Why Law Enforcement Organizations Fail: Mapping the Organizational Fault Lines in Policing, Second Edition by Patrick O'Hara

Author:Patrick O'Hara [O'Hara, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781594609114
Publisher: Carolina Academic Press
Published: 2012-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

LAPD Blues: The Case of Rampart CRASH

Frank Lyga was not your typical, clean cut LAPD officer.3 His pony-tailed hair went past his shoulders. His angular face featured the stubble of a beard, framed by a droopy moustache. His clothes were street, as was his attitude. Lyga worked undercover, and was good at staying in character, which was lower class hustler operating on the fringes of the law.

So Lyga was in character when he exchanged glances and then words with a jump-suited, goateed African American who had pulled up in an SUV alongside Lyga’s unmarked car. The dispute escalated. In heavy, slow-moving traffic, the cars separated and then came side by side again. Then, guns were drawn and pointed and two shots rang out on the busy street. Both shots were fired by Lyga. Lyga’s second bullet hit its mark and killed one Kevin Gaines, who just happened to be an off-duty LAPD officer.

One cop shooting another dead under any circumstances will rock any law enforcement organization. And that’s without factoring in race, or the fact that the killing occurred as not one but two professional police officers let a road rage incident escalate to a deadly conclusion. The LAPD dealt with a flood of questions and an earthquake of criticism from the moment the incident occurred. And revelations kept coming that caused the ground under the LAPD to shake ever more violently. Gaines, it turned out, had moonlighted as a bodyguard for Death Row Records, was living with the estranged wife of Death Row founder Suge Knight, was driving a car registered in her name and had pulled his gun during other street disputes with civilians while he was off-duty. Gaines was also close friends with another LAPD officer involved with Death Row, Gregory Mack, who soon afterwards was arrested in connection with a Los Angeles bank robbery.

So the LAPD went from investigating the tragic death of one officer at the hands of another—for which Lyga was later exonerated—to an extended investigation into a web of officers connected to criminal activity on the job and off. As yet other officers turned out to have Death Row Records connections, something that stood out was that many had been assigned to the Rampart Division of the LAPD and, more specifically, to the Division’s anti-gang unit.

The CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) Unit had a motto “We intimidate those who intimidate others.” And the motto had considerable currency. Suspects complained of being beaten by Rampart officers while handcuffed and having had drugs and guns planted on them. Rumors of over-the-top tactics circulated on the LAPD grapevine.

Investigators were making some headway but had little cooperation from Rampart personnel. Corrupt Rampart CRASH officers may have been few but Rampart personnel in general maintained a fierce protective shield around their culture of aggressive street enforcement. Even supervisors attempting routine operational audits had been rebuffed. Then, six pounds of cocaine turned up missing from the LAPD property room, and evidence soon implicated Rafael Perez, a Rampart CRASH officer who was close to Gregory Mack.

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