William Bratton: Lauded chief of troubled LAPD
The former chief of police of New York and Boston explains why policing in Los Angeles is different from anywhere else, and how he's working to change the LAPD culture.
By Daniel B. Wood | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the July 6, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 3
Los Angeles - Sixteen years after the beating of Rodney King made the Los Angeles Police Department the international poster child for police abuse, Chief William Bratton sits in his office fielding a question that never seems to go away.
Hasn't anyone been able to change the warrior-style police culture here – often caught on videotape for the world to see? The latest headline-grabbing incident: Riot police dispersed immigrant demonstrators and reporters with batons and rubber bullets in a downtown park May 1, injuring at least 32.
Pointing out the window at low buildings and sprawl, the former chief of the Boston and New York police departments explains why policing in L.A. is different from anywhere else. With 50 percent more area than New York and half as many cops, the city averages only a third as many officers per square mile, which keeps them in cars – not walking beats.
"The unofficial motto here is, 'too few who for too long have been asked to do too much with too little,' " says Chief Bratton, seated at a long oak table in dress blues.
That translates to a siege-and-react mentality from police who don't get to know their community residents and who zoom in from afar only when trouble erupts.
Changing that culture of police isolation has been the biggest challenge, says Bratton, who was approved unanimously June 19 for a second, five-year term. That decision by the civilian police commission makes him the first L.A. police chief to win a second term since voters opted for limited-tenure chiefs in 1992, the year after the beating of Mr. King.
RSS feed
