Warren Christopher
OVJR
John A. Arguelles
Vla! OVJR
MEMBERS
Roy A. Anderson
Willie R. Barnes
Prof. Leo F. Estrada
Mickey Kantor
Richard M. Mosk
INDEPENDENT COMMISSION
ON THE Los ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT
May
29th
1 9 9 1
John W. Spiegel
GENERAL COUNSa
DEPlITY GENERAL COUNSEL
Percy Anderson
Richard E. Drooyan
Gary A. Feess
Raymond c . Fisher
Ernest J. Geno
Lawrence B. Gotlieb
Thomas E. Holliday
Andrea Sheridan Ordin
John Brooks Slaughl.Cr
Robert E. Tranquada, M.D.
Barbara J. Kelley
Louise A. LaMothe
Yolanda Orozoo
Gilbert T. Ray
EXECUTIVE DlllECTOlt
{213) 669-6453 Dennis M. Perluss
John B . Sherrell
Brian A. Sun
Prof. Bryce Nelson Mr. Horst Se nger
~RPRESS 6241 Keystone Street
Simi Valley, CA 93063
De ar Mr. Se nger:
on b e half of Warren Christopher and the Independent
Comm i ssion on the Los Angeles Police Departme nt, I am wr iting
to thank you for your letter of May 23 1991 .
With its very short deadline and heavy
responsibilities, the Commission hopes that you will
understand that it is not possible to respond in d e tail to
your letter. However, your letter has been read and will be
made a par t of the Commission fil e s for further r eview by the
Comm i s sioners a nd staff .
We a g a in thank y ou for writing .
Very truly yours,
!f::/~z7 Exec utive Directo r
GTR
Suit e 19 10 400 Sou th Hope Stree t Los Angeles, Californ ia 9007 1-2899 Telephone (213 ) 622-5205 Facsimile (213) 622-73 18
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~~ MAY 2 3 799l
W..C.'8 SJE.ac~ i3 ;::> A C T 1
Simi Valley ,CA May 21. 91
Mr.Warren Christopher ,Chairman
Independent Committee on the Los Angeles Police Dept.
400 So. Hope Street Suite 1910
Los Angeles ,CA 90071
Dear Mr. Christopher;
The following letter is a slightly edited version of what I
sent to the Los Angeles Times in late March 1991.I believe
events since then have made it clear that what I wrote is
even more relevant now when it may even seem that the real
and serious problem of policing 1n Los Angeles appears in
danger of becoming a political,even personality issue which
deflects from a major problem in our nation. So I send this
to some of our leaders in government whose voice can
influence what will be done towards the necessary
improvement of policing in America.
Before moving from Los Angeles I was for a quarter century
involved as a volunteer with Youth Services in the War on
Poverty , with the L.A.Co. Probation Dept. and with the LAPD
in Neighborhood Watch ,as a Volunteer Senior Deputy
Auxiliary Police. I am a member of various Organizations in
the field of criminology nd criminal justice.
Horst S nger
6241 Keystone Street
Simi Valley ,CA 93063Fs
P A C T 3
Simi Valley;CA March 24.1991
The Editor
Los Angeles Times
Times Mirror Square
Los Angeles ,CA 90053
The current controversy regarding the Los Angeles and really
American police in general ,prompted the following :
LOOKING BEYOND :
The universally condemned conduct by police officers in Los
Angeles, seen worldwide on television, has caused a barrage
cf angry comments, joined even by our President. The
seriousness of what happened will make it likely that those
directly involved will encounter the legal response,
appropriate to what has been seen by too many people by now
to have it just fade away with time.
We must look beyond that event, beyond the immense anger it
aroused and beyond the strong and widespred belief that it
was not an aberration.Let us begin to think of how we can
best prevent such behavior by police.This is the time when
it is possible to design policies to achieve just that.Would
it not be appropriate if the Los Angeles Police Department ,
which originated DARE, to complement it now with PACT. As
DARE is to teach how to deal with drugs , PACT shall teach
how to interact with police. Let us initiate a Police
Action Cooperation Training program.Let it teach our youth
in school how to act when they have an encounter with
police. For adults such a program can be implemented with
drivers license processing,perhaps no more than through a
booklet,which can also be available at libraries ,by our
elected officials , by the ACLU and anywhere where people
may pick it up in pamphlet form.Let this program teach what
rights the police has,and what precaution officers must
observe ,what consequences must follow certain actions by
citizens in adversary encounters and what rights and
obligation the citizen has.Everyone must realize that the
near universal weapons possesssion is a problem no police
officer can ever for a moment ignore.
Police too must become educated about citizen behavior. They
are already kenly aware of the possibility to encounter
firearms. This possibility cannot be ignored for a second.
It will always present a terrible and immediate threat to
any policee officer.But Police must recognize that ,when
subjected to violence, anyone is liable , without thinking ,
to attempt instinctively evasion or defensive actions
which may not constitute deliberate counterattack or
disobedience.
P A C T 4
Let each encounter between citizen and police end by
handing the citizen a form to fill in a questionaire about
his perception of the encounter. This is to complement the
police report.The officers must hand this routinely to the
citizen.Every such form must have the time and place of the
action and the preprinted ID of the dispensing and every
other officer present.The citizen must have time a fter an
encounter and away from police officers to make his report.
Let discrepancies be given to an ombudsperson for
consideration .Perhaps we may need the use of video
recorders by police in such encounters. We surely must have
still fotos of any citizen rendered physically unable to
fill out such a form. The officer in charge of any police
encounter with citizens must have a form which is to be
signed by all officers present,showing time , place and
cause of any such encounter.This may indeed counter what is
often called the code-of-silence.
I was wondering why I did not read of drug testing of the
involved officers in the King beating. When those working in
jobs with the potential of danger to others ,like pilots ,
bus drivers or air controllers ,for example , are involved
in a job-related event where persons have been endangered,
they are drug-tested. The beating victim was. But not the
beating officers.Such testing should be routine whenever
officers used force which resulted in injury.
These proposals may not be welcome , no one likes testing or
filling out another paper,and especially not one which
invites criticism. But given the special status of police ,
their monopoly of deadly force in society,the likelihood of
their acting without impartial witness, such steps are
necessary.I am certain that those police officers who carry
out their work as we expect them to , will eventually
welcome PACT as a program which will become a powerfull
tool to build an ever stronger bond between the community
and its only force of protection. But it may do more than
that. It helps to lessen the impact of police misconduct on
our budget,not only by lessening the costs of settling suits
against officers ,but also by reducing the effects on police
officers which causes them to claim disability and
compensation for what they claim as their suffering.The
worst effect of such behavior we saw on the video from
Lakewood Terrace is in its lesson for citizens to lose
respect for law and order,and worse ,to follow that lesson
of violence. In this, police are as much ,if not more than
prisons are held to be , schools for crime. Gratuitous
Police violence rather then preventing crime creates
c r j, mi na ls.
Let us make a PACT between police and citizen which will
produce the cooperation so urgently needed for the
restoration of the domestic tranquility promised in our
P A C T 5
Constitution.We badly need our police ,but we all must be
able to trust the police officer we may encounter.Only with
this trust can he carry out his mission to serve and
protect.
Horst Senger
6241 Keystone Street
Simi Valley ,CA 93063
PS: I am a freelance writer on criminal justice matters
whose writing appeared in journals of professional
organizations.I have been a Citizen Senior Deputy Auxiliary
Police Volunteer and Neighborhood Watch member (and
occasional speaker) in Los Angeles until I moved to Ventura
County.