MTA Officers

The LAPD is rejecting for hire 24% of the applicants from the MTA police (Aug. 1) because of activities those officers engaged in while they were juveniles, such as drug experimentation. The LAPD claims it has “higher standards,” which justify ignoring those officers’ records of service as police officers and simply as adults.

Is this really a “higher” standard, or simply a false one? Does the LAPD really believe that none of its 9,000 officers experimented with drugs as juveniles? With the naming of a new chief close at hand, and with the LAPD reexamining what type of person is best suited to police our city, this might be a good time to reconsider archaic background standards. A strict standard could still be employed (no drug use in the past 10 years) without punishing for life those who made mistakes as juveniles and were honest enough to admit it.

PAUL JOSEPH

Los Angeles