A Message for Gates as Top Cops Swap Ideas

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates is probably getting more mail than he knows what to do with these days. He might be well advised, however, to rummage through the heaps of passionate missives on his desk till he finds the March issue of The Police Chief magazine.

Gates is among the dozen law enforcement officials who contributed to a package of articles titled “Policing in the ‘90s” in this official publication of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police.

But given his dilemma in the wake of the now infamous videotape of the beating of a suspect, Gates might want to read a couple of other articles before turning to the piece he co-wrote on “Enhancing AIDS Awareness in Los Angeles.”

The first article by New York City Police Commissioner Lee P. Brown discusses societal change and the need for law enforcement to adjust to that change. Brown cites several new challenges confronting officers, including the fact that today’s public demands greater participation in law enforcement and insists on greater accountability from its top cops.

As Brown sees things, police departments need to take a decentralized, community-based approach to law enforcement, shifting supervisorial authority to specialists while allowing neighborhood officers to assume greater responsibilities as generalists.

Police departments must also be more willing to share power with the public. Often, Brown writes, “it is the citizens themselves who know best what the community’s problems are and how they can be solved. They are on the front lines. They are the ones who know the pain of victimization. . . . The new rallying cry will be teamwork--police and citizens working jointly to achieve a particular goal.”

For that approach to succeed, however, police agencies need chiefs who recognize that they are more than just generals in command of a paramilitary force, Brown writes.

“A successful partnership requires a commitment by the police chief to include the community in everything from the development of policy to the identification and resolution of neighborhood problems. In effect, the police chief becomes not only a community leader but also an agent of positive change.”

As such, it is essential that police chiefs not “lose touch with reality. . . . When police chiefs choose not to listen to either citizens or their own officers, they deprive themselves of valuable firsthand information--information that could be used to refine strategies, programs and policies and possibly avert problems before they arise.”

Another article in the package might also strike Gates as relevant, in light of the rampage of young people through Westwood last weekend. The action has been attributed, at least in part, to growing anger over Police Department-minority relations.

“There is a curious thinness about the thoughts and emotions that surround police departments and their relationship to ghetto neighborhoods,” writes Robert C. Wadman, chief of the Aurora, Ill., Police Department.

“In this thinness lies the haunting failure of a dim history just beyond our recent memory. There, nothing is really known about the causes of urban unrest, just the cloudy outlines of huge events--the riots that occurred in Watts, Newark, Detroit and many other American cities.”

What is the likelihood that racial tensions will again flare into riots? The author hints that unless police departments confront the causes of past uprisings, history may be destined to repeat itself.

“Coast to coast,” he writes, “the clues to racial unrest are available, but America’s ostrich mentality is preventing their discovery.”

To counter this mentality, police agencies must strive to understand the increasingly diverse cultural makeup of the communities they serve and protect. But “if the police organizations of the country consist exclusively of white males, the lack of understanding on cultural issues will continue to limit police effectiveness.”

Redistribution of police resources, from wealthier to more impoverished neighborhoods, may be necessary, he continues. At the same time, middle-class Americans, who complain that they see too few patrol cars in their neighborhoods--and, presumably, police leaders--must try to understand that in poor neighborhoods, feelings about an omnipresent police presence are mixed at best.

It would be silly for anyone to think that many of the ideas in this package of articles are new to Gates, who, under difficult circumstances, runs what by most objective criteria is one of the best police departments in the country.

But with his career on the line as never before, now might be a good time for the chief to refresh his memory on a few basic principles of leadership and community relations.

As Brown says in his article, “The police chief must be capable of nurturing the community’s confidence in the police department. No police agency can be successful without the understanding, support and cooperation of the people it serves.

“As the key figure in the development of such support, the chief must display a willingness to listen to all persons and groups and show a genuine concern for each citizen’s safety and well-being.”

REQUIRED READING

For Southern Californians who have been asked to cut back on their water use--and who can reasonably foresee being asked to cut back again and again--the idea of installing thousands of new faucets in thousands of new homes to attract thousands of new residents who will use millions of gallons of water might seem odd. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power doesn’t see it that way.

In the March L.A. Style magazine, Andy Boehm presents the first of a two-part primer on the Alice in Wonderlandesque world of Southern California water planning and politics. It’s a good story and an important one as Los Angeles faces what may be its worst drought ever.

It’s been 75 years since the first woman was elected to Congress. There are now 29 women in the House and two in the Senate. But they, and other women who have infiltrated the Washington power structure, still find themselves faced with double standards and sexism. In an excellent article titled “Capitol Hill: Is This Any Place for a Woman?” the March Cosmopolitan takes a look at the problems faced by female legislators and their staffs.