L.A. LAW UNDER THE PUBLIC'S GUN EVEN SHERIFF FEELS HEAT OF THE CRITICS
Just last week, a federal judge hearing a civil rights suit issued an unusual order that employees follow department policy -- and the department appealed, winning a temporary delay of the order.;   The spotlight that had been trained on the police department and its 8,300 officers now has widened to take in the equally large sheriff's department. Block's measured response to the criticism -- and the lack of a riveting videotape -- have spared him the level of heat felt by Police Chief Daryl Gates. But after years of boasting that their methods were models in policing, both departments are facing pressure to revolutionize their tactics to better fit this first-of-its-kind metropolis.;    "We are a multiracial, multicultural city more than any other," said Ramona Ripston, head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. "If something can be worked out here, it would be really, I think, a model that can be exported.";   Joseph McNamara, retired chief of San Jose's department and now a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, said he has been getting calls all summer from cities around the country about racism and brutality in their departments.;   "There's got to be a revolution in American policing," McNamara said. "Militarizing police is a definite trend in the past 10 years, and part of it is because of the Los Angeles models.";   But some observers say that, for a variety of political and social reasons, the possibility for substantive change on L.A. law's front lines is scant.;   Low level of interest;   "There isn't the level of interest among voting people, people with power, people with influence," ACLU spokesman Joe Hicks said. "They don't really care much about police reform. They just want to make sure their communities are safe.";   The poor minority communities that do care suffer "a lack of organization that really can take advantage of the anger over the police and keep some momentum going that could potentially force reforms," Hicks said.;   The King beating led to an investigation of the police department by an independent commission that found racism, brutality, inadequate discipline, mismanagement and a "siege mentality" pitting officers against the community.;   The Christopher Commission's scathing report made more than 100 recommendations, many of them aimed at moving away from the department's "hard-nosed" approach and improving relations with residents.; At the street level, it suggested officers spend more time out of their patrol cars, work more with community groups and ease up on the common practice of making suspects lie face down on the ground even when they pose no apparent threat.;   The city council is reviewing the recommendations, some of which -- for instance, a term limit for the chief -- require voter approval.;   Now, critics are calling for the same kind of independent investigation of the sheriff's department.;   But Block has dug in his heels, insisting a panel he appointed is independent enough to advise which Christopher Commission recommendations might apply to his department. Critics say its leaders have been supporters of the local law establishment.;   But because Block is elected, his is the last word.;   Like Gates before him, Block maintains his department is a good one with "a reputation as being one of the most progressive, one of the most professional, one of the finest law enforcement agencies.";   The sheriff has said that his department continually re-examines itself and launched several Christopher Commission recommendations before the commission even existed -- but that it can't do everything.;   'A last-resort mechanism';   "Law enforcement, and I'm going beyond the sheriff's department, did not create the social conditions out there from which the violence is springing," he said. "People are looking at the criminal justice system today as being the linchpins of government. . . . (But) We're a last-resort mechanism when other kinder and gentler processes fail in our society. And fail they have.";   Block pointed to social ills including high drop-out and illiteracy rates, "young people who are raising themselves," and a county jail system that is "perhaps the major houser of mentally ill people in our society in this nation.";   Countywide, homicides soared to 1,964 last year, compared with 1,463 five years earlier.;   There are 950 known street gangs with more than 99,300 members in the county, according to the sheriff's department.; Agreeing that law enforcement is not the answer to all of society's failures, critics say Block is missing the point.;   "Police brutality (or) racism is not a social problem, it's a law enforcement lack of leadership," the Hoover Institution's McNamara said. "The basic goal and mission of law enforcement people is to reduce conflict in the community. . . . The rhetoric of the Los Angeles police establishment through the years seems to have escalated conflict, not lowered it.";   The FBI, Amnesty International and the county grand jury are investigating allegations about both departments.;   But some critics are skeptical that the police culture here will change significantly.; 'Window dressing' predicted;   On the city side, they worry that the Christopher Commission recommendations will be diluted by the time the city council and voters are finished with them. Besides a new police chief, the ACLU's Hicks predicted only "some window dressing and some moderate changes made to training.";   On the county side, critics say Block's position as an elected official insulates him from the kind of independent review the city was able to order for the police department.;   And although he can be voted out, they say, the voters include great numbers of people in cities that his department doesn't patrol.;   John Burton, an attorney specializing in police misconduct cases, offers a grim view on the potential for change: "I think it's going to get worse, because of the general decay in social conditions and unemployment. The government doesn't have anything to offer except police repression, so that's what we get."
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