Commissioner Paula Madison opened the meeting. After a quorum was established, there were no commissioner comments; so the meeting proceeded directly to the Report of the Chief of Police. Chief Charlie Beck proceeded immediately to his overview of current crime statistics and had nothing further to report.
There were no reports from the Inspector General or Executive Director, and Consent Agenda Items proceeded with approval of all items.
Regular Agenda Items then ensued with six items, two of which, Items A and B, were verbal presentations. Commissioner Paula Madison pulled Item F for discussion.
Item C, the Department’s Report, dated August 13, 2014, relative to the recommendation for the Medal of Valor, as set forth, was approved.
Item D, the Department’s Report, dated September 11, 2014, relative to the request for payment of a reward offer on City Council File #09-0010-S26, as set forth, was approved.
Item E, the Department’s Report, dated September 11, 2014, relative to the transmittal of the grant application and award for the 2014 Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Grant, was approved.
Regular Agenda Item presentations commenced with Item A, which was a presentation headed by Hollenbeck Area Commanding Officer Martin Baeza, along with his Community Police Advisory Board (C-PAB) Co-Chair Margarita Amador and C-PAB member Lynelle Sanchez. Commander Baeza, with the assistance of his guests and a PowerPoint presentation, gave an overview of the Hollenbeck Area and discussed current crime statistics, community initiated problem solving, crime strategies and other highly effective educational and community outreach programs, goals and related results within the Hollenbeck Area.
Commander Mike Williams of the LAPD Counter Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau gave the second presentation, Item B, which concerned the status of the Department’s traffic safety strategies and included a PowerPoint presentation. Four additional LAPD traffic captains were present and assisted Commander Williams. The presentation addressed concerns that although crime in the City, in general, has continued to decline significantly in the past several years, there has been a minimal reduction in traffic collisions. Discussion topics included, but were not limited to current traffic crime statistics and comparisons of those statistics to previous years, creation of the Traffic Impact Team, hit-and-run data, goals to reduce traffic collisions (especially pedestrian-related incidents) and specific collision-reduction education/strategies, including the use of predictive policing. One of the technical developments Commander Williams highlighted was the introduction of more pedestrian warning crosswalks, which feature flashing lights embedded in the pavement to alert motorists.
Item F, which had been pulled for discussion, was the final discussion item. It concerned the Department’s Report, dated September 18, 2014, relative to the personnel selection criteria and process audit (IAID #13-059). Representing the Department before the commission was Jeffrey Phillips of LAPD’s Internal Audits and Inspection Division. Commissioners Madison and Robert Saltzman expressed concern over the audit, in that they found it confusing and incomplete. This was the second time the audit had been brought before the commission. Though more information was added to the audit after its initial presentation to the commission, Commissioners Madison and Saltzman requested some additional data be included in one of the audit’s tables. Consequently, Mr. Phillips said the information the commissioners wanted would be added; so a motion was made to continue Item F to a future date.