31 Valley Officers Get Public Relations Duty

The San Fernando Valley’s top police official announced Friday that he is assigning about three-dozen patrol officers to full-time community relations duty, the latest step in a campaign to boost the Los Angeles Police Department’s image after the Rodney G. King beating.

Effective Sunday, the program will sharply increase the amount of time police spend with neighborhood groups and merchants, from four days a month to about 20. So far, it will apply only in the Valley, where Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker supervises 1,500 officers in five patrol areas.

“We’ve heard a lot of talk about us and them,” said Kroeker, who took over his post the same day four Valley officers were indicted in King’s beating. “I propose that rather than using the words ‘us’ and ‘them,’ the word we need to get together on is ‘we,’ ” Kroeker said.

Kroeker unveiled his plan during the daily roll call at the Foothill Division--the Pacoima-based patrol area in which King was arrested March 3 and which has been the subject of intense scrutiny as its officers have been targeted by local, state and federal investigations.

Last week, Kroeker established a bilingual panel to study the sometimes hostile relations between police and non-English-speaking Latinos. Despite his creation of the Spanish Language Outreach Committee, Kroeker said Friday he did not know how many, if any, bilingual officers had been assigned to his community relations plan. He was also unable to provide the number of African-American officers participating.

Friday’s press conference originally was to coincide with the start of the evening shift and enable journalists to witness a roll call, or police briefing. Kroeker even wore a blue uniform for the occasion instead of his usual business suit.

But the crush of TV cameras forced most of the officers downstairs, where roll call was held in the lunchroom.

Capt. Tim McBride, Foothill’s commander, acknowledged that he looked forward to a time when officers can do their jobs without such intense media scrutiny. McBride also expressed some concern that fewer officers will respond to calls under Kroeker’s plan, but he praised efforts to have the public meet the police.

“After they get to know us, they like us, but we have a tough job and too much to do,” McBride said.

Under Kroeker’s “Community-Oriented Policing Program,” 31 patrol supervisors will spend all their time meeting with homeowners, tenants, landlords, merchants and local officials instead of driving to emergencies. Kroeker said he wanted them to spend part of their day walking a beat the old-fashioned way. Their work should range from neighborhood beautification projects to figuring out why some locations receive more police calls and trying to reduce the need for those calls.