Union Chief Hints At Less 'Proactive' Police Work In Wake Of Ezell Ford Ruling

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Police officers in Los Angeles are backing off the practice of community policing in the aftermath of the Ezell Ford case, a police union official said Tuesday.

Craig Lally, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League was on hand for the Police Commission meeting at the Civic Center in downtown Los Angeles for his first meeting with the panel since it ruled that one of the two officers involved in the shooting death of Ford last year violated department policy.

Lally told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO the ruling has left many rank-and-file officers rattled.

"They're continuing to handle radio calls when people call the police...but the word I have from a lot of the officers that are calling me is that they're not gonna do any proactive police work," said Lally.

His comments appeared to contradict the view of officers on the street who told CBS2/KCAL9's Cristy Fajardo last week nothing has changed as far as day-to-day operations.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck and the department's internal watchdog unit previously found the officers acted appropriately. It is now up to Beck to decide on punishment for the officers.

Lally said despite the Police Commission's ruling, he doesn't believe Beck will take action against the officer in the Ford case.

"He made it perfectly clear that once he made this an in-policy shooting that he'd be very hard-pressed to discipline this officer," said Lally.