Los Angeles City council members Hugo Soto-Martinez and Eunisses Hernandez voted no.
Los Angeles Police Chief Dominic Choi speaks during a memorial ceremony for fallen officers at police headquarters in Los Angeles on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The Los Angeles City Council agreed on Tuesday, June 25, to place a measure on the November ballot that would change the police discipline process and expand the chief’s ability to fire officers for serious misconduct.
Currently, the chief of police can recommend that an officer be terminated, but ultimately the decision is left to the Board of Rights, a three-member panel that serves as a quasi-judicial body, hearing evidence related to charges of misconduct, determining guilt and deciding penalties. “I don’t think that it gets us to what we had originally wanted for there to be — the ability to terminate police officers when they engage in misconduct,” Soto-Martinez said. “But I think the voters will have the ultimate word, and we’ll see where the chips lay in November.”
Additionally, the proposal would change the composition of the LAPD’s Board of Rights from two sworn officers and one civilian member to one sworn officer and two civilian members. And it would repeal an option that gives officers facing disciplinary action the right to request an all-civilian Board of Rights panel.
The council is looking to correct elements of Charter Amendment C, approved by voters in May 2019. One of its goals was to increase police accountability, but an analysis of almost four years of Board of Rights hearings showed the opposite is true — with all-civilian boards removing fewer officers found to have committed serious misconduct. The all-civilian boards were also more lenient by reducing penalties, according to a report from the City Attorney’s Office.
Commissioner Rasha Gerges Shield said last week that she wished for a greater opportunity to provide feedback on the proposal. She took issue with using binding arbitration, which she called a “controversial element,” to resolve disciplinary cases.
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