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la. NAME OF INTERVIEWER:
lb. DATE OF INTERVIEW:
le. LENGTH OF INTERVIEW:
ld. NOTES:
Huebner
June 11, 1991
approx. 2-1/4 hours
2. I.D. CODE: Huebner 009
3. ,S.E.X: Female
4. ~: White
5. ~=
6. DIVISION: Wilshire
7. CQRRENT BANK/ASSIGNHENT: PJ/FTO; Wilshire
8. MISC. PERSONAL 8ACKGRQUNP:
9. MISC. L.A.P.p. BACKGROUHP:
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. CONffDfNTIAL
CONflDtNTIAL
10. FIELD TRAINING -- SELECTION OF F.T.O.s:
She became an FTO before the hiring "binge"; at that time she
believes her captain was looking for FTOs with (a) maturity,
(b) a strong work ethic, and (c) the ability to process paperwork
correctly and quickly.
Now there are no standards; with the hiring binge, they just
needed warm bodies; officers are promoted to P3/FTO positions far
too quickly; the temporary FTO spots are a joke; this has led to
the P3/FTO stripes meaning nothing; the abandoning of standards
is not tactically sound; has created a dangerous situation in the
field; the trainers don't know what they are doing themselves.
Because of her maturity and prior experience, she was actually
assigned to a probationer just 2 months after she came off
probation herself; even then the Department was short-handed, and
she had impressed her superiors enough to be assigned to training
duties; thinks this was too quick, even though she was experienced
and capable; believes 4 to 5 years experience should be the
minimum requirement.
11. FIELD TRAINING -- TRAINING OF F.T.O.s:
Went to FTO school before becoming a P3 but long after she had
been training probationers; her biggest complaint about FTO school r
was that it did not teach training techniques; too much emphasis
on paperwork.
12. FIELD TRAINING -- MISCONDUCT BY I DISCIPLINE OF F.T.O.s:
[Nothing noteworthy discussed.]
13. FIELD TRAINING -- EVALUATION OF F.T.O.s' PERFORMANCE:
Evaluation is built into the regular officer evaluations; no
special boxes or sections for FTO performance; no added emphasis
in the evaluation on teaching skills or communications skills;
informally, FTOs seem to be judged by how well their probationers
succeed.
14. FIELD TRAINING -- ASSIGNMENT($) TO PROBATIONERS:
At Wilshire, FTOs have some say over which probationers they
are assigned; FTOs can request certain probationers; she often
asks for reassignment to a probationer she had previously (she
likes to see how they have developed over the intervening months).
She is a strong personality; is known to work well with
Hispanic males, despite their hyper-macho attitudes; therefore
often gets assigned to Hispanic males.
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CONflDfNTIAL
15. FIELD TRAINING -- RELATIONSHIP WITH/ TRAINING OF PROBATIONERS:
For the first 2 weeks or so, probationers are a liability to
the team; during that period she takes the lead and has them
simply observe and "get the feel" of the job; she gradually starts
backing out and letting the probationer take the lead in
situations; is very strict re reports, tactics, and safety; not
afraid to reprimand and yell at probationers; never berates
probationers in public or in front of other officers; does not
like the fact that many FTOs do yell at probationers in front of
others; she believes this does lasting damage to self-confidence.
Emphasizes courtesy and positive interaction with citizens;
she finds this part of the FTO job to be the most difficult because
the Academy does not teach you how to talk to people; this is the
Academy's biggest failure; most probationers just read from the
"scripts" and never crack a smile in dealing with citizens.
16. FIELD TRAINING -- EVALUATION OF PROBATIONERS:
The evaluation forms do contain boxes for rating the
probationer's relations with (a) citizens, (b) other officers,
( c) sergeants, and ( d) other racial groups; she takes these
ratings very seriously; many FTOs do not take them seriously.
She often gives probationers low ratings; many probationersw
should never have made it to the field; the Academy no longer even
pretends to screen people out; the Department expects the FTOs to
do the screening, but that is difficult to do; difficult to
accumulate the documentation necessary to terminate a probationer.
She had one particularly horrendous probationer who was
incompetent, insubordinate, and a "coward" in the field; she wrote
him up for every little thing and "went to bat" to get him
terminated; he was not terminated.
17. ROLL CALL TRAINING:
[Did not discuss.]
18. USE OF FORCE:
Believes it was a big mistake to outlaw the choke hold;
people are afraid to use the carotid now that it is classified as
a deadly force response -- why use it when you could use the gun
instead.
Another mistake is training cops to use the baton at the first
sign of trouble; kicking can be very effective; she has used
kicks to immobilize many suspects; kicks are allowed and can be
used with particular effectiveness by females; recruits are not
trained to use kicks.
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CONflDtNTIAL
Wrestling is not taught at the Academy anymore; wrestling and
swarming are effective control techniques and should be relied on
more heavily; recruits should be taught to wrestle and swarm until
it is second nature; recruits now tend to be afraid to use their
bodies to subdue suspects; they are not trained to do anything but
shoot and thump with the stick.
Women can swarm as well as men; she has used her body to
subdue suspects -- usually by jumping on their backs until they get
tired and fall down.
19. RODNEY KING INCIDENT:
She has worked with one of the officers involved in the
beating (Powell); although he is aggressive, she does not think
that he is the type to beat suspects without cause.
Believes that the officers involved did exactly what they are
trained to do -- do not "tie up" with the suspect and keep
going/hitting until all resistance ceases; up to the last few
baton strokes, the actions were in policy (hit, back up to observe
compliance, hit, back up, hit, back up, etc., until resistance
ceases).
The last few strokes were too much; believes that adrenaline
rush took control.
Sees a major problem with the sergeant's performance; he
should have ordered a swarm when King first went to his knees and
the "hitters" backed up; King was vulnerable at that point and
could have been easily subdued by a swarm without endangering the
officers; the sergeant also got too involved; should not have
done the tasing himself; there were plenty of officers present;
sergeant should have designated hitters and tasers and swarmers.
Also believes that there were too many young officers present;
the Department as a whole is too young and inexperienced;
situations can spin out of control very easily when the people
involved have too little experience to draw on.
20. CITIZEN COMPLAINTS:
[Did not discuss.]
21. INTERNAL DISCIPLINE:
[Did not discuss.]
22. PROMOTION:
You must be "inside" to promote; you do not get promoted if
you stay in the field; the higher-ups look down on patrol
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. . CONflDfNTIAL
officers; she has been passed over for senior lead spots in her
own division because she "couldn't write as well as insiders";
particularly for lead spots, the criteria should not relate to
writing but to field performance; now all promotions are tied to
writing and paperpushing.
23. ASSIGNMENTS/TRANSFERS:
[Did not discuss.]
24. COMMUNITY POLICING I COMMUNITY RELATIONS:
[See# 15 above.]
25. GAYS/LESBIANS:
Has had one lesbian partner; sexual orientation was not an
issue.
Has had one gay partner; he was even "ruder" to gays in the
field than the straight cops; when she asked why he harassed other
gays, he stated that he had to keep others from suspecting that he
was gay.
Is "very repulsed" by homosexuality personally; once beat up
a lesbian who made a pass at her; nevertheless, has no objection ~
to gays/lesbians being cops; believes that sexual orientation is
not an issue, as long as gays/lesbians do not "hit on" other
officers; has seen that gays/lesbians can make excellent cops;
believes that ability to do the job should be the primary focus of
hiring.
Does not believe in actively recruiting gays/lesbians because
she sees no good recruiting "sources"; would not want recruiting
in gay bars or sex magazines; does believe in actively recruiting
racial minorities because good sources exist, such as black
colleges; wants the best possible people on the force; believes
that the key to getting good people on the force is recruiting from
"quality pools" of interested people; sees most organized gay
groups as disreputable.
26. WOMEN:
She quickly established herself as a strong and competent
officer; has not been personally affected by any gender
discrimination; she believes she is viewed as a skilled officer
rather than as a women.
Believes that she is "sexist" herself; believes that most
women should not be cops because they are not aggressive and strong
enough; that is just a fact of socialization in our society; no
amount or kind of training will reverse that fact.
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C0NflDfNTl4L
Wilshire was a test case for female officers, so there are
lots of them there; she only knows of 4 who are strong officers;
the rest are deficient.
Females join the Department for the wrong reasons; they do
not want to be cops in the field; they want to promote inside as
quickly as possible and get behind a desk; women do in fact
promote very quickly; most of them have virtually no field
experience yet they end up "running things."
27. RACIAL MINORITIES:
[Did not discuss.]
28. ATTITUDES/OPINIONS RE L.A.P.D.:
Very happy being a police officer; believes that Gates has
been a good Chief and is in touch with the field; stated in strong
terms that she supports Gates because he spent time in the field;
stated in stronger terms that she despises the Police Commission
because it tries to dictate to officers how to act when the
Commissioners have never been near the field.
29.- REFORM SUGGESTIONS:
(a) Restructure promotions and rewards to keep good officers
in the field; patrol is the backbone of the Department but gets
nothing but disrespect.
(b) Make field experience a primary requirement for
promotion; field experience should be what counts; paperpushing
time should not count; to be promoted to sergeant, should have a
minimum of 3-5 years real field time.
[Other suggestions set forth under various issue headings
above.]
30. CODE OF SILENCE:
Believes that many officers cover for each other; she would
report, and has reported, serious officer misconduct; believes in
keeping the force clean; does not believe in making ~ big deal
over small problems.
50. MISCELLANEOUS:
Has had personal conduct with Bob Vernon; thinks he is an
"idiot" who tries to impose his religion on those around him; she
believes that she was passed over for a promotion because Vernon
interceded against her with the selecting lieutenant; she believes
that she ran afoul of Vernon prior to that time when she grieved
[Huebner 009] 6
CONflDfNTIAL
a complaint made against her (she stated that she preferred not to
talk about the complaint; stated that we could find it in her
personnel jacket).
[Huebner 009] 7