LAPD: 1,356 Complaints Of Bias? We Are All Innocent!

[Shiranu]

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lapd-biased-policing-report-20151215-story.html

The Los Angeles Police Department did not uphold any of the 1,356 allegations of biased policing by officers that the agency investigated in recent years, according to a report by the Police Commission's watchdog.

The numbers, which covered 2012 to 2014, prompted the president of the Police Commission to call Tuesday for a “deep-dive briefing” from the LAPD on how the investigations are conducted.

“We need to take a look at it,” said the panel's president, Matt Johnson.

In an interview, Johnson said claims of biased policing â€" police parlance for racial profiling â€" were among the most serious accusations that could be levied against the LAPD.

“I don't think anybody believes that there are actually no incidents of biased policing,” Johnson said. “The problem is we don't have an effective way of really adjudicating the issue.”

The report from Inspector General Alex Bustamante tallied the number of investigations that were completed by the LAPD during the three-year window.

Commissioner Robert Saltzman echoed Johnson's remarks, calling the lack of substantiated allegations “quite troubling and disappointing.”

“While no doubt the vast majority of LAPD officers do not engage in biased policing, it strains credibility to suggest that ... there were zero instances of biased policing,” he told The Times. “It should not be surprising that there is diminished trust in the LAPD given these results.”

I'm just going to let this one speak for itself.

[drunkenshoe]

Oh wow. Do they really have a claim like "zero bias" ?!

That reminds a famous, comical slogan: "Islam is a religion of peace!".

[Gawdzilla Sama]

10,000,000 people in Los Angeles County.  0.01356% of them complained of bias. Not a bad ratio. 0.00452% per year over the three years. Again, not bad at all.

The "zero valid" needs looking at, certainly.

[Shiranu]

10,000,000 people in Los Angeles County.  0.01356% of them complained of bias. Not a bad ratio. 0.00452% per year over the three years. Again, not bad at all.

The "zero valid" needs looking at, certainly.

Not all 10.000.000 dealt with the police nor would all who have faced biased reported it.

A more interesting and informative number would be the number of times police dealt with people vs number of complaints.

[widdershins]

10,000,000 people in Los Angeles County.  0.01356% of them complained of bias. Not a bad ratio. 0.00452% per year over the three years. Again, not bad at all.

The "zero valid" needs looking at, certainly.

Yes, but for every one who does complain, how many see it as futile and don't bother, especially with this outcome?  Why would people bother complaining if they were sure nothing would come of it?  And, as Shiranu pointed out, the ratio is certainly much, much worse when you consider the actual demographic instead of just a blanket population.  And they were complaints of "racial bias", which usually means complaints by "not white people".  Wikipedia puts Los Angeles at more than 40% white people, so 4,000,000 can be dropped off that population, just for starters.

[stromboli]

I've been to LA just exactly long enough to convince myself never to go back.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I've been to LA just exactly long enough to convince myself never to go back.

I used to hunt deserters for the USN. My territory was California, south of Santa Barbara, southern Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. I used to work LA personally for one week out of each calendar quarter. I was stationed in San Diego but had a house in the Lakewood area of LA. So, I spent a lot of time there, and a lot of time with police departments there. As I understand it a police officer speaks with 10-15 people a day. Four hundred complaints against all those cops is impressive, and we can, of course, play what-if and yeah-but, but even if it was ten times as bad as the numbers suggest then that's a small percentage of negative encounters reported. And to balance out the "don't bother reporting" we should consider the of specious reports, revenge reports after a fair cop.

YMMV

[TomFoolery]

I've been to LA just exactly long enough to convince myself never to go back.

Interestingly, the last time I was in LA was 2013, and this was the one picture I took.


Seriously though, police shouldn't be allowed to police themselves. I don't know what sort of system the LAPD has of externally reviewing policies and procedures, but it sounds like all of these reports sat on some internal affairs guy's desk until a few months later when he spilled coffee on them and thought, "Damn," and tossed them in the trash.

[Unbeliever]