Commander Anne Clark runs LAPD’s Detective Services Group, which makes her second in command of the Detective Bureau, reporting directly to Deputy Chief Kris Pitcher. But it’s not a happy workplace, apparently. According to an anonymous email sent on August 6. 2020 to Los Angeles Police Commissioner Shane Murphy Goldsmith by someone using the pseudonym David Well, Internal Affairs Group was at that time conducting a “workplace audit”, apparently LAPD-speak for IAG investigations that lack “CF numbers”, whatever those might be.
Despite the pseudonym, though, I’d bet good money the anonymous complainant is a woman. The accusations against Clarke are not only completely plausible, they have to do with the kind of pro-male sexism that certain women in certain powerful positions can display. They’re not really the kind of problems that men tend to notice in this amount of detail. E.g.
“Anne Clark dislikes other female command staff within Detective Bureau, which appears to be based on their gender. She is very cordial to and supportive of the male Captains but rude, obnoxious, disrespectful and downright mean to the female Captains.
It’s hard for me to imagine a male LAPD officer noticing this kind of behavior and at the same time thinking it’s worth complaining about.1 There are plenty of other examples like this. In fact all of the specific examples have to do with Clark’s mistreatment of high-ranking women, which suggests that the complainant is also a high-ranking woman. The email also faults Clark’s superior officer, Kris Pitcher:
Deputy Chief Kris Pitcher is complicit in that he listens to how she speaks to others during Compstat inspections or other venues, yet does nothing to stop her unprofessional demeanor, most likely because he has been promised the next Assistant Chief position and does not want to jeopardize his appointment by being blamed by Clark for taking action against a female employee.
Michel Moore received Well’s email, which is transcribed in its lurid entirety below, and had his command staff initiate a personnel complaint against Clark. He also asked for a briefing on the Workplace Audit Well refers to. But I have no idea what happened after that, at least not yet I don’t!
Transcription of anonymous complaint against Clarke:
Date: August 6, 2020 at 11:00:10 AM PDT
To: Shane Murphy Goldsmith <n5449@lapd.online>
Subject: Personnel Complaint
I would like to make a personnel complaint against Commander Anne Clark. Since I believe Internal Affairs will not properly investigate this complaint and not generate a CF#, I am copying members of the Police Commission and the Office of the Inspector General to ensure that it is handled properly.
I prefer to remain anonymous since the Department is notorious for retaliating against those who speak out against command staff. I demand a return email with a CF number and what I allege in this complaint will not need any follow-up statement from me to properly investigate.
It is also my understanding that Internal Affairs is currently conducting a “Workplace audit” – another term for an internal investigation without a CF number – of Detective Bureau. This complaint is separate from any allegations already made that prompted that investigation but is related in that obviously Detective Bureau has issues under the command of Anne Clark.
Anne Clark treats her staff and subordinates within Detective Bureau poorly. She is rude and condescending. She also ostracizes her Adjutant, Sgt. Letisia Ruiz, and instead utilizes her Detective III Adriana Hamilton for everything. This has empowered Hamilton to also treat many employees within Detective Bureau in an unprofessional manner. One example of Clark’s conduct occurred during the recent civil unrest. Ruiz showed up at the Command Post to assist and attempted to eat some food that was there for all to enjoy. However, Clark, in front of many others, embarrassed Ruiz by stating out loud for all to hear that the food was not for Ruiz, to put the food back and leave the area.
Anne Clark is continuously rude and condescending to Area Detective Lieutenants during Compstat inspections and sometimes appears to go out of her way to try to make them look foolish when they don’t have an answer to her questions or if she is not satisfied with their response. Previous Compstat inspections are recorded and available for review or you can simply interview the Detective Lieutenants, which would be much faster.
Anne Clark is rude and condescending and treats Lieutenants within Detective Bureau poorly and in an unprofessional manner. She is verbally short, strikes a tone of condemnation when she does not get her way, and talks to people as if they were school children.When Clark doesn’t like you, she will take simple allegations of misconduct and magically create cases for termination.
Two examples of that are the cases involving Sergeant Bridgett Picket and Lieutenant Andrea Grossman, the latter being retaliatory in nature in that Grossman participated in a misconduct allegation that was investigated and led to the termination of Clark’s husband.
Anne Clark dislikes other female command staff within Detective Bureau, which appears to be based on their gender. She is very cordial to and supportive of the male Captains but rude, obnoxious, disrespectful and downright mean to the female Captains.
Deputy Chief Kris Pitcher is complicit in that he listens to how she speaks to others during Compstat inspections or other venues, yet does nothing to stop her unprofessional demeanor, most likely because he has been promised the next Assistant Chief position and does not want to jeopardize his appointment by being blamed by Clark for taking action
against a female employee.
Like most command staff in his position, he doesn’t want to “rock the boat” just prior to being promoted.
Clark and Pitcher have also deceptively reallocated federal grant funding specifically earmarked for the Internet Crimes Against Children task force that falls under Juvenile Division and redistributed the funds to other divisions not authorized to receive the funding, including Robbery-Homicide Division. In addition, Pitcher is aware that the grant funds are to be used for investigations in neighboring counties yet has directed all funds to be used only for LAPD. This is not only unethical, it is criminal. In addition, the LAPD is mandated to report to the federal government the misuse of the grant funding. I will make sure that the Federal Government is made aware just in case you forget to notify them.
Anne Clark has been the subject of previous complaints and lawsuits for this exact behavior, yet the Department does nothing about it.
Again, these allegations can be easily investigated without follow-up from me, and by simply interviewing employees within Detective Bureau that are mentioned above, as well as Detective Lieutenants from patrol divisions.
