As part of this newspaper’s endorsement process, we invited the candidates for Los Angeles District attorney to provide their written thoughts, only lightly edited for length, on major public policy matters.
Here we present their responses to the question: Does the current system provide sufficient accountability for police officers? What additional approaches or policies would you enact to deal with misbehaving officers and deputies?
George Gascón: As a thirty-year police officer myself, I know the majority of officers choose a career in public service for very honorable reasons. But I also oversaw the LAPD reforms after the Rampart scandal and other long-time systemic failings, so I know that law enforcement works best when you have community involvement and oversight.
We’ve certainly improved since those days of the early Nineties, but we still have a long way to go. It’s not just a matter of having strong, independent civilian oversight bodies; we also need legislative changes and to hold abusive officers accountable in the courts. Without all three of those approaches, we’ll never see the real cultural changes in policing the community deserves.
It’s not easy to fight powerful and well-funded special interest groups such as police unions, but the work is worth it. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the office filed at least* 49 cases against 52 law enforcement personnel, ranging from DUIs to murder. And some notable cases in 2023: Edward Bronstein, Deandre Mitchell, and Nicholas Carrillo.
The current administration has also filed more on-duty, officer involved shooting (OIS) cases than under the prior two administrations, combined.
We have also gone back and evaluated past convictions when we have learned that the case relied on an officer who abused public trust. We have reversed dozens of convictions of people whose cases relied on the help of officers who have since been charged with crimes, or evidenced clear racial bias or dishonesty. Only by correcting past wrongs can we create meaningful trust in the community.
Craig Mitchell: Citizens have the right to expect the highest levels of competence from all members of law enforcement. I believe we need to re-examine the educational requirements to become a police officer or deputy sheriff. As well, much more training is needed to promote greater cultural sensitivity and strategies to deal with people suffering from severe mental illness. At the same time, I understand that law enforcement is an extremely challenging occupation and that often times life and death decisions must be made in terribly compressed time frames. I would evaluate allegations of police misconduct with the utmost seriousness and objectivity. I would not hesitate to prosecute those officers and deputies that break the law.
Debra Archuleta: I have spoken candidly with law enforcement to ensure that I will act swiftly to step up and hold officers accountable if they bring dishonor to their organization by committing a crime. We have a special unit in the DA’s office to handle just these types of cases. In order to restore credibility to law enforcement and the criminal justice system, police officers will not get a pass due to their status and will instead be held accountable for their actions.
Maria Ramirez: While I believe that the current system provides sufficient accountability for police officers who break the law, I also believe that protocols can always be improved. The District attorney should implement policies that are transparent to the public and that create a reasonable decision-making timeline. In the past, cases against police officers accused of committing crimes often were delayed with administrative red tape from both the law enforcement agency and the D.A.’s office. I would enact time-line protocols that ensure a thorough investigation and timely filing decision. Decisions would be made public immediately upon conclusion of the investigation and final decision.
John McKinney: I believe in one standard of justice for everyone, whether a police officer or a gang member. I believe that as long as decisions are based on provable facts and law, there is sufficient accountability in the system to hold police officers accountable for criminal acts. I believe recent changes to the law that raised the standard of police use of force to “necessary” to defend life is a high standard to meet before deadly force is justified and will lead to more accountability for officers who act based on lesser provocation.
Eric Siddall: I will also make the office’s operations and decision-making open and transparent to the public. I’ll be clear and direct about our filing decisions, especially with respect to controversial police-involved shootings. That’s what the public deserves, especially in cases involving the use of force by an officer. I’ll ensure that the office’s most experienced and qualified prosecutors review and, when necessary, prosecute these cases. When a prosecution is declined, I won’t hide behind press releases, delay tough decisions to impact elections, or engage in other politically motivated maneuvers to duck responsibility. Further, we will no longer file cases just to collect politically helpful headlines, only to abandon them because of the lack of evidence or prosecutorial incompetence. In addition, I support police officer accountability, including the use of body-worn cameras and oversight policies to ensure our officers are honorably serving our citizens.
Dan Kapelovitz: We need much more transparency. If a police officer engages in misconduct, the people have a right to know, especially those who are being accused of committing a crime by that officer.
California is one of the worst (if not the worst) states in terms of obtaining information about police misconduct. If an officer has a history of violence or fabricating evidence or racial profiling, this information is not automatically provided to defense counsel even though it is required to be under the Constitution. Instead, an attorney — defense attorneys and prosecutors alike — have to jump through a bunch of hoops to possibly get this information. Then if a judge does allow an attorney to obtain this information, the judge issues a court order stating that the attorney can’t warn other attorneys about the officer’s misconduct.
All officers should have their body cams on when investigating crimes and arresting people, and all police vehicles should be equipped with cameras. This footage needs to be immediately provided to the district attorney before a case is filed so that the filing deputies can review it to see if a crime actually occurred and so the DA can provide this footage to defense counsel by the first court appearance — or earlier.
Jonathan Hatami: In 2011, my mom was run over by an off-duty LAPD officer assigned to the 77th Division. He was under the influence. He backed up, my mom was walking in the parking lot, and he ran over her. He got out, saw her on the ground, unconscious, got back into his Hummer, and fled. At the time, I did call him a “coward” and a “disgrace to his profession” in the LA Times. I still feel that way. He was prosecuted by my office, convicted, but only went to county jail for one year. He is currently a hitting coach for an MLB team and boasts on his LinkedIn page that he is a decorated veteran of LAPD. How can a person who drives while intoxicated, runs over a person, seriously injures that person, and flees when that person has a legal obligation to help people, be able to become a hitting coach for a MLB team and actually have the audacity to put that he is a decorated LAPD veteran on his LinkedIn page?
However, instead of getting mad and angry, I believe that we need to give more money to law enforcement. We need to hire more law enforcement. We need to support and collaborate with our law enforcement. We need to have better law enforcement training, especially for use of force, mental health, suicide and addiction issues. Training is an incredibly important tool for law enforcement. And I am actively involved in helping to train young officers and deputies. Transparency is also important. I work for you. Police officers and deputies work for you. Politicians work for you. You have a right to know if your government is working properly and effectively. You have a right to know the problems, so you can fix the problems. We need to have a better JSID (Justice System Integrity Division) unit that handles police misconduct cases. Not one where we hire public defenders as prosecutors who already have a bias toward law enforcement. Not one where we have to pay $1.5 million to someone to prosecute police misconduct cases who has never even prosecuted one case. We need good prosecutors who care and want to make sure law enforcement is held accountable in JSID just like anyone else if they commit crimes. It’s called doing the right thing.
Nathan Hochman: I have worked on the issue of accountability for police officers since the 1990s when I was part of a team in the U.S. attorney’s Office that brought down members of the elite LASD narcotics teams who were stealing drugs and money from drug dealers (Denzel Washington’s movie “Training Days” was based on these efforts). I have also participated on police accountability from the side of law enforcements, as I also the only candidate who has represented law enforcement officers in administrative, civil, and criminal proceedings.
As a result of these experiences, I am very familiar with the balance that needs to be achieved between supporting the vast majority of law enforcement officers who do their jobs excellently and professionally every day and investigating and prosecuting those that violate the law. The DA’s office must maintain a robust presence early-on in the process of officer-involved shootings as well as regularly work with the chiefs of all law enforcement departments to increase training and supervisions of officers to deter problems from happening in the first place. George Gascón has failed on all sides of this issue, and I am prepared to address it head-on.
Jeff Chemerinsky: Just as law enforcement holds the public accountable, I believe police accountability is also essential. Civil rights prosecutions would be a high priority for my Office. I believe the District attorney’s Office can handle these prosecutions. I believe the current District attorney has not been effective in rooting out deputy gangs from the LASD.
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