Hed Hail to the Chief
The most encouraging thing about the selection of Bernard C. Parks as L.A.’s new police chief is that the LAPD had someone so qualified for the job. Actually, they had at least two qualified people; Deputy Chief Mark Kroecker, the other leading candidate and the one generally favored by the department’s rank-and-file, would have been a similarly strong choice.
We call this encouraging because the department’s tarnished reputation in recent years might have many Angelenos suspecting that no one inside Parker Center has the vaguest idea of how to run a modern police department.
Certainly, the anecdotal evidence is compelling: From Rodney King to Mark Fuhrman to a shoddy forensics lab to embarrassing cases of sexual harassment to, most recently, the miscast Willie Williams, this is a department that’s been nothing short of a national laughingstock.
In some ways, the Williams term was the biggest blow: Here was an outsider with apparently top-flight credentials who was supposed to turn the LAPD upside down, and instead he winds up being a horrendously ineffectual manager whose interests seemed to be centered more on Las Vegas junkets than cops on the beat.
Eventually, city officials came to their senses by not renewing Williams’ term, but as City Councilman Richard Alatorre noted, “(Parks) should have been chief of police five years ago. We didn’t have to go through all that heartache.”
It’s been obvious all along that there is another side to the LAPD a side of competence and conscientiousness. In fact, it could be argued that this other side led by people like Parks and Kroecker has kept the department functioning as well as it has. Indeed, while the LAPD will need major renovation, its personnel strengths from its administration levels to its front-line patrols should not be overlooked.
Parks, in particular, has shown a political deftness that goes beyond the confines of the department. As illustrated by the warm reception he received last week from Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council, Parks recognizes the importance of working with all levels of city government. (This is something that Williams was incapable of doing.) In a town where power is so disparate, such an ability is not to be minimized.
Parks already has shown an ability to avoid promising the moon (another Williams fault), choosing instead to carefully examine all levels of the department and presumably talking to all levels of officers before deciding on specific changes.
Clearly, there are challenges. The department still needs more officers and cars, along with an updated computer system and a much-improved crime lab. The new chief seems intent on making good on those needs (with a little help from his Council friends, of course).
Parks did say that he ultimately should be judged on whether crime declines in Los Angeles. “If it increases,” he said, “the chief of police isn’t doing his job.”
This seems a little extreme after all, crime has fallen all over the country and for reasons that don’t always relate to effective policing. Nevertheless, it’s the sort of “Buck stops here” attitude that is refreshing to hear.
And unlike Willie Williams, Parks, we are convinced, really means it.
