Seeking New Meaning to Words ‘Police Force’ in Newport Beach

In 1982, when Jackie Heather learned that Newport Beach police had jailed her 15-year-old son because he had driven a moped without a driver’s license, she didn’t have to complain to the mayor. She was the mayor.

“He was 2 blocks from home,” Heather recalled. “The policeman was just being rigorous. All my kids had experience at one time or another with, from their point of view, heavy-handed police action.

“I had to agree with the kids when they said they weren’t getting a fair shake.”

Others on the City Council were concerned. Councilman Bill Agee was alarmed by the number of claims and lawsuits being filed alleging excessive force by officers. In 1977, one such claim had been filed, but by 1984 the yearly total was 17. The city paid $314,000 to settle five such lawsuits filed between July, 1983, and June, 1985, and fired two officers, each involved in one of the incidents.

Even Councilman John C. Cox Jr., an outspoken supporter of the department who said he gave no credence to claims of overly aggressive policing, was willing to examine the allegations “to put those thoughts to rest, if we could.”

Since then, the department has had a new chief, Arb Campbell, who says that has been one of his top priorities. He has instituted public opinion sampling and public relations programs, has revised the system for investigating complaints against police officers and has ordered special training for officers to make them more sensitive to their public image.

During Campbell’s 2 years, claims alleging excessive force by police have decreased. Taking into account liberalized complaint procedures, citizen complaints have decreased as well.

“We have new management here,” Campbell said. “We’re sincerely trying.”

In 1985 when council members ordered an evaluation of their police by the National League of Cities’ Police Consultation Service, they told consultants to include an appraisal of the department’s enforcement policy. Was it too aggressive? Were officers using excessive force?

The 709-page report--delivered in March, 1986--hardly put the issue to rest.

The department is a good one, considerably above average for a city of Newport Beach’s size, consultants concluded. And the department definitely has and is proud of a strict and aggressive enforcement policy, which is not “wrong” if circumstances warrant it.

But “the question of to what extent the department’s aggressive enforcement policy has contributed to the use of excessive force is less clear,” the report stated.

Consultants recommended that the new police chief--the old one had resigned during the audit--review enforcement policy and make the reduction of excessive-force complaints “a high priority objective.”

Campbell, a 22-year veteran of the Newport Beach police force, was appointed chief in April, 1986, and said he was out to improve the department’s image. “I don’t mean to imply it’s a serious problem in our department, but some officers can use a little better discretion in enforcement tactics and improve their enforcement attitudes,” he said.

Campbell instituted stricter guidelines for internally investigating complaints about police conduct and instituted training programs “on patience and self-discipline, trying to emphasize to officers how to conduct themselves and treat people the way they want to be treated,” he said. “They’re given training in body language and how to approach people and how to react and not overreact to their behaviors.”

During the first fiscal year after Campbell’s appointment, excessive force claims fell to 11, a decrease of more than one-third. The following year, there were 12 claims, and through the first quarter of this fiscal year, there has been one.

Heather, no longer on the council, says her sons’ friends feel they are not being “singled out” by police as much as before.

But Campbell said there has been no great change in his department, only minor “adjustments.” The department, he said, continues to receive conflicting demands from its community: to be tougher because of the summer rowdies, to be friendlier because of the law-abiding residents.

The department publicly stated this dilemma in its September newsletter after a young mother was run down and killed in an alley by an allegedly drunk driver and a beach-goer was critically wounded by an officer who mistook his portable stereo for a sawed-off shotgun.

“In both cases the Newport Beach Police Department was loudly criticized,” wrote Capt. Mike Blitch, the patrol commander, “in the first for not enough action--writing more citations or being more visible on the peninsula--and in the second case for acting precipitously and shooting a man holding nothing more threating than a long portable radio.” Although solutions to such problems seem simple to outsiders, “for those of us in (the) law enforcement profession, issues and solutions in a diverse, democratic society are seldom clear-cut or simple.”

The consultants who studied Newport Beach police reported that the department “values and works hard to maintain its image as a strict enforcement police agency.” Even though the policy was unwritten, patrol officers knew they would be judged by the number of arrests, citations and field interrogations they recorded, consultants stated.

Lt. Tim Newman, Campbell’s executive officer, said the chief has formally established standards of conduct for police personnel and made it plain to officers that “you’re responsible for your behavior. . . . Unless they know we expect that from them, it wouldn’t work. All the instructions we give in briefings--treating people in an acceptable way, being fair--it all amounts to ‘do the right thing.’

“The whole nut is attitude. What Arb is saying is, we have a different corporate culture now than when that audit was done. It’s a new attitude.”

Newman said the chief and his public information officer, Sgt. Bob Oakley, regularly lunch with community groups, such as senior citizens and high school students. Newman and Oakley are scheduled to begin a sampling of public opinion about the police department by contacting individual residents. “We’ll just meet and listen,” Newman said. “We want to know, ‘What do you think of us? What do your friends think of us?’ ”

Campbell said the department’s public image was his concern before being promoted to chief. He said, however, that over the years the department has changed less than the public’s attitude has. Now the tendency often is to be belligerent and abusive rather than cooperative toward police and to sue rather than complain, he said. “I’m talking about a very minor portion of the public, and in most instances they are not residents of this city.”

He said that in the two cases this decade when the police administrators agreed that officers had stepped over the line and been too forceful, the officers were fired. According to city personnel officials, one had punched a drunk-driving suspect who was handcuffed after the suspect threatened the officer’s family. Another pushed a bar patron onto the floor when the patron was being argumentative but not truly threatening.

Campbell said he sees progress toward an improved police image. An incident such as September’s shooting of a beach-goer mistakenly thought to be wielding a sawed-off shotgun is a tragic but isolated incident having nothing to do with departmental enforcement policy, Campbell said. Neither do the claims of alleged excessive force, he insisted.

The number of claims of excessive force are down. In 1987, after Campbell broadened the definition of what constituted a citizen complaint against police, the total number more than doubled. But this year, the number appears to have fallen back to previous levels--in effect, an overall decrease. Newman said that during the last 2 years, no citizen complaint was found serious enough to require disciplinary action.

Heather said that although she no longer is a council member, youths still seem to regard her as an ombudsman for the police department.

“Hopefully, things have been better since then (Campbell’s appointment). The kids I hear from are pleased. They feel they’re not as powerless as they were before. They don’t seem to feel they’re being singled out. That’s what I hear.”

CLAIMS AGAINST NEWPORT BEACH POLICE RESULTING IN PAYMENTS

Since fiscal year 1982-83, about 53% of the 79 claims alleging excessive force by the Newport Beach Police Department have resulted in no payments to claimants. About 35% of the claims are pending. Nine claims (about 11%) resulted in payments totaling $398,500. Date of Suit or Claim: July 7, 1983 Allegation: Officer stopped driver for field sobriety test and “pulled, shoved, kneed, placed a carotid chokehold on, threw to the cement, cuffed and verbally assaulted and abused” the driver. Damages Sought: $1 million Outcome: City settled out of court for $10,000. Date of Suit or Claim: June 1, 1984 Allegation: Officers arrested man at restaurant and bar, after which officers intentionally assaulted, battered and injured him. Damages Sought: $76,586 Outcome: City settled out of court for $50,000 and fired the officer involved. Date of Suit or Claim: July 17, 1984 Allegation: Officer arrested suspected drunk driver and struck him with his fist. Damages Sought: Not specified. Outcome: City settled out of court for $85,000 and fired the officer involved. Date of Suit or Claim: Nov. 29, 1984 Allegation: Officers called to bar to remove a drunk man and used excessive force to make the arrest, continuing to beat the man with a night stick after the man was unconscious. Damages Sought: Not specified. Outcome: City settled out of court for $3,500. Date of Suit or Claim: Jan. 7, 1985 Allegation: Officers unnecessarily beat man in restaurant and sprayed him with Mace. Damages Sought: Not specified. Outcome: Court-appointed arbitrator awarded $1,500, ruling use of Mace unreasonable. Date of Suit or Claim: Nov. 6, 1985 Allegation: Without justification for his suspicions, officer confronted, chased, shot and wounded a man in a Corona del Mar neighborhood. Damages Sought: $2 million Outcome: City settled out of court for $175,000. Date of Suit or Claim: Oct. 3, 1985 Allegation: Man asking for assistance was assaulted by officer after man “commented about his derelict of dutie (sic).” Damages Sought: $354.55 Outcome: City settled out of court for $1,000. Date of Suit or Claim: May 23, 1986 Allegation: Woman arrested for drunk driving was physically restrained while a blood sample was taken against her will. Damages Sought: Not specified. Outcome: City settled out of court for $50,000. Date of Suit or Claim: Oct. 8, 1986 Allegation: Sixteen-year-old boy arrested for urinating in field remarked that officer seemed to “enjoy” making the arrest. Officer pulled boy from the patrol car, struck him with an open hand and applied a chokehold. Damages Sought: $10 million Outcome: City settled out of court for $22,500.

Sources: Newport Beach city attorney and personnel office.

CLAIMS AGAINST NEWPORT BEACH POLICE

Claims filed against the Newport Beach Police Department alleging excessive force.

Claims Claims Year Total Ending in Ending in Claims (FY=Fiscal Year) Claims Payment No Payment Pending 1977 1 0 1 0 1978 7 0 7 0 1979 6 4 ($20,000) 2 0 1980 9 0 6 3 1981 8 1 ($2,000) 6 1 FY 1982-83 15 1 ($10,000) 13 1 FY 1983-84 13 3 ($138,500) 10 0 FY 1984-85 12 2 ($176,500) 6 4 FY 1985-86 15 2 ($51,000) 8 5 FY 1986-87 11 1 ($22,500) 4 6 FY 1987-88 12 0 1 11 FY 1988-89* 1 0 0 1

Ratio of Claims to Year Police-Suspect (FY=Fiscal Year) Contacts 1977 N/A 1978 N/A 1979 N/A 1980 N/A 1981 N/A FY 1982-83 1 : 4,573 FY 1983-84 1 : 3,888 FY 1984-85 1 : 4,429 FY 1985-86 1 : 3,054 FY 1986-87 1 : 4,244 FY 1987-88 1 : 3,907 FY 1988-89* N/A

* July 1, 1988, to present.

Sources: City of Newport Beach Personnel Office and National League of Cities’ Police Consultation Service.