The baton became a constant - and unnerving - presence in police interactions with the public, in part because training at the time told officers to avoid getting into close contact with suspects. “How we dealt with crime, particularly violent crime, was a lot more suppression-oriented,” said Deputy Chief Bill Scott, an African American who came on the LAPD in 1989. The LAPD was dogged by criticism that its officers mistreated minority groups, and the King tape was widely viewed as evidence of this abuse. Dealing with significantly higher crime than today, police were much more quick to use force. Veteran LAPD officers and others say the entire culture of policing Los Angeles was different in 1991. What was once a mostly white force is now mostly nonwhite, including in the supervisory ranks. There are now nearly 10,000 officers, compared with 8,450 then.

Still, even some department critics say the LAPD is a different institution today than it was when officers battered King during a traffic stop. African Americans make up about 9% of the city’s population. Eight of the 38 people - or 21% - hit by LAPD gunfire in 2015 were black, the department reported this week. The city also hopes to equip all patrol officers with body cameras in the near future.ĭespite a quarter-century of reforms, the LAPD, along with other law enforcement agencies around the nation, continues to draw criticism over its officers’ use of force, particularly against African Americans. Over the last few years, the LAPD began installing video cameras in patrol cars, a key recommendation that the Christopher Commission made in 1991 as part of its assessment of the department. It began a wave of reforms - some of which are still works in progress. The King beating, on March 3, 1991, was a seminal event in the Los Angeles Police Department history.

“After that video played that night, no one hardly ever used the baton.

“Back then, it was pulling out a baton and whacking people,” LAPD Deputy Chief Bill Murphy said. Authorities said that officers stopped using them for a variety of reasons: Changes in rules and training and the rise of other types of less-lethal weapons, as well as the lasting stigma from those grainy images. The baton offers a dramatic example of how police behavior has changed since the King beating.

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