Since taking up as president of the Los Angeles Police Fee in August, Erroll Southers has drawn reward — and a few criticism — for his stewardship of the civilian company charged with oversight of town’s Police Division.
A profession legislation enforcement official and former FBI agent, Southers now teaches about safety points as a professor at USC. He sat down with The Occasions in his workplace on the primary flooring of LAPD headquarters earlier this month to replicate on his first 12 months with the Fee, former Chief Michel Moore’s legacy, officer recruitment and the necessity to discover options to armed police for sure emergencies. The interview has been edited for size and readability.
LAT: Now that you simply’ve sort of dipped your toes into the water and have some expertise, what do you see your function as or the Fee’s function generally?
Southers: I’m solely the second former police officer within the historical past of the fee, so I come to this with a really totally different lens. Actually, many of those people on this constructing had been my graduate college students over the past 20 years. So with that, there’s a relationship. I’ve recognized and been across the LAPD for 44 years. However now I’ve received folks upstairs which were in my classroom [at USC]. And that’s a distinct relationship.
I feel there’s a consolation stage maybe with me, extra so than others as a result of I, fairly frankly, don’t have to go on a ride-along. They know that I’ve been of their footwear, radio calls, difficult instances. After I was within the [FBI], SWAT, area coaching officer, gangs and all these different issues, I’ve labored these particulars. After I sit in closed periods on categorical makes use of of pressure, I can ask questions from a perspective of expertise that maybe my colleagues can’t.
LAT: The fee has lengthy held this policy-making function contained in the division and a watchdog oversight type of function, however has it developed, and do you suppose that it must evolve?
Southers: I feel it must evolve and I feel we might be a part of that evolution. I don’t know that we may immediate the evolution that’s mandatory, with all due respect, with out the George Floyd demise taking place. This, to me, stimulated some reform. The unlucky factor is … we reside in a zero-sum America. It’s unlucky that … you say “police reform,” and so they hear “defund the police.” You say “DEI” [diversity, equity and inclusion] and somebody hears, “white genocide.” That’s not what that is about, and that should change. And that’s simply not about policing, that’s about America.
LAT: What do you see as the largest points, issues, considerations going through the division right now?
Southers: Primary needs to be — I must associate with the mayor — recruitment and retention.
We’re getting the curiosity. Folks nonetheless wish to be with LAPD. And I’m going to be very candid with you: that room [at recruitment events] has its share of ladies, that room has its share of African People, Hispanics, Asians, younger [people]; there are folks there of their 50s, I imply, we’re having no downside getting folks within the room. It’s the usual that we’re sustaining. And I say this to push again on the parents on the market who consider that we’ve compromised ultimately: No, we haven’t. That’s the explanation we solely get 5 to 10 out of 100.
So that may be my primary merchandise, could be recruitment and retention. The opposite is, I’m all the time going to say neighborhood engagement and neighborhood constructing. We have to do a greater job. We have to enhance our picture.
LAT: You’ve heard the criticism in regards to the Police Fee being a lapdog or rubber-stamp physique for the LAPD — what do you make of that? And the way do you stroll that high-quality line between working with the division to enhance it the place mandatory, but additionally being aware of neighborhood suggestions or criticism?
Southers: That’s truthful. I’m a type of those that’s making an attempt to stroll the stroll on educating folks. I’ve shared, to the extent that I can with out compromising personnel points, that each categorical use of pressure that we adjudicate each Tuesday is examined to the extent of a murder. We’ve officers’ statements, suspect statements, witness statements, body-worn video, dashcam video, any buildings within the space — whether or not they’re residences’ or companies’ video — we take a look at drawings. We’ve movies slowed down, which is a criticism from our officers generally, as a result of we’re taking a look at incidents slowed down, the place they don’t get to decelerate. All that to say with all that data, once we come again and say [a shooting is] in coverage we will say with none reservation, it’s in coverage.
I’m on this place now as a result of I grew up … getting stopped by the police for nothing apart from strolling down the road. And I’m not the stereotype. With all due respect, I had some nice dad and mom — I wouldn’t be the place I’m proper now if it wasn’t for them — each educated. Me and my brother went to Ivy League faculties and got here out with no debt as a result of my dad and mom did the proper factor. They knew what they had been doing. No person in my household has ever been in jail. None of my buddies, who had been all black, no one of their households, ever been in jail. All my buddies’ dad and mom had been married. So I killed that stereotype that individuals have on the market about us.
However I say all that to say I nonetheless received jacked up. After which lastly after it occurred sufficient, I used to be complaining to my dad sooner or later, and he stated, ‘Effectively, you may’t change the fort from exterior the moat.’ So right here I’m. I really feel like now I’m contained in the fort. Now I can have an effect on coverage. Now I can have an effect on officers. Now I can say, ‘ that officer undoubtedly shouldn’t be right here.’
I began a registry at USC. It was initially referred to as the LEWIS Registry and now it’s referred to as the Police Misconduct Registry, the place we began documenting officers who’ve been fired throughout the nation, as a result of my opinion is as soon as they’ve been fired — and you understand what it takes to fireplace an officer — they shouldn’t get employed by another person. I really feel that, felt that approach then, I really feel that approach now. So once I hear the criticisms from folks on the market — who suppose I don’t know, swiftly I’m not Black — I simply take it and transfer on. In the event that they solely knew how a lot we care and the way a lot we will have an effect on what’s taking place right here. I feel they in all probability say it anyway as a result of they need to.
LAT: Clearly one of the monumental duties earlier than you proper now’s the seek for a brand new chief. Are you able to discuss the place you see it going? How has the job of chief of police of LAPD modified?
Southers: I can say with none reservation: I’m a part of a bunch of those that that is going to be a very powerful skilled resolution I’m gonna make in my life. We’re gonna choose the chief of police for the Los Angeles Police Division. And for a minimum of a five-year interval, that’s going have an effect on 3.8 million folks for a part of a technology. So I and my fellow commissioners take that very critically.
I’ll say the identical factor that I’ve stated [to] individuals who’ve requested me thus far: [we’re searching for] nothing in need of the perfect individual on this nation. And if that individual’s on this constructing, that’ll play out. I did the identical factor for a search a bit of over a 12 months in the past at USC; I feel once I introduced [Department of Public Safety Chief] Lauretta Hill to USC, I feel I received the perfect individual in America; introduced her from Dallas.
LAT: When you think about Chief Michel Moore’s tenure or his legacy, the place do you suppose he’s gonna match into the pantheon of LAPD chiefs?
Southers: There have been a few chiefs all through the years that you simply’re all the time going to recollect for one thing. Daryl Gates will all the time be bear in mind for, if nothing else, LAPD invented SWAT when he was right here. That’s a biggie. I imply there’s quite a lot of issues he did, however that’s a biggie.
When Bratton got here in, the consent decree that modified the division … Bratton modified the division. I feel Chief Moore is gonna be remembered in the identical sentence with Gates and Bratton, as a result of he had two monumental shifts — most chiefs won’t ever have any — however he had two. He had the demise of George Floyd, which for my part modified policing throughout this nation, and he had a pandemic. And people elements alone, to nonetheless be standing when it’s executed; no matter what folks say — about what he ought to do, what he didn’t do, about how he did it — he was nonetheless standing.
