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According to recent reports in the Los Angeles Times, a Los Angeles City Council committee supported a move by the LAPD to change the rules governing when police officers can use a squad car’s lights and sirens to speed through traffic. According to the article by Joel Rubin, officers respond “Code 3” to an emergency. That status, under state law, allows them to break traffic laws as long as they use their lights and siren and “show regard for the safety of other drivers.”
But the LAPD has for years used an unusually strict policy that only one patrol car per emergency is dispatched Code 3. Critics of the policy say that in order to stay out of trouble, officers commonly drove “Code 2 1/2 ,” an off-the-books practice of racing to a call without lights or sirens to warn other drivers.
That practice has been responsible for several officer-involved traffic collisions, costing the city more than $11 million in lawsuits since 2006.
The new policy would give officers in the field the discretion to decide whether to respond Code 3 to an emergency.
But after being approved by the civilian panel that oversees the LAPD, the proposed changes were stymied when the City Council took the rare step of exercising its right to assert authority over police issues.
Opposition to the new policy was led by Councilman Bernard C. Parks, a former LAPD chief, who raised concerns that it would lead to chaotic situations on city streets and more accidents.
Parks, whose tenure is remembered in largely negative terms by the rank and file in the Los Angeles Police Dept, was alone in his opposition to the proposal. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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