STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Let's stay in Southern California for our next report, because veterans of the police force in Los Angeles are rising up against a change in the rules. It's the latest in a series of reforms intended to guard against corruption.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The changes have come since the 1990s, when some rogue officers were caught stealing drugs and cash from street gangs.
NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports on the new rule that has some cops saying they've had enough.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: The LAPD is now asking all its gang and narcotics officers to reveal information about their bank accounts, mortgages and credit cards.
The idea is to look for signs of a crooked cop, one who's on the take. But that infuriates many gang investigators who are now threatening to leave their assignments.
One retired cop says the city's going too far.
Mr. WES MCBRIDE (President, California Gang Investigators Association): They have no right to know what I might make going to Vegas gambling. They have no right what I make on my personal investments. They have no right to know how much my wife makes. They have no right to know that I inherited money.
DEL BARCO: Wes McBride heads the California Gang Investigators Association and worked for nearly four decades as an L.A. County deputy. He says revealing personal information leaves cops vulnerable to thieves and does nothing to ferret out corruption.
Mr. MCBRIDE: If they have no reason to suspect that I'm a crook and there are other avenues open to find that out, I mean, that wouldn't catch anybody -unless I'm really stupid and I put that money in my own personal bank account. And I think Perez put all his money in a box.
DEL BARCO: That would Rafael Perez, the central figure of a corruption scandal that rocked the LAPD in the 1990s. He and more than 70 anti-gang unit officers in L.A.'s Rampart division were found to be planting evidence, framing and even shooting alleged gang members. Officer Perez was also convicted of stealing and reselling hundreds of thousand dollars of seized cocaine.
In the aftermath of the scandal, both the feds and the city's police commission demanded reforms, which include the new requirement that gang and narcotics investigators turn over their financial records.
Captain DAVID LINDSAY (LAPD, Northeast Division): I do intend to do that, as a show of good faith and leadership.
DEL BARCO: That's Northeast Division Captain David Lindsay. He's not required to open his bank records. He's doing it to set an example for his gang unit officers. But Lindsay says he knows many veteran gang and narcotics cops would rather be reassigned than have their finances exposed.
Capt. LINDSAY: They'll work a regular patrol car. They still work the areas where they've - have knowledge of the gangs, although they are assigned to radio calls, they'll handle calls for service like other officers.
DEL BARCO: This comes at a time when Los Angeles is seeing the fewest number of homicides in 40 years, and gang-related crime has dropped dramatically. LAPD officials say they don't intend to let those numbers slip, but Wes McBride fears the disclosure policy will hurt the department's effort to crack down on gangs and narcotics, especially if the most experienced investigators leave the beat.
Mr. MCBRIDE: You lose the old timers, the guys that know what's happening, guys that know - you know, they arrested this guy's father when he was a gang member, that type of thing. Those guys are leaving.
DEL BARCO: The LAPD is already under budget constraints and has had trouble recruiting officers to the gang crime units. McBride says it's a tough enough assignment without having to reveal personal information.
Mr. MCBRIDE: We used to lose lot of guys out of the gang units out of stress, because it is a stressful job. You know, you're dealing with the most - the single most dangerous people, identifiable group, in the nation - the most violent. They kill more people than any other criminal element, and these guys have to go out there at night and chase them.
DEL BARCO: L.A. gang and narcotics officers have till the end of March to reveal their finances or go back to answering regular patrol calls.
Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
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