POLICE RESISTANCE TO GUTTING DARE PROGRAM ANGERS PANEL

Dispute: Commission Urges Shifting Officers In The School Anti-Drug Effort
To Patrol.

Los Angeles Police Commission members didn't shrink at ousting a powerful
and popular police chief. But they seem to have found a more formidable
adversary in DARE, the LAPD's longtime drug-abuse education program.

Commissioners first talked about gutting DARE's staff two months ago to
free up more officers for the LAPD's depleted narcotics and gang units.

The deliberations have unfolded quietly in recent months in the shadow of
the higher-profile controversy over the commission's rejection of a second
five-year-term for Chief Bernard C. Parks. Parks is now out, but DARE
remains standing. Despite commissioners' repeated requests, LAPD officials
have yet to provide them with the "creative solutions" they had requested
so that most DARE officers might be temporarily shifted to other duties and
the program replaced by something else.

In fact, as the debate stretches into its third month, LAPD brass appears
to be more interested in arguing DARE's merits and protecting it from
further cuts than in responding to the commission's requests.

At the commission's most recent meeting on DARE, little progress was made,
and the discussion was continued into next week.

Rather than working toward resolution, police officials and commissioners
seemed to argue past each other.

Pressed to come up with a replacement for DARE, Deputy Chief J.I. Davis dug
in his heels. "DARE has a very positive role," he told commissioners calmly.

On the commissioners' side, though, patience was wearing thin. "Didn't we
ask for some creative solutions." Commissioner Silvia Saucedo asked.
"Wasn't that due to us today."

She didn't get an answer from the assembled LAPD officials. But commission
President Rick Caruso offered one instead. "Yeah," he grumbled, "it was.
And we got a new memo that just says, 'No.'"

At issue for the Police Commission is a more far-reaching question than the
future of school-based anti-drug officers: how to persuade LAPD officials
to do what civilian overseers want.

For years, critics have griped that the LAPD's paramilitary culture has
resisted civilian oversight to the detriment of civil rights, and that the
Police Commission--civilians appointed by the mayor to oversee the
department--has never quite managed to assert sufficient control.

Now, the police commissioners, most of them appointed last year by Mayor
James K. Hahn, want to establish their authority as managers in ways they
believe eluded their predecessors. And they are learning just how difficult
that can be.

"I think it's a cultural thing," Caruso said. "There is a history of giving
an answer that is not really an answer and hoping it just goes away."

Commissioners began considering ways to reduce or eliminate DARE in
February in response to concerns that narcotics crime-fighting units, in
particular, had been cut excessively and that officers needed to be
transferred from elsewhere to help rebuild them.

They were responding in part to the protests of a group of Boyle Heights
residents, who in arguing passionately for more narcotics officers, cited
rising gang violence.

The department's overall personnel crisis results from a shortage of police
recruits that has most profoundly affected specialized units. Strapped for
officers, the department has been shifting people from these units back to
patrol to ensure sufficient numbers to answer emergency calls.

The DARE program has been among those cut, but it has not lost as many
positions as narcotics.

DARE is now allotted 119 officers on paper but, in reality, it is
functioning with 71. Hahn's proposed city budget for next year would in
essence make the vacancies permanent, capping it at 74 officers.

But the commission wants the number of sworn officers cut to about six,
with civilians or retired officers taking up the slack.

DARE deploys uniformed police officers to schools to educate children on
the perils of drug use. The program was created by the LAPD in 1983 and has
since spread worldwide. Although DARE's effectiveness has been questioned
by some experts, its rapid expansion in Los Angeles and elsewhere testifies
to its popularity.

Supporters say that, besides discouraging drug use, DARE improves school
safety by bringing officers to campuses and is also a valuable officer
recruitment tool. Moreover, LAPD officials argue that the program
represents one of the department's few efforts that focuses on crime
prevention, and that it would be short-sighted to gut it to meet short-term
needs.

The program also is a point of pride for the LAPD.

"If you look at the achievements of LAPD in the last 50 years, the two
things that have been most innovative are SWAT and DARE," said Charlie
Parsons, executive director of DARE America, the nonprofit corporation that
sponsors the program. "To consider dropping DARE is incredible."

Commission President Caruso counters that, in the face of rising gang
violence, the department cannot afford to keep 71 officers in the drug
education program.

"I knew when I raised this it was not going to be the most popular issue,
but I think you have to balance priorities," Caruso lectured Davis and
another acting chief, Michael Bostic, at the panel's most recent meeting.
"There are people dying in the streets."

Previously, commissioners had asked police officials to suggest ways to
keep the program in an altered form, perhaps by using retired officers or
civilians, while allowing most sworn officers to be transferred, leaving
just half a dozen now assigned to magnet schools.

But to Caruso's consternation, police officials responded by explaining
that such options would not work, presenting commissioners with what he
called an "all or nothing" dilemma.

LAPD officials have defended the response. "We cannot lie to him," said
DARE Capt. Mark Perez.

The resulting lengthy public debate at the panel's recent meeting often
seemed to go in circles.

LAPD officials touted the benefits of DARE and argued that if its officers
were transferred, the program might never be restored.

Commissioners replied that they weren't questioning the merits of the
program but favored other priorities.

"I don't think eliminating units is the answer," Bostic told commissioners.

"We have been asking for this for months!" Caruso shot back. As the debate
wore on, he slumped deeper into his chair, his chin propped on one fist.

Finally, LAPD Cmdr. Valentino Paniccia pushed him too far. Paniccia
suggested that the commission would "sacrifice thousands of kids" in a
misguided effort to bolster patrol units.

Caruso bolted upright. "I think that's unfair!" he snapped. "Don't lay that
on my lap. Why don't you go to Boyle Heights and ask the parents how they
feel about kids being shot."

In the end, the commission tabled the issue for two weeks at the request of
Commissioner Rose Ochi, DARE's main backer on the panel.

But Caruso said a majority of commissioners are close to deciding to
transfer DARE officers by fiat--whether the department likes it or not.

The LAPD needs to get used to it, Caruso said. "This commission is strong
enough, and I am determined enough, that we are going to stand our ground."