Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore and Mayor Karen Bass want to make it easier to fire or otherwise punish officers who have committed serious misconduct, and they have the right idea. Police must earn the trust of the communities they serve, yet trusting them is hard if officers can’t be held accountable for improper shootings, lying in official reports, being drunk on duty or other egregious actions.
Now there’s a chance the City Council may get on board, reversing a bad decision it made four years ago to “reform” the police discipline system that has significantly hampered accountability.
It’s noteworthy that the proposed change was introduced by an unlikely pair of new council members: Tim McOsker, formerly an attorney for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union of rank-and-file LAPD officers; and Hugo Soto-Martinez, a former union organizer who calls himself a police abolitionist. The fact that these two members have united to lead the effort to fix the council’s past mistake is a good sign and could pave the way for additional progress on contentious public safety reforms.
