The City Council has agreed to a consent decree, and Parks says he'll implement reforms. But the department's paramilitary culture stands in the way. To accomplish that, the City Council last week voted, 10-2, to enter into a consent degree with the U.S. Justice Department that spells out the changes the LAPD will have to make.
Big questions remain, however.
Perhaps the biggest question of all is the resolve of Parks and his department to implement reform. Among the Christopher Commission reforms the chief failed to implement, for example, were two that were intended to provide warnings of trouble. The first was the development of a computerized system to track use of force, complaints,performance evaluations, disciplinary actions and other data on officers. Such a system would have enabled the civilian inspector general, who oversees the LAPD for the Police Commission, to assess the department's efforts to deal with problem officers. One consequence of the lack of a computer tracking system was highly embarrassing to the department.