July 18, 2012

On Thursday, July 12, the LAPD hosted its quarterly Muslim Community Forum at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, making this the first time LAPD hosted outside of an Islamic venue. After a Quranic recitation to open the forum by a member of the Islamic Center of Southern California's Youth Group (ICSC), Chief of Police Charlie Beck welcomed the audience of more than 100 attendees and thanked them for the "diversity and strength you bring to our community."

The quarterly forum is how the chief makes himself accessible to communities, and the open public forum is an opportunity for Angelenos to raise their concerns directly to LAPD.

The program started with Beck presenting Aziza Hasan, MPAC’s Southern California Government Relations Director, with a certificate of appreciation for engaging with the LAPD during both "the bad and the good times." He also commended her active role in helping to reform iWatch, the Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) program "to make it an improved process.”

“We have been on a long and difficult road together, and by no means is our work complete,” Hasan said. “I accept this award with humility and deep appreciation. I look forward to continuing our work to raise concerns on the SAR program and ensure that it comply with civil liberties.”

The event then proceeded into a Q&A session, with Beck fielding questions for the first half hour before turning the event over to Deputy Chief Michael Downing.  

The Deputy Chief, President of the Police Commission Richard Drooyan and Inspector General Alexander Bustamante described their roles within the LAPD and also took turns responding to audience questions.

The spirited discussion mostly consisted of grievances concerning the SAR program and profiling cases, while some called for greater bridge building between LAPD and Muslim communities.

Earlier this year, LAPD issued an order on how officers identify and report suspicious activity – behaviors that indicate potential criminal activity – related to terrorism. The order failed to include prior recommendations from community groups to ensure that SAR does not result in the collection of information on noncriminal and constitutionally protected activities such as photography or speech without a clear link to terrorism.

By encouraging officers to treat noncriminal activity as suspicious without further evidence reasonably indicating  pre-terrorism planning, the SAR program creates the potential to collect data that violates civil liberties and is counterproductive to national security investigations. When everything is treated as an anomaly, true anomalies become more difficult to find — making this effort counter-productive to counterterrorism efforts.

In addition, Soha Yassine, ICSC Youth Group Coordinator, highlighted the work of the Muslim Youth Group (MYG), which is the largest of its kind in Southern California. The LAPD lauded the MYG as an exemplary model of civic engagement and volunteer work among youth.

MPAC encourages different points of view and greater participation in forums as key opportunities to engage decision makers in order to articulate constructive criticism and achieve positive change.

MPAC remains committed to engagement with law enforcement, particularly on issues of concern and disagreement. In May, MPAC successfully negotiated key reforms to the SAR program that consisted of the following:

• Alignment of LAPD Special Orders 11 and 1 with Federal ODNI Functional Standards 1.5 in order to preserve civil rights for all Angelenos
• Collection of race information so that any LAPD abuse or bias against race/ethnicity may be tracked
• Implementation of an annual audit of the SAR program by the Inspector General that will be available for public review

MPAC will continue to monitor this program and work with law enforcement to ensure the interests of all citizens, protect civil liberties, and safeguard the security of all communities.