The Los Angeles Police Commission will review a report next week that shows about 41% of LAPD officers who shot at people in violation of department policy were not disciplined, it was reported Saturday.
According to the report by the Los Angeles Police Department’s inspector general, 27 of the 66 officers found to have violated LAPD rules on shootings by a civilian oversight board escaped punishment, while 13 were reprimanded, one was fired and 20 received unpaid suspensions.
The findings were reported by the Los Angeles Times, which added that cases for three other officers were pending.
The data cover the years between 2015 and 2020.
Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered the report in January over concerns that the department’s system for disciplining officers too often results in officers escaping accountability for their actions involving potentially deadly force.
A spokesperson for Garcetti told The Times on Friday that the mayor “will review these findings closely and is committed to engaging in a robust discussion about learning from them after the Police Commission takes up the report next week.”
LAPD Inspector General Mark Smith and Police Commission President William Briggs declined to comment on the report, which the commission plans to discuss at its public meeting Tuesday.
Police Chief Michel Moore also declined to comment on the report, but the board of directors for the Los Angeles police union said the Police Commission “makes more than its fair share of bad decisions,” and that independent discipline panels sometimes reach different conclusions than the commission, The Times reported.
“LAPD officers are held accountable through one of the most rigorous, transparent and extensive review processes in the nation,” the union said. “To imply otherwise would be disingenuous.”
The inspector general’s report cited 45 shooting incidents involving 66 officers, which resulted in the deaths of 20 people. Of 301 rounds fired during the shootings, 228 were ruled out of policy by the Police Commission, according to the report.
Last Tuesday, the Police Commission reviewed a report on all shootings by LAPD officers in 2021 — a year that saw the highest number of such shootings since 2017. The City Council’s Public Safety Committee will review the report next.
There were 37 LAPD shootings in 2021, 18 of them fatal. In 2020, there were 27 police shootings and seven people were killed. In 2019, the LAPD reached a three-decade low with 26 police shootings.
