Local News in Brief : Study of Police Dept. Bias

Santa Monica has hired a consultant to study racial attitudes in the city’s police department after accusations of bias leveled by a fired officer.

The consultant, Nat Trives, a former police officer who was Santa Monica’s only black mayor, holding that post in 1975 and 1976, was also asked to train supervisors to detect and counter biases, Capt. Michael Landis said.

Landis said the decision to hire a consultant followed a meeting earlier this year between Police Chief James Keane and several black officers, who voiced concern that Glen Whitney, a black policeman fired in 1986 after less than a year on the force, “hadn’t gotten a fair shake.” Whitney contended that he had been fired because he was black. Landis said Whitney had failed to “meet standards of performance” in field training.