FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 31, 2008
Contact: Jude Schneider (310) 854-8251
Eric Rose (805) 624-0572
Los Angeles, January 31, 2008 – In an article published on-line today and in the February LAPPL Blue Line, Police Protective League President Tim Sands analyzes the enormous profit that the firm Kroll has made by keeping the Consent Decree alive.
Kroll is a division of professional services firm Marsh and McLennan which had been forced to settle a civil lawsuit brought by New York State in 2004 for duping corporate clients. The article details how the risk consulting firm has made obtaining and then continually extending government contracts a crucial part of its business. The article highlights how the firm, which has extended the LAPD Consent Decree at a substantial benefit to its bottom line, used similar tactics to take a low bid contract with the City of San Diego and turn it into a $20.3 million windfall.
“Given that we are now in a budget crisis, it is time for the City to recognize the continual monetary drain of the consent decree, with minimal tangible benefits,” says Tim Sands, President of the LAPPL. “Right now we are spending $198,000 a month plus expenses for the monitor, and our understanding is that implementation of the current financial disclosure plan will extend the monitoring of the Financial Disclosure paragraph of the Consent Decree until 2011.
“The City has spent more than $13 million dollars just on the monitors’ fees and expenses, plus more than $30 million more for implementation of the decree. City leaders need to find the courage to challenge whether continuing to have to pay more than $200,000 a month to the monitor, even after we are substantially in compliance, is in the best interest of the City of Los Angeles and its residents,” Sands concluded.
The article is available on the LAPPL website at www.LAPD.com.
About the LAPPL
Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents the more than 9,000 dedicated and professional sworn members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPPL can be found on the Web at www.LAPD.com
