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After 3 years in office LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck is under scrutiny by the civilian Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners for a lack of disciplinary action against his officers. Since Beck took over the third largest Police Department in the US in 2009, the police commission has ruled on 90 cases of officers using deadly force against civilians. In only four of those cases, the commission found the use of deadly force was unjustified. It is up to the Police Chief though, not the commission, to mete out the discipline. The LA Times reports that Police Chief Beck has been accused of being overly lenient when disciplining the officers involved in each of those 4 cases.

One of the four cases in which the commission ruled against officers is that of the murder of Steven Washington in 2010. Washington was walking in Koreatown when gang enforcement officers shot him in the head after stopping him while investigating a noise disturbance. Washington reportedly made a sudden motion when being stopped, but was unarmed and it was later found out that he had a learning disability.

Chief Beck, whose family has a legacy of serving in the LAPD, from his father to his children, did not subject any of the officers in the four cases to any action stronger than a written reprimand and retraining. The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners was established in the 1920s by the City charter to oversee the police department. The five civilian members are appointed by the Mayor and volunteer their time to set police policy and provide oversight of the police department.

GUEST: Peter Bebring, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Southern California

The Commissioners meet every Tuesday morning at 9:30am at 100 West First Street and have a public comment period.

Visit www.aclu-sc.org for more information.