One Roadblock to Police Reform: Veteran Officers Who Train Recruits

Andrew Rodriguez was just out of patrol school, eager to learn how to use his academy training in the real world, from real sheriff's deputies in Los Angeles County.

But what his field trainers tried to teach him, he testified in September, was how to be a bad cop: to lie that he had found a meth pipe in a suspect's pocket, to harass Black people for no reason, to threaten women into giving up information. When he wouldn't go along, Rodriguez said, the trainers bullied him.

Field trainers "serve as gatekeepers for this fraternity where lying and illegal stops are encouraged and rewarded," said Alan Romero, a civil rights lawyer who represented Rodriguez.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department denied Rodriguez's claims. But a jury believed him, and in October it awarded him $8.1 million for workplace harassment.

For decades, cities have tried to change the cultures of their police departments, bringing in progressive chiefs and mandating programs to teach officers to become more compassionate and less violent.

For the most part, it hasn't worked. have died at the hands of the police since 2013. Black people, Latinos, military veterans and individuals suffering from mental illness are most likely to face lethal force,