on any of the cases the commission reviews are released because they are personnel matters, he said.

In other cities, however, cases are much more open.

In San Diego and Berkeley, for example, independent investigators look into complaints, hearings are open to the public, and the names of the officers, the allegations against them, the investigation report and the final disposition of the complaint are made public, said Luna, head of the civilian review board in San Diego.

Both complainants and the officers are present at hearings in San Diego, Oakland and Berkeley. Even in San Francisco, where the Office of Citizen Complaints considers its investigations confidential and does not provide copies of its reports, complainants are allowed to read them, Luna said.

Councilman Alan S. Lowenthal, the former president of the activist group Long Beach Area Citizens Involved and a supporter of the commission, said that unless the community voices louder protests, the commission is unlikely to change. “It was not designed to be just a review board. It was supposed to conduct independent investigations, not just review the department’s work.

“But not enough people seem to be complaining,” about that, Lowenthal said.

The main complaint brought before the City Council is the location of the commission’s offices. At the request of the local branch of the NAACP, city officials recently agreed to staff three community centers one day a week to receive complaints from the public. Critics had called City Hall too intimidating a spot for people to file complaints against police.

Residents who support the review board said they are grateful to have at least some overview of the Police Department, even if it’s not what they wanted.

“We’re happy to have a Citizen Police Complaint Commission,” said Clarence Smith, a former councilman and early supporter of the review board. “We don’t want to do anything to derail that.”

Rod Givens, treasurer of the local NAACP, said “It has given citizens at least a feel they have some degree of oversight.”

Complaints Against Police

In 1990, an 11-member Citizen Police Complaint Commission was formed to review allegations of misconduct against the Long Beach Police Department. The panel now reviews nearly four times as many complaints as when it started.

* Type of Misconduct Alleged

1992 total: 627

Use of force: 42%

Unprofessional conduct: 32%

Improper conduct: 16%

Neglect of duty: 7%

Miscellaneous: 2%

* Race/Ethnicity of Complainants

1992 total: 216

Black: 36.6%

Anglo: 36.1%

Latino: 16.7%

Other/unknown: 9.7%

Asian: 0.9%

* Total Allegations and Cases

Beginning in 1992, the panel looked not only at complaints filed with the commission, but at all those filed with the Police Department. The total was 216 complaints of misconduct, including 627 different allegations. Of them, 17 allegations were found to have merit.

Year Total cases Number of Allegations Allegations Sustained 1991 52 166 18 1992* 216 627 17

* 42 cases are pending Source: Long Beach Citizen Police Complaint Commission