Chief Is Blunt, Unbending but Eager to Listen

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks delivers his message of change in an uncompromising manner, refusing to add even a spoonful of sugar for Angelenos who may be unhappy with his choices.

In his first three months, the chief has stripped away bureaucratic layers of command; killed a workweek of three 12-hour days backed by the Police Protective League, his department’s largest union; and begun to change the LAPD’s approach to community policing in ways that some say will destroy the program.

I had a chance to see how Parks presents his new vision Monday night, when he spoke to the annual town meeting of the Model Neighborhood Program, a 10-year-old civic group on the Westside. Its members work to improve the quality of life in an area of businesses and middle-class residential neighborhoods bordered by Pico Boulevard on the north,Fairfax Avenue on the east, Robertson Boulevard on the west and the Santa Monica Freeway on the south.

This is LAPD country, a vibrant, long stable, racially integrated area whose residents count on the cops to prevent spillover from high crime areas just a few miles away.

It’s also a politically aware neighborhood, where voters turn out in large numbers and strong community leaders closely track the activities of their councilmen, Nate Holden and Michael Feuer, as well as those of the mayor and city departments.

This is what is called a bellwether neighborhood, one whose support is vital to mayors and chiefs of police.

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Public interest--a contrast to the apathy common in other parts of the city--was clear from the size of the crowd at the Center for Enriched Studies, a public magnet school.

The questions were intense, and Parks welcomed them. “Oh, yes. I can do this all day,” the chief said when the meeting chairwoman asked if he would take more questions after answering several.

Impeccably dressed in a perfectly fitting suit, he was tall and trim, looking as though he were just beginning his day instead of concluding it with an 8 p.m. public appearance. His manner was friendly, his voice soft. But, in this group, Parks’ plans for community policing clearly were controversial.

Community-based policing is a somewhat vague concept that requires cops to connect with the neighborhoods they patrol: The goal is an accessible cop on the beat rather than a grim presence behind sunglasses.

Some activists in this and other neighborhoods oppose Parks’ plan to do away with a key part of the LAPD’s community policing program: senior lead officers.

Those officers are supposed to establish links with a neighborhood, to become the LAPD’s main contact with the residents and business people. Graffiti on a nearby wall? A gang of thugs taking over an apartment? A suspected burglar prowling the streets? Call your senior lead.

With other city departments sometimes operating in a lackadaisical manner, the senior leads’ work may extend beyond law enforcement, taking on such tasks as organizing neighborhood cleanups or prodding city workers to maintain parks and haul refuse from lots and alleys. In a sprawling city, senior leads become Angelenos’ main--and best--contact with municipal government. The theory is that by attacking problems that visibly undermine the general quality of life, you reduce the potential for criminality to take root and flourish.

Parks is returning the senior leads to patrol duty, which he said will add 160 officers to the patrol force. When they are gone, residents and business people will contact sergeants who, Parks said, will have more clout than the senior leads. A senior lead can advise, but a sergeant can command.

“In developing an approach for the Los Angeles Police Department, it is important we do not have a split force, where a small group is responsible for community concerns,” he said.

This reflected a view of many L.A. cops who feel that the senior leads have become a separate group, occupying themselves with soft, “feel good” issues instead of real policing.

Some of the residents didn’t see it that way, complaining that they are losing their personal contact with the LAPD. But Parks replied that community policing should be every officer’s concern, and he didn’t budge from that view all evening.

When one resident asked if the chief would visit neighborhood police advisory groups--part of community policing--and explain his point of view, Parks replied that such explanations were the work of the area captains. Under his reorganization, he has given the captains considerably more power, and he said that if he, the chief, must visit neighborhoods to explain the LAPD operation, then his captains aren’t doing a good job.

Parks was just as blunt on other subjects. A resident asked about the need for high-speed chases, one of which inadvertently damaged her car.

After one of the captains explained the department’s policy in a general and conciliatory manner, Parks took the microphone. He reeled off statistics: 425 pursuits in the first 10 months of the year, 325 of them resulting in felony arrests, and only two for mere traffic offenses. Although there have been 15 to 20 injuries and one death in the pursuits, he said, the number of felony arrests showed that the chases were necessary and not prompted by “minor traffic violations,” which he said was the impression given by the news media.

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Afterward, men and women crowded around Parks, asking more questions. He answered every one of them, giving each of the questioners his full attention, looking them in the eye.

One man continued to press him about the departure of the senior leads. No single person will be in charge of dealing with the community, he complained. “It’s like seven cooks in the kitchen.”

“Give us a chance,” Parks replied.

As the group filed out, many people paused to shake the chief’s hand or to have their picture taken with him. These particular Angelenos seemed willing to give Parks what he wants--time for his approach to show results.