Christopher Commission

The Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, informally named the Christopher Commission after its chair, Warren Christopher, was a panel charged by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley to give a comprehensive report on the use of excessive force by members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) during police-citizen encounters. The commission was formed in response to the beating of Rodney King on March 3,1991. King was brutally beaten by four members of the LAPD who had stopped him after he led them on a high-speed chase. Three of the officers were charged with excessive use of police force, and a fourth was charged with failure to prevent the assault; all were acquitted. This entry examines the context and purpose of the Christopher Commission, its findings, and the subsequent response.

The race of the LAPD officers and King and his passengers played a significant role in the post-vehicle pursuit incident. The four police officers who were directly involved in the brutal beating of King were White; King and his two passengers were African American. At the time of the incident, questions were raised about the harsh treatment that racial and ethnic minorities received from LAPD officers. Also, it was thought that African Americans and Latinos were treated much more harshly than other racial/ethnic groups in their encounters with police officers. Many critics believe that the prevalence of such practices (and the underlying attitudes) partly explain why none of the other LAPD officers present attempted to prevent or minimize the harsh treatment of King and his passengers.

King and his passengers, Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms, were ordered to get out of the car at the conclusion of the pursuit. At first, King refused to comply with the order, but Allen and Helms immediately got out of the car and followed the officers' orders to lie flat on the ground in the “prone-out” position. They were handcuffed and ordered to keep their heads on the ground. Helms indicated that when he lifted his head to get it out of the dirt, he was kicked in the side of the head and hit with a baton until his head was bleeding. Allen stated that he was kicked several times when he lifted his head to see why King was screaming. After King's beating, the officers handcuffed him, and they pulled Allen and Helms to their feet. They took Allen and Helms to one of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) squad cars and checked their identification; when it was verified by computer the two of them were released at the scene.

In its July 1991 report, the Christopher Commission reported that they had found a culture of racial bias and intolerance among a large percentage of LAPD officers. That perceived culture of racial intolerance makes the study of the Christopher Commission of significant relevance to the study of issues associated with race and crime. The Christopher Commission was given the responsibility of investigating and making recommendations about the specific operating structure of the LAPD. In his charge to the commission, Mayor Bradley made it clear that their work would not entail examining individual complaints against the LAPD. Instead they were to investigate the level of responsiveness and accountability of the LAPD to community concerns and to provide a better understanding of what impact, if any, LAPD practices may have on the investigation and prosecution of alleged use of excessive force and other related departmental procedural issues.

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