The Los Angeles Police DepartmentPolice: Failures That Enabled Corruption Still Not Fixed, Study Finds. The chief admits that mediocrity has become a way of life at all levels of the department. The Los Angeles Police Department has repeatedly failed to take steps that could have averted the worst corruption scandal in its history, according to a sweeping self-indictment prepared by the department's own leaders. In a letter accompanying the long-awaited report of the commission of inquiry into corruption centered in the department's Rampart division, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks called the scandal "a life-changing experience for the Los Angeles Police Department Angeles" where corrupt officers took advantage of lax supervision to carry out criminal acts. “We as an organization provided the opportunity,” Parks wrote. The 362-page report was delivered to Mayor Richard Riordan and members of the police commission Tuesday evening and will be made public today and to the rest of the city's elected leaders. The report was provided to the Times on Tuesday by senior LAPD officials. According to the report, many of the failures that allowed the Rampart police scandal to fester and spread — including failures to background check police recruits, monitor officer misconduct and supervise officers in the field — remain unchanged despite the growing public and political criticism of the LAPD and the city's leadership. These revelations effectively put the entire political leadership of the city in difficulty. More directly, they demonstrate that the LAPD has ignored some calls for reform and created an atmosphere ripe for corruption. At the same time, they also suggest that Riordan and City Council members supported the policies... halfway through the document... of officers who did not follow through with those procedures, and not the procedures themselves, according to the commission of inquiry . While this gives the report a sometimes strange tone, defending a system it admits has failed badly, it also provides some of the document's most obvious soul-searching. One passage in particular warns of the consequences when police let their guard down. “In essence, many of the problems found by this [Commission of Inquiry] boil down to people failing to do their jobs with a high level of consistency and integrity,” the report states. “Unfortunately, we have found this to be true at all levels of the organization, including top managers, first-line supervisors and line staff. Clearly, pride in one's work and commitment to getting things done correctly the first time they seem to have “Clearly,” he said, “we need to stop taking mediocre jobs."