2 Police Officials Assail GOP Ads, Defend Dukakis

With a new California Poll showing Michael S. Dukakis trailing George Bush by nine points, a Massachusetts police officer and the head of a Texas police organization strongly defended Dukakis’ record as a crime fighter Wednesday in Los Angeles.

“What the Republicans have done on the crime issue is go to the white middle class and try to raise the anxiety level,” complained Ron DeLord, head of the Combined Law Enforcement Officials of Texas, a police union group with 8,000 members.

“The crime record of Michael Dukakis has been distorted,” said DeLord, who endorsed the Massachusetts governor last summer.

“I think he’s tough on crime. Look at the drop in the crime rate in Massachusetts, look at the drop in the number of children addicted to drugs.”

Capt. Louis Pacheco of the Raynham, Mass., police department, said he was speaking out on Dukakis’ behalf because he and other members of the Massachusetts Drug Task Force “are getting tired of being painted with the brush that we aren’t doing anything in Massachusetts. . . . Something had to be done because the message wasn’t getting out.”

Effective Attack

Bush began attacking Dukakis on the crime issue during the summer, and it has proved particularly effective in California, where a poll by Mervin Field released Tuesday showed Dukakis trailing Bush by nine points.

He once led Bush in surveys by the same pollster by as much as 17 points.

Bush cut Dukakis’ lead in California by attacking him on gun control, the death penalty and the Massachusetts prison furlough issue.

Field said Bush then took the lead in the race by performing well in the debate last week in Los Angeles.