Election Section

LOS ANGELES — Police Chief William Bratton said Friday he has opened an internal investigation into the possible mishandling of tips about dangerous practices by faith healers. 

The investigation comes four days after a man died when an unlicensed faith healer allegedly injected him with an unknown substance. 

Bratton said he recently learned that the Police Department’s narcotics division had received tips about the illegal injections as far back as May 2001 but had failed to investigate. The tips continued over the past 18 months, he said. 

“I’m concerned, very concerned, about how the tip was handled, and I have many questions,” said Bratton, who was publicly sworn in on Monday. “We are going to try to convince the public of our sincere interest in determining what went wrong so that those mistakes are not made again.”