Law Enforcement DevianceLaw Enforcement DevianceLaw Enforcement DevianceNever before, had the city of Los Angeles been involved in a scandal like the one it faced within the department’s Rampart Area. Allegations of perjury, false arrest reports, evidence planting, police brutality, and even murder plagued the department. What started out as an attempt to stop the growing number of “gang related” crimes in the Rampart Area of Los Angeles, had turned into one of the worst scandals to disgrace the city and permanently tarnish the department’s reputation yet. Perhaps, the worst misconduct came from the Department’s managers who ignored warning signs and failed to provide leadership, oversight, management, and supervision to the unit (Rampart Review, 2000). The repercussions of this deviance by the LAPD will be felt for many years as the public struggles to regain trust and the department struggles to regain creditability.
1
Many people are offended and appalled at this incident. One person told the news station: “The response from the department had been that they were going to fix this issue. This was the problem we all had. It didn’t happen in L.A.” 2
This is all going to change the way you think about LAPD. They should work at being honest and transparent about their failings and to stop this type of abuse, at the very least, in the future.
——————————————————————————- The Rampart Investigation by Mark W. Pape
——————————————————————————- The LAPD in July 2007 conducted another, independent and investigative investigation on the gang allegations. Specifically, during sentencing, the judge stated that it was in the interest of the community to know how many gang members were involved in the Racist Crimes Unit. To that end, the L.A. Department of Law Enforcement’s chief law enforcement officer, Sgt. Robert A. Wiedefeld, testified before the LA City Court Justice Committee, which included representatives from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles Superior Court Jury, as well as a senior Los Angeles County Judge, Detective Bob Sanger. The case was adjourned until the next scheduled trial, and the judge adjourned the hearing until March 24, 2009, when the trial of the Housen brothers was to begin. The following is an excerpt from the court’s report, filed in 2008 as part of a public record request of the Los Angeles City Government:
——————————————————————————- The LAPD has a reputation among law enforcement that doesn’t allow a public to know what’s going on. In the wake of the recent scandals over the gang life in the L.A. Department, the L.A. Department’s own internal affairs report was released in 2007. It found that the department had engaged in a pattern, patterning of “illegal and unacceptable behavior” and “systemic systemic failures.” It specifically named several internal affairs problems because of their “highly publicized role in the Racist Crimes Unit.” It stated that, despite the fact that the L.A. Police Department and its supporters had made public information about the Racist Crimes Unit during the past year, the agency had failed to document and report those findings to the FBI and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to prevent further misconduct and corruption. In 2009 the case was subsequently transferred to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for review. The final findings of the
[…]
With the help of a few of these police officers, in 1995, Chief Michael Mann made it clear to the public that, as the chief of the department, he was aware of both the need for a thorough investigation, and that his officers had “a lot of responsibilities that are beyond his control”, as the San Gabriel Sun reported. This was true not only from the inside but even from under his command, as he stated to the Sun:
He doesn’t have authority over all these things. He had only six or seven chief officers in my time there, but he knew who the people and the areas were so if you had his permission, there would be a lot of officers out there. His authority should be the same as the mayor, this is how I think of it, you have authority. There are a lot of great, great power structures outside of the office here. He doesn’t have.
He said that while officers in both the Rampart and the Riverside departments, which they were assigned at the time:
“Have them under control. They should have power. We’re trying to do everything within our power. The more force we have, the more power we have.” – Mike Mann, chief of the LAPD Special Investigations Division “If you think of those other departments which are responsible for our problem, you’re going to get a lot of guys in the law enforcement community.” – Police Chief Michael Mann
With Mann’s help, LAPD moved ahead in the development of new law enforcement training centers around the city.
The Los Angeles City Attorney, on February 8, 1996, took a stand under the direction of Superintendent John Kavanagh in a case that included the involvement of two LAPD Special Investigations officers in the illegal sale of narcotics to the Mexican Mafia. The two officers, John J. “Ted” Lehrman and Richard “Derek” Lehrman , both of the R. Kelly III Police Department, were charged by the Los Angeles City Attorney, John Kavanagh, with engaging in organized crime and obstruction of justice by “taking narcotics on behalf of Mexican cartels.” According to the Los Angeles Times, Lehrman and Lehrman both faced a life sentence even after being found guilty of the conspiracy. The police said they did not know the facts of the case, but Lehrman was found guilty anyway. “Ted’s actions were not for doing anything more than he could. It was very obvious to the entire people who looked at the pictures and saw him, he was looking like it was a Mexican guy. If he’d been better equipped, he probably would have been acquitted as a matter of policy,” John Kavanagh said recently. The following week, in an unrelated case known as the “Vincent R. Ostrander Trial” involving three members of the department, the city of Los Angeles settled the two civil cases with less than $150,000 in cash over the amount of $90,000 (the amount in this case and the $90,000 settlement reached by Kavanagh in a lawsuit against Lehrman). On March 3, 1997, LAPD released an undercover bulletin dated March 15, 1997:
The public is aware of a report of a criminal narcotics case by Mr. Ostrander, a former narcotics investigator in the Los Angeles Police Department.
The bulletin said Mr. Ostrander, an independent investigator, had purchased a “high resolution digital camera” from the L.A. City Attorney’s office, which was used to spy on law enforcement officers.
In the bulletin, the officers said they had purchased two “low resolution digital
[…]
With the help of a few of these police officers, in 1995, Chief Michael Mann made it clear to the public that, as the chief of the department, he was aware of both the need for a thorough investigation, and that his officers had “a lot of responsibilities that are beyond his control”, as the San Gabriel Sun reported. This was true not only from the inside but even from under his command, as he stated to the Sun:
He doesn’t have authority over all these things. He had only six or seven chief officers in my time there, but he knew who the people and the areas were so if you had his permission, there would be a lot of officers out there. His authority should be the same as the mayor, this is how I think of it, you have authority. There are a lot of great, great power structures outside of the office here. He doesn’t have.
He said that while officers in both the Rampart and the Riverside departments, which they were assigned at the time:
“Have them under control. They should have power. We’re trying to do everything within our power. The more force we have, the more power we have.” – Mike Mann, chief of the LAPD Special Investigations Division “If you think of those other departments which are responsible for our problem, you’re going to get a lot of guys in the law enforcement community.” – Police Chief Michael Mann
With Mann’s help, LAPD moved ahead in the development of new law enforcement training centers around the city.
The Los Angeles City Attorney, on February 8, 1996, took a stand under the direction of Superintendent John Kavanagh in a case that included the involvement of two LAPD Special Investigations officers in the illegal sale of narcotics to the Mexican Mafia. The two officers, John J. “Ted” Lehrman and Richard “Derek” Lehrman , both of the R. Kelly III Police Department, were charged by the Los Angeles City Attorney, John Kavanagh, with engaging in organized crime and obstruction of justice by “taking narcotics on behalf of Mexican cartels.” According to the Los Angeles Times, Lehrman and Lehrman both faced a life sentence even after being found guilty of the conspiracy. The police said they did not know the facts of the case, but Lehrman was found guilty anyway. “Ted’s actions were not for doing anything more than he could. It was very obvious to the entire people who looked at the pictures and saw him, he was looking like it was a Mexican guy. If he’d been better equipped, he probably would have been acquitted as a matter of policy,” John Kavanagh said recently. The following week, in an unrelated case known as the “Vincent R. Ostrander Trial” involving three members of the department, the city of Los Angeles settled the two civil cases with less than $150,000 in cash over the amount of $90,000 (the amount in this case and the $90,000 settlement reached by Kavanagh in a lawsuit against Lehrman). On March 3, 1997, LAPD released an undercover bulletin dated March 15, 1997:
The public is aware of a report of a criminal narcotics case by Mr. Ostrander, a former narcotics investigator in the Los Angeles Police Department.
The bulletin said Mr. Ostrander, an independent investigator, had purchased a “high resolution digital camera” from the L.A. City Attorney’s office, which was used to spy on law enforcement officers.
In the bulletin, the officers said they had purchased two “low resolution digital
[…]
With the help of a few of these police officers, in 1995, Chief Michael Mann made it clear to the public that, as the chief of the department, he was aware of both the need for a thorough investigation, and that his officers had “a lot of responsibilities that are beyond his control”, as the San Gabriel Sun reported. This was true not only from the inside but even from under his command, as he stated to the Sun:
He doesn’t have authority over all these things. He had only six or seven chief officers in my time there, but he knew who the people and the areas were so if you had his permission, there would be a lot of officers out there. His authority should be the same as the mayor, this is how I think of it, you have authority. There are a lot of great, great power structures outside of the office here. He doesn’t have.
He said that while officers in both the Rampart and the Riverside departments, which they were assigned at the time:
“Have them under control. They should have power. We’re trying to do everything within our power. The more force we have, the more power we have.” – Mike Mann, chief of the LAPD Special Investigations Division “If you think of those other departments which are responsible for our problem, you’re going to get a lot of guys in the law enforcement community.” – Police Chief Michael Mann
With Mann’s help, LAPD moved ahead in the development of new law enforcement training centers around the city.
The Los Angeles City Attorney, on February 8, 1996, took a stand under the direction of Superintendent John Kavanagh in a case that included the involvement of two LAPD Special Investigations officers in the illegal sale of narcotics to the Mexican Mafia. The two officers, John J. “Ted” Lehrman and Richard “Derek” Lehrman , both of the R. Kelly III Police Department, were charged by the Los Angeles City Attorney, John Kavanagh, with engaging in organized crime and obstruction of justice by “taking narcotics on behalf of Mexican cartels.” According to the Los Angeles Times, Lehrman and Lehrman both faced a life sentence even after being found guilty of the conspiracy. The police said they did not know the facts of the case, but Lehrman was found guilty anyway. “Ted’s actions were not for doing anything more than he could. It was very obvious to the entire people who looked at the pictures and saw him, he was looking like it was a Mexican guy. If he’d been better equipped, he probably would have been acquitted as a matter of policy,” John Kavanagh said recently. The following week, in an unrelated case known as the “Vincent R. Ostrander Trial” involving three members of the department, the city of Los Angeles settled the two civil cases with less than $150,000 in cash over the amount of $90,000 (the amount in this case and the $90,000 settlement reached by Kavanagh in a lawsuit against Lehrman). On March 3, 1997, LAPD released an undercover bulletin dated March 15, 1997:
The public is aware of a report of a criminal narcotics case by Mr. Ostrander, a former narcotics investigator in the Los Angeles Police Department.
The bulletin said Mr. Ostrander, an independent investigator, had purchased a “high resolution digital camera” from the L.A. City Attorney’s office, which was used to spy on law enforcement officers.
In the bulletin, the officers said they had purchased two “low resolution digital
The use of excessive force and evidence planting are two forms of police deviance that are cited in the Rampart Independent Review. These acts of deviance are not exclusive to the LAPD, as there have been many incidences nationwide regarding the use of excessive force and tampering with or planting evidence by police. Excessive use of force continues to be a major problem today. One of the most notorious cases of excessive use of force by officers was the case involving Rodney King. The Rodney King case not only contained excessive use of force, but also the falsifying of police reports (Mangan, 2000). The LAPD’s officers and supervisors downplayed the injuries to King as minor scrapes and bruises. The officers involved in the beating reported that King attacked officers, resisted, and increased his level of resistance. The video tape, however, showed a much different story. King is seen in a defenseless position on his hands and knees as officers circle him and beat him repeatedly with their batons (Mangan, 2000).
The Rampart CRASH officers routinely planted drugs, guns or other evidence on arrestees, or fabricated probable cause (Rampart Review, 2000). Tampering with or planting evidence was a not a new problem with officers when it came to light during the Rampart Review. Today, it is still believed to a problem with law enforcement officers in departments everywhere. An example of tampering with or planting evidence can be found with the case of former New Haven Police Detective Justen Kasperzyk. On November 9, 2006, Kasperzyk served a warrant in New Haven. Drugs were found in the basement of the apartments. Kasperzyk moved the suspected narcotics from the basement to the back bedroom of the first floor apartment, resulting in the unlawful arrest of the individual found within the apartment (FBI, 2008). After the search, the officer filed a case incident report and falsely stated that the drugs were found in the top of the dresser in the bedroom. The report also falsely stated that all the seized items were found next to the individual’s identification card. Kasperzyk was involved in several other incidents of planting evidence and stealing money from crime scenes. On October 5, 2007, Kasperzyk pleaded guilty to one count of civil rights violations, a felony, and one count of theft of government property (FBI, 2008).
One of the main reasons behind the deviance cited in the Rampart Review is the amount of latitude that was given to officers to aggressively fight gangs. The lack of supervision resulted in the officers becoming overzealous and in a loss of focus as to what their job stood actually stood for (Rampart Review, 2000). The officers in CRASH were over worked and had little support. This aided officers in developing an independent subculture that created a mentality where the ends justified the means. Officers resisted supervision and control and ignored LAPD’s procedures and policies (Rampart Review, 2000). CRASH operated as an entity unto itself, one that made up its own rules and one that was left with little or no