In the market for top law enforcement officials, Los Angeles is hiring.
As of this week, the city faces three unprecedented vacancies in key LAPD leadership and oversight positions: chief, inspector general and executive director of the Board of Police Commissioners.
Current Inspector General Mark Smith was named independent monitor Monday to oversee police reforms in Portland, Oregon. Another top oversight official, Richard Tefank, who served as executive director of the Board of Police Commissioners for nearly two decades, retired late last month.
The department no longer has a permanent police chief after Michel Moore unexpectedly announced his retirement in January after five and a half years as chief. Last month, the Police Commission appointed Deputy Chief Dominic Choi to take over on an interim basis. A Northern California recruiting firm was hired last month to conduct a nationwide search for the city's next top cop, a process that is expected to last until August.
The all-civilian Police Commission, which functions much like a department board of directors, will now be tasked with choosing replacements for Tefank and Smith, while also selecting three police chief candidates for the mayor to consider. Karen Bass.
The simultaneous openings mark a crossroads for civilian oversight in the city, where the commission has the opportunity to “put its stamp on the department going forward,” said Gerald “Gerry” Chaleff, former commission chairman.
“That's never happened before,” said Chaleff, who helped negotiate the sweeping 2000 federal settlement imposed on the Los Angeles Police Department, largely because of the Rampart corruption scandal, in which gang officers planted false evidence. , stole narcotics and shot people without justification.
Members of the Los Angeles Police Commission, from left, Richard Tefank, Robert Saltzman, Steve Soboroff and Matthew Johnson during a meeting in 2016.
(Los Angeles Times)
If approved for his new position in Portland, Smith will work to resolve a decade-old review by the U.S. Department of Justice, which previously accused the city's police of following a pattern of excessive force during arrests of people. with mental illnesses.
It is unclear who will replace Smith until a permanent replacement is named.
Tefank's temporary replacement is Django Sibley, a deputy inspector general who oversees all police serious use-of-force investigations and has earned a reputation as an effective behind-the-scenes operator since joining the office in 2004.
Tefank, a former small-town police chief who spent the past 20 years overseeing the commission (much longer than all of his predecessors in office), was named commission director after serving as a top cop in the cities of Buena Park and Pomona. He was fired from the latter job for what he said was his refusal to remove the officers because he felt doing so violated his due process rights.
Tefank started at a particularly challenging time for the LAPD. Just 18 months earlier, the long-troubled department had signed a federal consent decree that forced dozens of changes overseen by a monitor and a federal judge. For the next two decades, his grave, gravelly voice and thinning white hair were regular fixtures at commission meetings.
In an interview Monday, Tefank said he was proud of what he had accomplished during a 55-year career in law enforcement. As CEO, he said he had a front-row seat in the department's post-Rampart transformation, from one that had historically fiercely opposed outside influence to one that grudgingly embraced change.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore, left, and Richard Tefank, executive director of the Board of Police Commissioners, listen to speakers at a board meeting in 2018.
(Los Angeles Times)
Despite ongoing challenges, including a significant staffing shortage, Tefank says he believes the department is headed in the right direction.
“I hope my legacy is that I served the commissioners, the 28 that I worked for, well, I served the department well and I served the public well, that I balanced those three areas,” he said.
Deficiencies in LAPD oversight have been documented in countless official reports since the 1960s, and critics say the five-member Police Commission still lacks teeth. He can order policy changes and has the ability to recommend a police chief be fired (or decide whether to reinstate him for a second term), but he has virtually no say in the department's day-to-day operations. The inspector general's office is responsible for conducting audits and studies, but only at the commission's request.
“The problem is that the police commission may be doing more … but it still doesn't have the final authority to make systemic changes,” said Chaleff, the former commission chairman.
Each week, the commission meetings at LAPD headquarters are filled with frustrated critics, activists and residents who bemoan what they see as the oversight panel's unwillingness to take on the police department in a meaningful way.
Tefank rejected what he called “a false perception” about the commission's cozy relationship with the Los Angeles Police Department. He said taking on a “more adversarial role,” as some critics would like, would make it harder to rally support for new policies. “I challenged the department when I thought it was appropriate and, frankly, I also challenged the commissioners when I thought it was appropriate,” he said.
Former LAPD Chief William J. Bratton said that when he set out to remake the department after the Rampart scandal, he found a willing partner in Tefank, whom he remembered for his extensive police knowledge, his “very pleasant” personality and his work ethic. .
“It's very important that the police chief get along with the Police Commission,” Bratton said, “and for that to work you need an executive director who has the ability to build a bridge between the two.”
When he retired, Tefank had considerable influence over the commission. As director, he set meeting agendas to clear the way for certain topics or projects. He was also responsible for choosing the hearing examiners who sit on panels that decide whether officers should face discipline or firing. .
William Briggs, a member of the Police Commission, called Tefank one of the department's “unsung heroes.” Briggs said that, like him, most commissioners do not come from law enforcement backgrounds and therefore relied on Tefank's institutional knowledge for advice when creating new policies or dismantling old ones.
“Mr. Tefank guided us and directed us, not only through a department that very few are familiar with,” said Briggs, an entertainment attorney. “He is our eyes and ears for what happens in the department on a daily basis. “.
Briggs, who spoke before Smith's departure for Portland, said the recent vacancies have given the department and the city something of a clean slate.
“This is the beginning of a new chapter for law enforcement and the city of Los Angeles,” he said, “one that would take us into the next century of policing.”
