Police Chiefs Gather in Long Beach

By Tracy Manzer STAFF WRITER

Hundreds of active and retired police chiefs got down to business Tuesday for the start of the 30th annual California Police Chiefs Association Conference in Long Beach.

The weeklong conference, hosted by the city’s police department, began on a somber note with discussions of shrinking resources and increasing political pressure on law enforcement and included a tribute to the state’s fallen officers.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is among several dignitaries listed on the upcoming conference schedule, which includes workshops, committee meetings and trade show demonstrations tailored to this year’s theme, “Tactics, Technology, Training and Teamwork.”

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley lauded the efforts of law enforcement to keep pace with cutting-edge technology, noting the use of wire-tap investigations in tracking down a gunman who nearly killed two Long Beach police officers in a shootout in December.

But Cooley warned the chiefs, retired chiefs and their second-in- commands Tuesday morning that law enforcement has some tough legislative battles coming with the completion of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice’s report.

The commission was established to review criminal justice practices in California and determine when and where the process has failed in the past and to recommend proposals to ensure just, fair and accurate applications in the future.

Cooley said his office is troubled by some commission proposals.

“The recommendations … would make policing and prosecuting much more difficult if not impossible,” the district attorney said, adding that he and other law enforcement advocates will continue to track the commission.

State Attorney General Jerry Brown talked about a growing trend in violent crimes in many California communities, including his hometown of Oakland. He also spoke of the number of high school dropouts, the state’s bulging prisons and overloaded youth authority.

“There’s a shortage of resources and a breakdown in civility,” he said.

Nonetheless, Brown said he was confident that law enforcement can overcome these obstacles and pledged to do whatever he could to help in that cause.

Brown’s address was followed by a ceremony honoring a dozen officers killed in the line of duty in California last year, which included an honor guard representing all of the slain officers and a video tribute that moved many to tears.

tracy.manzer@presstelegram.com

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