On a number of occasions during the 1990s, then Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker spoke before Christian police groups, describing "alternative lifestyles" as perversion, the AIDS epidemic as the result of relaxed moral standards, and our trial system as "sightless ooze" where truth will never be found. These and other remarks were recorded on audiotapes acquired by The Portland Alliance. The tapes are currently being sold through a website connected to the Fellowship of Christian Police Officers, a born-again Christian group founded by Kroeker’s mentor, former Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Robert Vernon. According to the distributor, the tapes were made over the course of several years during the 1990s.

The tapes, intended as inspirational messages for police officers and their families, bear a certain resemblance to audiotapes recorded and distributed by Vernon in the 1970s and 1980s. Vernon’s tapes, which covered everything from homosexuality to child rearing, became a source of controversy for the already controversial assistant chief. The Los Angeles Times disclosed the contents of the tapes — which included Vernon’s assertion that corporal punishment, including striking a child with a stick, was appropriate — shortly after the Rodney King incident. The tapes, along with accusations that Vernon was building a born-again Christian hierarchy within the Los Angeles Police Department's leadership, moved MayorTom Bradley, the City Council, the Police Commission, and local civil rights activists to demand an internal investigation of Vernon's activities. The subsequent disclosures resulted in Vernon retiring from the department and unsuccessfully suing the city for ending his police career.

The Kroeker tapes do not contain explicit support for severe corporal punishment, but the police chief does lay blame for gang violence on permissiveness towards youth as promoted by Dr. Spock, the influential child rearing authority:

The word permissiveness. Dr. Spock gave that one to us. Let the little darlings do whatever they want to do, and the little darlings grew up, and now they're killing each other in Los Angeles in gangs, and destroying the whole society in the process.

—excerpt from "The New Social Disorder"

Chief Kroeker also equates abortion with murder, suggesting that the whole world is standing by while millions of babies are killed. He contrasts the value placed on saving whales and California condors — which he stresses should be saved — with lack of a similar value placed on preventing abortions.

In talking about social problems, the chief also dismisses the ability of society to reform anyone who has committed a crime. Nor is there much hope to be found in our court system. He speaks at length about the lack of truth to be found in any trial, accusing all those involved in the trial of obscuring the truth, creating what he calls a "sightless ooze."

While the chief may be expressing his personal religious beliefs, the question for many in the community is what influence will these beliefs have on his performance as police chief? Having made such statements in a public forum, can he establish working relationships with the gay/lesbian community or with non-Christians? And how does the fact that Chief Kroeker made such statements as a representative of the law enforcement community reflect on his judgement in such sensitive areas as race, sexual identity, or faith?

The listing of audiotapes by Chief Kroeker can be found through the "Resource" page of www.fcpo.org.