Barely half of the 49 probationary officers polled said they rotated with at least three different instructors as required. Oversight officials said poor LAPD record keeping meant they “couldn’t figure out with certainty who all the field training officers were.”A previous department audit showed that 414 senior officers were assigned to be field training officers as of July 2023. About two-thirds of probationary officers reported that their training officers treated the public with dignity and respect; but that figure fell to roughly 47% when they were asked whether their training officers treated them the same way. In the 1980s, Black and Latino officers often complained of being given lower scores by their training officers on the basis of their race. Such criticisms resurfaced following the infamous beating of Black motorist Rodney King in 1991, where four of the officers present served as training officers.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 11, 2024 17:28 UTC