One color combination spotted rarely, if ever,...

One color combination spotted rarely, if ever, in Los Angeles is a pink parking ticket on a black-and-white police car parked next to a red curb.

Such sightings will become more numerous now--at least in the Civic Center.

Reacting to complaints about traffic congestion, the LAPD’s Central Traffic Division has decreed that any officer who parks in the red zone outside a courthouse could receive a ticket as well as an appointment with his or her boss to discuss the violation.

“We want our people to comply with the law,” said Capt. Ted Kozak, commanding officer of the Central Traffic Division. He revealed that complaints even came from federal court judges who pointed out that curbs in some zones in the area were painted red to keep them “free of vehicles for security reasons.”

Los Angeles police aren’t the only violators. About 60 other agencies also dock in the red zones outside courthouses, he said.

Kozak noted that a citation--costing as much as $53 during the rush hour--could later be canceled if it turns out that there was an emergency. But he added that trying to hurry into a courtroom before an impatient judge drops the gavel isn’t considered an emergency.

Don’t include Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates among the fans of the television show “60 Minutes.” Or among the fans of the Washington Police Department.

Gates was angered by the show’s recent segment on the LAPD’s Special Investigations Section, the secretive unit that became an object of controversy last year after a Times investigation. The Times recounted how SIS members sometimes stood by and allowed armed robbers to commit crimes so they could arrest them and thereby testify against them as witnesses.

“Don’t come back to Los Angeles P.D. You are not welcome,” Gates wrote the show’s producers.

As for the criticism of the SIS on the show by a deputy chief of the Washington department, Gates said: “It is ironic that ’60 Minutes’ found their ‘expert’ on how to protect the public in a city with . . . the unenviable title, ‘Murder Capital of the World.’ ”

Old No. 3 (Steve Sax) and a few others are missing from the Dodgers lineup. But Nos. 1 through 32 are all back for another year on the City Hall lawn.

The numbers, you may recall, were painted on 32 trees before the Dodgers’ World Series celebration last October because past parade-goers had been known to climb up on a limb and then tumble off.

“When somebody falls out and breaks an arm or a leg, the spotters will be able to say, ‘Go to tree so-and-so and rescue someone,’ ” explained Gregg Wilkins of the city’s General Services Department.

Only the forbiddingly tall and limbless palm trees were left unmarked.

No one fell in October, but General Services obviously picked a brand of paint that would hold up in case the Dodgers should capture a second straight title. And, of course, the numbers are also available for Laker celebrations.