Chief Delivers a Pep Talk to Officers via Videotape : Police: The address, played at roll call, is regarded to be generally well received. Gates urges the force to improve its ‘quality of service.’

It started out as a routine afternoon roll call at the Newton station of the Los Angeles Police Department.

A sergeant passed out a handful of subpoenas in a stuffy, windowless room while about three dozen officers signaled to the watch commander as their names were read from the station roster.

But moments after the roll call ended about 3 p.m. Tuesday, the overhead lights went dark and two television sets suspended from the ceiling were switched on.

“I thought it best that I come and talk to you directly and clear up as many issues as I possibly can,” said Chief Daryl F. Gates, who was making his second videotaped address to the department’s rank-and-file officers since the beating of Rodney G. King in March. “After all, in my judgment the real important people in all of this are you and the people of the city of Los Angeles.”

For more than half an hour, the Newton officers--and their colleagues at stations across the city--listened passively as their boss delivered a monologue that was equal parts pep talk, self-defense and vision for the future.

Gates said he wanted to clear up confusion about his retirement plans. Although he gave no specific date, he criticized media speculation about his future and assured the officers that they would be the first to know when he steps down.

The speech was not endorsed with applause or shouts of approval at Newton, as it was at some other stations. Gates filled the pale-blue meeting room with soft laughter when he quipped about bad media coverage and his own uncertain job future, but otherwise the mood was no-nonsense.

“These are coppers, this is not Hollywood,” said Newton Officer Natasha Benavides. “This is the ghetto. . . . Here you get what you see. They are hard-working coppers here, and that is what they are.”

Sgt. Steven Allen, a 19-year veteran of the department, said Gates’ address was important because it spoke directly to his patrol officers at a time when the department has been under unprecedented scrutiny and criticism.

“He is telling them that you guys are out there doing a good job,” Allen said. “You are doing what the people of Los Angeles pay us to do. Don’t get yourself down, and don’t lose your morale, don’t lose your ability to go out and do the job because somebody has gotten into trouble and they have brought attention onto a segment of the department.”

Across town at the department’s Foothill Division, the Northeast San Fernando Valley patrol area in which King was beaten March 3, the videotape was “well received,” according to Sgt. David E. Baca.

Foothill officers who were shown the videotape during 7 a.m. roll call applauded at its conclusion, which the watch commander called “particularly upbeat” because Gates reminded officers of “our reputation for integrity and our work ethic and our long history of community-based policing.”

The tape also drew applause during the 6:15 a.m. roll call in the Valley Traffic Bureau, according to Officer John Karr, who was patrolling the Foothill Division on motorcycle Tuesday.

“I agree with the chief wholeheartedly, and I think what the politicians are trying to do to him is full of baloney,” Karr said after ticketing a speeding motorist. “I think they ought to leave the man alone and let him do his job. If a high school student fails a test, you don’t fire the teacher.”

In his address, Gates praised the “honesty and integrity” of the Police Department, but directed his troops to “improve the quality of service” in the community while not abandoning their aggressive approach to crime-fighting.

In what could be construed as a move toward the Christopher Commission’s call for greater community-oriented policing, Gates announced that the department will launch a new program to “improve our interaction with the community” by emulating efforts by consumer-oriented businesses. He referred to Los Angeles residents as “customers,” and said the department will treat residents “decently” and provide them with “great service.”

“We’ve been looking at what private industry has been doing to improve their position with the consumers in the United States,” Gates said. “And what they found is that people expect a quality service, and when they get quality service, they really like it, and they come back for more. So that’s what we’re going to emphasize.”

Several Newton-area officers preparing their patrol cars Tuesday for the evening rounds said it will take one thing to really change the quality of service in high-crime areas such as central Los Angeles: the hiring of more police officers.

“Sometimes you handle 20 radio calls in one night,” Benavides said. “You are listening to people, you haven’t been able to eat, you are trying to work and listen to everybody’s problems. It is kind of hard sometimes.”