CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES

The City Council took the unusual step Tuesday of asserting its jurisdiction over the civilian Police Commission, moving to review the LAPD’s new policy on when officers can turn on their car’s lights and sirens and disobey traffic rules.

Councilman Bernard C. Parks, former chief of the LAPD, authored the motion, which passed unanimously without discussion. The council’s public safety committee will take up the issue Monday.

Last week, the commission, which oversees the LAPD, approved the amended rules governing when police can go “Code Three.” The changes were billed as necessary improvements to an old, strictly written policy that allowed only one patrol car to respond in Code Three mode to emergencies. The new policy would give all officers in an area the discretion to use their lights and sirens and to speed to an emergency.

-- Joel Rubin