Rampart Investigation, The

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Rampart Division scandal of the late 1990s involved a cabal of tightly knit cops within Los Angeles's Rampart police station who behaved like the gangs they were supposed to police. Giving currency to the phrase “gangster cop,” the officers robbed, stole drugs and sold them on the street, committed murder, and planted evidence to cover up crimes.

The Rampart scandal was significant for many reasons. First, the LAPD had not seen such systemic, blatantly criminal conduct since the 1930s, when Mayor Frank Shaw presided over what was known as the “Shaw spoils system.” Under that [Page 401]system, municipal officers ranging from district attorneys to the LAPD Central Vice Squad took bribes from madams, bootleggers, and gamblers. Political scandals and kickbacks involving the police were legion.

Second, the Rampart scandal was significant because it combined murder and drugs on a scale and level of lawlessness rarely found in police departments in the rest of the nation. The first time in recent history that America saw a major police scandal where cops killed and sold drugs was in Florida's Miami “River Cops” scandal of 1989. That case involved a similarly tightly bound group of officers from the narcotics division of the Miami Police Department who broke into dealers’ boats, cars, and homes; stole their drugs; plotted to kill witnesses; and sold the drugs for millions of dollars. In one incident, officers chased six smugglers whose drugs they had stolen into the Miami River, where three of the smugglers drowned, thus giving rise to their eponyms.

Although drug-related corruption occurred in a number of police departments during that period, the only other major case since the Miami River Cops of police officers selling drugs and committing murder was in the New Orleans Police Department. More than 50 officers were arrested, indicted, or convicted between 1993 and 1995 on charges that included drug trafficking and murder.

The Rampart scandal centered on the LAPD's Rampart Division, a police station in one of Los Angeles's poorest, toughest neighborhoods near downtown Los Angeles. When the Rampart station opened in 1966, few street gangs roamed the area. But by the mid-1980s and 1990s, the 7.9-square-mile area, the most densely populated in Los Angeles, with many Latino immigrants and Korean shopkeepers, was prey to at least 30 different gangs that boasted thousands of members among them. By the early 1990s, the area routinely led the city in homicides, narcotics activity, and violent crime arrests.

To deal with gangs, the LAPD established specialized units in police stations around the city called Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH). CRASH units were funded by a grant in the early 1970s. The Rampart CRASH unit was staffed with one to two sergeants and up to 24 officers.

CRASH units were armed with special powers. Injunctions to curb gang violence, such as a law prohibiting gangs from blocking sidewalks and carrying pagers, gave officers broad discretion to disperse and arrest suspected gang members. CRASH officers also easily obtained injunctions placing gang members under curfew.

In the Rampart CRASH, these sweeping powers and a confrontational, high-stakes policing style led to extensive abuses that were unveiled in September 1999, when Rafael Perez, a Rampart CRASH officer, agreed to testify about wrongdoing in exchange for a lighter sentence for stealing cocaine.

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