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• • • <\1$.\)' I [HUFFMAN - 0 ] la. NAME OF INTERVIEWER: Julie Huffman lb. DATE OF INTERVIEW: June 6, 1991 le. LENGTH OF INTERVIEW: l~ Hrs. ld. NOTES: 2. I.D. CODE: 011 3. SEX: Male 4. RACE: Black 5. AGE:. 6 • DIVISION: 77th 7. CURRENT RANK/ASSIGNMENT: 8. MISC. PERSONAL BACKGROUND: 9. MISC. L.A.P.D. BACKGROUND: 1 CONFIDENTIAL • • • [BUl'l'HAH - 011] CONFIDENTIAL This officer was assigned to 77th Division upon graduation from the Academy and has stayed there for his entire career. He did not have a choice in where he was assigned and actually didn't want to be assigned to 77th. He explained that he had grown up in that neighborhood and didn't especially want to work there. He also said that he never wanted to work downtown, because he didn't want to have deal with the drunks on skid row or the weirdos at the bus station. This officer indicated that he had never sought to change divisions or to be promoted because he finds working 77th to be "comfortable and convenient." He admits that he is in something of a rut and believes that the Department should encourage people to transfer. 10. FIELD TRAINING -- SELECTION OF F.T.O.s: This officer has been working with probationers on and off, since about 1972, although he has only been a PIII for about four years. When he first started working with probationers, any police officers could train new probationers. There was not a special position for training officers. He eventually decided to take the test and become a PIII because one of his sergeants goaded him into it. He also indicated that many of the people he trained as probationers are now in supervisory positions above. 11. FIELD TRAINING -- TRAINING OF F.T.O.s: This officer believes that many of the current training officers lack the basic skills to appropriately train probationers because they themselves were not trained properly when they were probationers. He thinks that the Department has a large number of officers on the street who do not have good people skills, and the Department should make an effort to retrain the training officers so that they are better equipped to train probationers. 12. FIELD TRAINING MISCONDUCT BY I DISCIPLINE OF F.T.O.s: 13. FIELD TRAINING EVALUATION OF F.T.O.s' PERFORMANCE: 14. FIELD TRAINING ASSIGHMENTCSl TO PROBATIONERS: 2 • [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL 15. FIELD TRAINING -- RELATIONSHIP WITH I TRAINING OF PROBATIONERS: This officer believes that the most important thing to teach probationers, and the most common thing that is lacking in officers who are currently on the force, is self-confidence. He believes that if officers have self-confidence, they will learn good people skills and they will be able to deal with the people they encounter on the street. It's important to teach probationers that not everyone they encounter is going to try to bite your head off. Probationers need to learn how to recognize whether a person is a threat and how to respond to that threat, but until the threat comes along, they have to learn how to calm down. He also teaches his probationers to explain to people why they have stopped or detained. It's something that you teach probationers by example, just like you teach them by example how to be able to judge the character of people they encounter. Some people simply never learn good people skills. It's a question of having judgment and common sense. This officer expressed the opinion that is it not too hard for the Department to terminate unsatisfactory probationers. He thinks that many training officers have lost the attitude that they are there to be teachers, and they now view themselves as "hatchet men" whose job is to fire people. He thinks this is because the training officers do not themselves have the skills necessary to be a good police officer, and that they, like their probationers, need more training in people skills. He thinks that many training officers have also lost the attitude that training officers and probationers are partners. He thinks this is because too many people are becoming training officers too quickly. One of his favorite lessons to teach new probationers was to teach them about physical space. Every person has an area about them that they define as their personal space and that they don't want violated. He likes to teach his probationers that if they violate that personal space, if they get too close to someone physically, they open themselves up to being touched. If they can't handle being touched, they shouldn't violate the space. 16. FIELD TRAINING --EVALUATION OF PROBATIONERS: 17. ROLL CALL TRAINING: 3 [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL 18. USE OF FORCE: Although this officer does not believe that the excessive use of force is a serious problem on the LAPD, he did acknowledge that excessive force occurs. He himself has been the subject of criminal charges for using excessive force. He was acquitted of the charges, because he was not actually involved in the use of force. It was his partner who was "dirty" and that individual was found guilty and terminated from the Force. That incident occurred shortly after he started with the Police Department. He recounted another instance in which he had used excessive force. This incident also occurred shortly after he became a police officer. He was at the home of a suspected gang member, speaking to the gang member's mother when the gang member came home. As he was speaking with the suspected gang member, the gang member referred to his mother as "a bitch," and the officer hit him in the face and knocked him out. The officer indicated that his conduct was wrong, and that police officers would be unlikely to do the same thing today. He thinks this is because society has changed, and has become less tolerant of the use of the force by police officers. He thinks that many instances of excessive force happen because the police officers involved lack the self-confidence to handle being treated poorly by members of the public. In his opinion, a lot of police officers have a really "macho" attitude, they lack self-confidence, and they have to throw their weight around in order to maintain whatever self-confidence they have. So when they encounter people who exhibit a lot of disrespect for law enforcement or authority figures, they feel as if they have to do something to get back at that person. He thinks that, especially in 77th Division, the fact that many citizens lack respect both for themselves and for authority figures leads to a lot of violent confrontations between police officers and citizens. It used to be that people in the community exhibited a lot of respect for police officers. Now, "it's a one way street, cops have to eat it and eat it and eat it." Because there is so much disrespect, police officers have to learn good people skills in order to handle the people they come in contact with. In this officer's opinion, most police officers do not emphasize good people skills enough, because they themselves do not have the training to do so. 19. RQDNEY KING INCIDENT: This officer believes that the public ought to stop blaming Chief Gates for the Rodney King incident because it is not his fault. It's obvious to this officer that the police officers involved in the King incident broke the rules and should be held 4 • [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL accountable for t h eir conduct. This officer knows Stacy Koon well, and commented that when he first saw the Rodney King video, he said to himself, "Oh Stacy. Bad decision Stacy. You blew it big time." He thinks that the King incident was a situation that really got out of hand. Bad decisions were made at the beginning of the incident and they just snowballed into something that none of the officers there could control. The bad decisions included the excessive use of force, and the failure to write accurate police reports. This officer believes that the King incident is not an aberration. He has seen similar incidents himself. He commented, however, that although beatings do occur, they do not occur as frequently as they used to, and the officers who are involved in that kind of conduct are only a small percentage of the officers on the police force. 20. CITIZEN COMPLAINTS: 21. INTERNAL DISCIPLINE: In this officer's opinion, a lot of cops do "stupid things and they burn for it." Officer believes that the disciplinary system works pretty well, but the people at IAD are overworked. The Department needs to put more officers in IAD, so that the Division can investigate personnel complaints more quickly. 22. PROMOTION: This officer didn't have particularly strong feelings about the promotion system. He did express the view that sometimes people are promoted too quickly because they are good test takers. Those people don't necessarily have good "cop skills." As an example, the officer mentioned Capt. Elfmont, the captain who was involved in the 39th & Dalton matter. This officer knows Elfmont because Elfmont worked at 77th. He said that Elfmont, "Didn't have a clue. This was a man who never grew up." He indicated that Elfmont would frequently take a car out and make traffic stops and take crime reports. "He was a manager who wanted to play cop." 23. ASSIGNMENTS/TRANSFERS: This officer believes the Department should encourage police officers to transfer to different divisions periodically. He thinks that officers who spend their time in a single division get into a rut and should be encouraged to move to avoid that. 24. COMMUNITY POLICING I COMMUNITY RELATIONS: 5 • [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL 25. GAYS/LESBIANS: This officer indicated that he knows some women on the force who are definitely lesbians, although they are not open about their sexuality. He thinks that being gay or lesbian doesn't necessarily hurt a police officer's career, depending upon the police officer's conduct. If being gay or being a lesbian doesn't effect the way the officer does his or her job, or if the officer "carries" him or herself "appropriately," the officer's sexuality really won't matter. This officer acknowledged that a number of police officers are prejudiced against gays and lesbians, but he also indicated that he doesn't buy into that. He stated that remembers not being accepted because he was Black and he remembers a period of time when women were not accepted as police officers because they women. He thinks that the prejudice against gays and lesbians is, "just the leopard changing its spots." 26. WOMEN: This officer indicated that he did not have any problem working with female officers and in fact stated that some of the best partners he's ever had were women. He acknowledged that most officers do not agree with that point of view. He thinks that it's silly for a police officer to dislike working with women because the officer believes that women don't have the physical stature to do the job. In this officer's opinion, the job no longer requires "brute strength," instead it requires a person who can think . . 27. RACIAL MINORITIES: This officer had a lot to say about race relations in the Department. Although he thinks that race relations in the Department are a lot better now then they were when he started, "things are far from being right." He believes that the racism that exists in the Department is just a reflection of the racism that exists in the rest of society. This officer indicated that he has been on the force a long time, and he has always made it a practice to point out to probationers and to other minority officers the officers at 77th who he thought were bigots. He said that he would sit in roll call, and publicly point to the officer he thought was a bigot and say, "That's the one. He's not your friend." He follows the same practice with respect to police officers whom he believes are "dirty cops," or police officers who are too aggressive or engage in the excessive of force. He said that one time a friend of his asked him, "Do you think you are accepted or just tolerated?" He thinks it's a little of both. 6 • [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL Right now, this officer is working with a Latino officer who he believes is one of the most racist people he's ever met. The officer looks down on everyone who is not Latino. The officer is also a graduate of use, and thinks that, "if you didn't go to use, you ain't shit." This officer makes it a point "cuss him out," almost on a daily basis. Because the Latino officer knows that he is wrong, and that most people of the Division don't like him, the Latino officer is reticent to file a personnel complaint against this officer. 28. ATTITUDES/OPINIONS RE: L.A.P.D.: 29. REFORM SUGGESTIONS: This officer did not express strong feelings about what reforms were needed at the Police Department. He did mention that he thought patrol officers, especially those with seniority, ought to be paid more money and get bigger pensions. 30. CODE OF SILENCE: This officer acknowledged that there is a code of silence in the Department, but he believes that is less strong than it used to be. Wh e n he first started, he worked with an officer who he described as "dirty." On one of his first days on the job, this officer pulled out a bottle of alcohol and started drinking in the patrol car. He turned to the officer and said, "Boy, do you drink?" This officer told him that he did not drink. At the point, the other officer took his bottle and splashed a little alcohol all over this officer's uniform. The point was, that the officer would be less likely to report his partner because his uniform also smelled like alcohol. This officer indicated that he took the hint and never reported what the other officer was doing. When he first started on the force, the watch commander's offic was something of a "no man's land." Nobody went into the watch commander's office unless they absolutely had to, or unless they were a good friend of the watch commander. The watch commander did not make himself accessible to other police officers, or encourage police officers to come to him with reports of misconduct. Now, he believes that both supervisors and police officers are more willing to accept and to make complaints about misconduct. The officer did not explain why he thinks attitudes had changed. 50. MISCELLANEOUS: Although this officer indicated that he is not a strong backer of Chief Gates, he did indicate that he thinks the media and the public are being too hard on Gates. In 7 •. • [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL this officer's opinion, Gates is a "product of Parker, who was a world renowned bigot." No stage has ever been set for Gates and Bradley to get along, because they come from such different backgrounds. This officer believes that it is impossible to bridge the gap between Gates and Bradley, the two men are never going to get along. This officer believes that Gates is not as sensitive to racial issues as he might be. He thinks that Gates sometimes makes comments that he ought not to make. [HUFFMAN - 001] 8
Object Description
Title | LAPD interviews #3(c) (1 of 2), 1991 May-June |
Description | Los Angeles Police Department interviews #3(c) (1 of 2), 1991 May 30 - June 24. PART OF A SERIES: Materials in the series fall into one of several categories related to the Independent Commission's work product: (1) Commission meeting materials, which include meeting agendas, work plans, memoranda, and articles about police misconduct that were circulated and reviewed during the Commission's internal meetings; (2) public correspondence, which includes citizen complaints against the LAPD in the form of written testimony, articles, and an audio cassette tape, as well as letters drafted by citizens in support of the LAPD; (3) summaries of interviews held with LAPD officers regarding Departmental procedures and relations; (4) public meeting materials, which include transcripts, supplementary documents, and witness statements that were reviewed at the Commission's public meetings; (5) press releases related to the formation and work product of the Commission; and (6) miscellaneous materials reviewed by the Commission during its study, including LAPD personnel and training manuals, a memorandum of understanding, and messages from the LAPD's Mobile Digital Terminal (MDT) system. |
Coverage date | 1991-05-31/1991-06-19 |
Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California |
Date created | 1991-05-31/1991-06-19 |
Type | texts |
Format | 201 p. |
Format (aat) |
labels (identifying artifacts) transcriptions (documents) |
Format (imt) | application/pdf |
Language | English |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Part of collection | Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, 1991 |
Series | Independent Commission File List |
File | Los Angeles Police Department Interviews |
Box and folder | box 24, folder 15 |
Provenance | The collection was given to the University of Southern California on July 31, 1991. |
Rights | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. |
Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
Repository name | USC Libraries Special Collections |
Repository address | Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 |
Repository email | specol@dots.usc.edu |
Filename | indep-box24-15 |
Description
Title | Huffman FTO interview 011, 1991-06-06 |
Description | Huffman FTO interviews - 011 Black male 77th division |
Coverage date | 1991-06-06 |
Date created | 1991-06-06 |
Type | texts |
Format | 8 p. |
Format (aat) | transcriptions (documents) |
Format (imt) | application/pdf |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Series | Independent Commission File List |
File | Los Angeles Police Department Interviews |
Box and folder | box 24, folder 15, item 13 |
Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
Full text | • • • <\1$.\)' I [HUFFMAN - 0 ] la. NAME OF INTERVIEWER: Julie Huffman lb. DATE OF INTERVIEW: June 6, 1991 le. LENGTH OF INTERVIEW: l~ Hrs. ld. NOTES: 2. I.D. CODE: 011 3. SEX: Male 4. RACE: Black 5. AGE:. 6 • DIVISION: 77th 7. CURRENT RANK/ASSIGNMENT: 8. MISC. PERSONAL BACKGROUND: 9. MISC. L.A.P.D. BACKGROUND: 1 CONFIDENTIAL • • • [BUl'l'HAH - 011] CONFIDENTIAL This officer was assigned to 77th Division upon graduation from the Academy and has stayed there for his entire career. He did not have a choice in where he was assigned and actually didn't want to be assigned to 77th. He explained that he had grown up in that neighborhood and didn't especially want to work there. He also said that he never wanted to work downtown, because he didn't want to have deal with the drunks on skid row or the weirdos at the bus station. This officer indicated that he had never sought to change divisions or to be promoted because he finds working 77th to be "comfortable and convenient." He admits that he is in something of a rut and believes that the Department should encourage people to transfer. 10. FIELD TRAINING -- SELECTION OF F.T.O.s: This officer has been working with probationers on and off, since about 1972, although he has only been a PIII for about four years. When he first started working with probationers, any police officers could train new probationers. There was not a special position for training officers. He eventually decided to take the test and become a PIII because one of his sergeants goaded him into it. He also indicated that many of the people he trained as probationers are now in supervisory positions above. 11. FIELD TRAINING -- TRAINING OF F.T.O.s: This officer believes that many of the current training officers lack the basic skills to appropriately train probationers because they themselves were not trained properly when they were probationers. He thinks that the Department has a large number of officers on the street who do not have good people skills, and the Department should make an effort to retrain the training officers so that they are better equipped to train probationers. 12. FIELD TRAINING MISCONDUCT BY I DISCIPLINE OF F.T.O.s: 13. FIELD TRAINING EVALUATION OF F.T.O.s' PERFORMANCE: 14. FIELD TRAINING ASSIGHMENTCSl TO PROBATIONERS: 2 • [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL 15. FIELD TRAINING -- RELATIONSHIP WITH I TRAINING OF PROBATIONERS: This officer believes that the most important thing to teach probationers, and the most common thing that is lacking in officers who are currently on the force, is self-confidence. He believes that if officers have self-confidence, they will learn good people skills and they will be able to deal with the people they encounter on the street. It's important to teach probationers that not everyone they encounter is going to try to bite your head off. Probationers need to learn how to recognize whether a person is a threat and how to respond to that threat, but until the threat comes along, they have to learn how to calm down. He also teaches his probationers to explain to people why they have stopped or detained. It's something that you teach probationers by example, just like you teach them by example how to be able to judge the character of people they encounter. Some people simply never learn good people skills. It's a question of having judgment and common sense. This officer expressed the opinion that is it not too hard for the Department to terminate unsatisfactory probationers. He thinks that many training officers have lost the attitude that they are there to be teachers, and they now view themselves as "hatchet men" whose job is to fire people. He thinks this is because the training officers do not themselves have the skills necessary to be a good police officer, and that they, like their probationers, need more training in people skills. He thinks that many training officers have also lost the attitude that training officers and probationers are partners. He thinks this is because too many people are becoming training officers too quickly. One of his favorite lessons to teach new probationers was to teach them about physical space. Every person has an area about them that they define as their personal space and that they don't want violated. He likes to teach his probationers that if they violate that personal space, if they get too close to someone physically, they open themselves up to being touched. If they can't handle being touched, they shouldn't violate the space. 16. FIELD TRAINING --EVALUATION OF PROBATIONERS: 17. ROLL CALL TRAINING: 3 [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL 18. USE OF FORCE: Although this officer does not believe that the excessive use of force is a serious problem on the LAPD, he did acknowledge that excessive force occurs. He himself has been the subject of criminal charges for using excessive force. He was acquitted of the charges, because he was not actually involved in the use of force. It was his partner who was "dirty" and that individual was found guilty and terminated from the Force. That incident occurred shortly after he started with the Police Department. He recounted another instance in which he had used excessive force. This incident also occurred shortly after he became a police officer. He was at the home of a suspected gang member, speaking to the gang member's mother when the gang member came home. As he was speaking with the suspected gang member, the gang member referred to his mother as "a bitch," and the officer hit him in the face and knocked him out. The officer indicated that his conduct was wrong, and that police officers would be unlikely to do the same thing today. He thinks this is because society has changed, and has become less tolerant of the use of the force by police officers. He thinks that many instances of excessive force happen because the police officers involved lack the self-confidence to handle being treated poorly by members of the public. In his opinion, a lot of police officers have a really "macho" attitude, they lack self-confidence, and they have to throw their weight around in order to maintain whatever self-confidence they have. So when they encounter people who exhibit a lot of disrespect for law enforcement or authority figures, they feel as if they have to do something to get back at that person. He thinks that, especially in 77th Division, the fact that many citizens lack respect both for themselves and for authority figures leads to a lot of violent confrontations between police officers and citizens. It used to be that people in the community exhibited a lot of respect for police officers. Now, "it's a one way street, cops have to eat it and eat it and eat it." Because there is so much disrespect, police officers have to learn good people skills in order to handle the people they come in contact with. In this officer's opinion, most police officers do not emphasize good people skills enough, because they themselves do not have the training to do so. 19. RQDNEY KING INCIDENT: This officer believes that the public ought to stop blaming Chief Gates for the Rodney King incident because it is not his fault. It's obvious to this officer that the police officers involved in the King incident broke the rules and should be held 4 • [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL accountable for t h eir conduct. This officer knows Stacy Koon well, and commented that when he first saw the Rodney King video, he said to himself, "Oh Stacy. Bad decision Stacy. You blew it big time." He thinks that the King incident was a situation that really got out of hand. Bad decisions were made at the beginning of the incident and they just snowballed into something that none of the officers there could control. The bad decisions included the excessive use of force, and the failure to write accurate police reports. This officer believes that the King incident is not an aberration. He has seen similar incidents himself. He commented, however, that although beatings do occur, they do not occur as frequently as they used to, and the officers who are involved in that kind of conduct are only a small percentage of the officers on the police force. 20. CITIZEN COMPLAINTS: 21. INTERNAL DISCIPLINE: In this officer's opinion, a lot of cops do "stupid things and they burn for it." Officer believes that the disciplinary system works pretty well, but the people at IAD are overworked. The Department needs to put more officers in IAD, so that the Division can investigate personnel complaints more quickly. 22. PROMOTION: This officer didn't have particularly strong feelings about the promotion system. He did express the view that sometimes people are promoted too quickly because they are good test takers. Those people don't necessarily have good "cop skills." As an example, the officer mentioned Capt. Elfmont, the captain who was involved in the 39th & Dalton matter. This officer knows Elfmont because Elfmont worked at 77th. He said that Elfmont, "Didn't have a clue. This was a man who never grew up." He indicated that Elfmont would frequently take a car out and make traffic stops and take crime reports. "He was a manager who wanted to play cop." 23. ASSIGNMENTS/TRANSFERS: This officer believes the Department should encourage police officers to transfer to different divisions periodically. He thinks that officers who spend their time in a single division get into a rut and should be encouraged to move to avoid that. 24. COMMUNITY POLICING I COMMUNITY RELATIONS: 5 • [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL 25. GAYS/LESBIANS: This officer indicated that he knows some women on the force who are definitely lesbians, although they are not open about their sexuality. He thinks that being gay or lesbian doesn't necessarily hurt a police officer's career, depending upon the police officer's conduct. If being gay or being a lesbian doesn't effect the way the officer does his or her job, or if the officer "carries" him or herself "appropriately," the officer's sexuality really won't matter. This officer acknowledged that a number of police officers are prejudiced against gays and lesbians, but he also indicated that he doesn't buy into that. He stated that remembers not being accepted because he was Black and he remembers a period of time when women were not accepted as police officers because they women. He thinks that the prejudice against gays and lesbians is, "just the leopard changing its spots." 26. WOMEN: This officer indicated that he did not have any problem working with female officers and in fact stated that some of the best partners he's ever had were women. He acknowledged that most officers do not agree with that point of view. He thinks that it's silly for a police officer to dislike working with women because the officer believes that women don't have the physical stature to do the job. In this officer's opinion, the job no longer requires "brute strength," instead it requires a person who can think . . 27. RACIAL MINORITIES: This officer had a lot to say about race relations in the Department. Although he thinks that race relations in the Department are a lot better now then they were when he started, "things are far from being right." He believes that the racism that exists in the Department is just a reflection of the racism that exists in the rest of society. This officer indicated that he has been on the force a long time, and he has always made it a practice to point out to probationers and to other minority officers the officers at 77th who he thought were bigots. He said that he would sit in roll call, and publicly point to the officer he thought was a bigot and say, "That's the one. He's not your friend." He follows the same practice with respect to police officers whom he believes are "dirty cops," or police officers who are too aggressive or engage in the excessive of force. He said that one time a friend of his asked him, "Do you think you are accepted or just tolerated?" He thinks it's a little of both. 6 • [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL Right now, this officer is working with a Latino officer who he believes is one of the most racist people he's ever met. The officer looks down on everyone who is not Latino. The officer is also a graduate of use, and thinks that, "if you didn't go to use, you ain't shit." This officer makes it a point "cuss him out," almost on a daily basis. Because the Latino officer knows that he is wrong, and that most people of the Division don't like him, the Latino officer is reticent to file a personnel complaint against this officer. 28. ATTITUDES/OPINIONS RE: L.A.P.D.: 29. REFORM SUGGESTIONS: This officer did not express strong feelings about what reforms were needed at the Police Department. He did mention that he thought patrol officers, especially those with seniority, ought to be paid more money and get bigger pensions. 30. CODE OF SILENCE: This officer acknowledged that there is a code of silence in the Department, but he believes that is less strong than it used to be. Wh e n he first started, he worked with an officer who he described as "dirty." On one of his first days on the job, this officer pulled out a bottle of alcohol and started drinking in the patrol car. He turned to the officer and said, "Boy, do you drink?" This officer told him that he did not drink. At the point, the other officer took his bottle and splashed a little alcohol all over this officer's uniform. The point was, that the officer would be less likely to report his partner because his uniform also smelled like alcohol. This officer indicated that he took the hint and never reported what the other officer was doing. When he first started on the force, the watch commander's offic was something of a "no man's land." Nobody went into the watch commander's office unless they absolutely had to, or unless they were a good friend of the watch commander. The watch commander did not make himself accessible to other police officers, or encourage police officers to come to him with reports of misconduct. Now, he believes that both supervisors and police officers are more willing to accept and to make complaints about misconduct. The officer did not explain why he thinks attitudes had changed. 50. MISCELLANEOUS: Although this officer indicated that he is not a strong backer of Chief Gates, he did indicate that he thinks the media and the public are being too hard on Gates. In 7 •. • [HUFFMAN - 011] CONFIDENTIAL this officer's opinion, Gates is a "product of Parker, who was a world renowned bigot." No stage has ever been set for Gates and Bradley to get along, because they come from such different backgrounds. This officer believes that it is impossible to bridge the gap between Gates and Bradley, the two men are never going to get along. This officer believes that Gates is not as sensitive to racial issues as he might be. He thinks that Gates sometimes makes comments that he ought not to make. [HUFFMAN - 001] 8 |
Filename | indep-box24-15-13.pdf |
Archival file | Volume81/indep-box24-15-13.pdf |