A Commanding Presence : Sheriff: The captain of the West Hollywood station is credited with improving the department’s image and relations with the gay community.

Just before the start of last month’s Gay Pride Parade, as 235 Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies prepared to face a throng of about 300,000 party-minded spectators, Capt. Rachel Burgess of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station delivered a stern warning to her troops.

“As deputies you have a responsibility to adhere to department policies,” she told the gathering. “You are not allowed to demean any person in the performance of your duty. The use of disparaging remarks to describe gays or lesbians will not be tolerated and will guarantee you an automatic three-day suspension.”

Then Burgess urged the deputies, most of whom were on loan from other stations and had never worked the city’s flamboyant parade before, not to just stand around “like blocks of stone,” but to relax, be friendly and enjoy the day’s festivities.

It was the kind of speech Burgess has grown accustomed to giving to deputies who have never worked in West Hollywood, a congested urban pocket where an estimated 25% of the city’s population is gay or lesbian.

The annual parade came off without a hitch. There were few arrests and no complaints of deputy misconduct, a problem at last year’s parade. David Smith, a spokesman for Christopher Street West, the parade’s organizers, said one of the reasons for the parade’s success was Burgess.

“She is a very thorough person to work with,” he said. “Whenever we needed something, the department was always very responsive.”

A lot of people offer praise these days for the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station and its commanding officer, Burgess. And that in itself is a sign of change.

Burgess, one of seven high-ranking blacks in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, was brought in to run the station in late 1988, a time when hardly anyone in West Hollywood had a kind word for the department.

Gays and lesbians were accusing deputies of harassment. Residents in the city’s east end were up in arms about disorderly homeless people in Plummer Park and the blatant prostitution trade on Santa Monica Boulevard. More and more people were calling for the city to cancel its $9-million contract with the Sheriff’s Department and create its own police force.

The 6-year-old city has so far found the concept of an independent police force too expensive to merit serious consideration, but because West Hollywood has the largest contract of the 39 cities that receive their police protection from the the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the grumblings of discontent sent shudders throughout the department.

“I certainly didn’t want to be the one to lose that contract,” said Burgess, 48, who has more than 177 officers and other personnel under her command.

“At the time, I decided my best asset was my naivete,” she said recently in an interview in her office. “I didn’t have to become an immediate expert in anything like homosexuality or the homeless. I decided I would be better off coming in and concentrating on being the person I have always been, which is fair.”

In a city known for its diversity and contentiousness, Burgess is one of the few public figures who seems not to be under constant attack from one direction or another.

“She has humanized the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station,” said Morris Kight, a member of the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations who has been active in the city’s gay community. “I think she has done an incredible job.”

Burgess has made a point of being accessible--to her subordinates, to city officials and to community groups. And she encourages her deputies to become more creative in their approach to policing.

“They have enormous training and they have excellent backgrounds,” she said. “They go out and operate quite independently sometimes and I trust them to do so. When someone comes up with an idea, I say, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”

Recently, the station began offering weekly classes in Russian for its deputies, a response to the large number of Russian emigres in West Hollywood. A foot patrol set up on the east side was credited with reducing crime there, although a shortage of city funds threatens its continuation. The station also just recently created a bicycle patrol, modeled after a successful unit in Seattle.

The city and the sheriff’s station set up a Conference Committee, composed of gay and lesbian leaders and sheriff’s deputy volunteers, to work on improving the frayed lines of communication.

In response to the committee’s recommendations, the department has held two major recruitment drives in the West Hollywood area in an attempt to attract gay and lesbian deputies on the force. The department removed two questions seeking information on sexual preference from psychological tests given recruits. And members of the committee have conducted group visits to gay bars to distribute pamphlets urging victims or witnesses of harassment, abuse or discrimination against homosexuals--whether by police or anyone else--to report such incidents.

“The committee has given us a wonderful opportunity to communicate to the gay and lesbian community the message that their fears are not justified,” Burgess said. “The reality is that most of the complaints about the department are coming from a small group of people who have another motive in mind. They are pushing for an independent West Hollywood police department.”

Burgess acknowledged that the gay community’s mistrust of the Sheriff’s Department derives at least in part from some documented instances of abuse, including a case in which a reserve deputy was recently convicted earlier this year of assault in connection with the beating of a gay man during an arrest last year. “That was clearly a setback,” she said.

The department, she said, showed that it will not tolerate such behavior by immediately removing the deputy from the force. Burgess said she also has sought or facilitated the reassignment of four other West Hollywood deputies who she said had problems working in a community with such a large gay and lesbian population.

“They were all told that if they were not comfortable performing properly in this environment, we would make every effort to hasten their transfer,” Burgess said. “And as soon as they applied, I did everything I could to see that their transfer was hurried.”

In general, Burgess has been credited with cooling tempers in the community and setting an example for the department. As a result, the city’s Public Safety Commission, which was set up in part to receive public complaints about misconduct by deputies, has yet to receive an official complaint since it began meeting in February.

“I am a big fan of Rachel Burgess,” said John A. Altschul, chairman of the commission. “Tensions between the gay and lesbian community and the sheriff’s deputies have lessened since she took over. It was a brilliant stroke to make a black woman the captain of the West Hollywood station, especially someone as capable as she is.”

Altschul and others suggest that Burgess, because she is black, is better able than her predecessors to understand issues involving discrimination against homosexuals. But Burgess, when asked, said she believes her appointment had more to do with her being a woman.

“I think the department executives were really looking for somebody they thought could get in and be interactive with the community,” she said. “Women tend to deal with these kinds of issues (those involving gays and lesbians) in a more sensitive way without worrying about the negative comments or criticism from their peers.”

Even so, she has seen fit on occasion to draw from her experiences as a black person to communicate an understanding of discrimination.

“She talked about her son, an 11-year veteran in the fire department, and how much of a big deal that was because she remembers when the fire department was all white,” said Wuzzy Spaulding, a Conference Committee member and an activist in the West Hollywood gay community. “That perspective can be used in understanding why many of us feel it is important to have gays and lesbians as sheriffs.”

Critics say Burgess has not done enough to root out anti-gay behavior in the department. “All she is really interested in is protecting her position and the department,” said Christopher Fairchild, a former member of the city’s Public Safety Commission.

Fairchild said the department has yet to create the kind of environment that would allow gay and lesbian deputies to come out in the open. “As are result, the Sheriff’s Department is not representative of our community,” he said. “It resembles an occupying force.”

Burgess says she knows of gays and lesbians in the department although none are willing to say so publicly. “That decision is a personal one, and it is influenced by more factors than the department,” she said. “Sexual preference has nothing to do with the job, and anyone who meets the requirements--and there are stringent requirements--to have this job, should have it.”

Burgess joined the department in 1969, shortly before her husband, Arthur, who is now a lieutenant at the Lynwood Station. They have four children, ages 22 to 31. Two have careers in law enforcement, the oldest is a firefighter and the youngest is in the Army.

On police business, Burgess prefers to keep a low profile. She often rolls out with her deputies on stakeouts and inspects scenes of significant crimes, but she rarely makes arrests. “Too much paper work--and besides, arrests are better left for those who make them on a routine basis.”

In 21 years as an officer, Burgess said she has never had to fire her weapon during the course of duty. She strongly preferred a less confrontational approach to suspected criminals.

“I would try to avoid a fight. I didn’t want to get into hassles so I would often sneak up behind a suspect and whisper in his ear: ‘Put your hands behind your back so I can put these handcuffs on you. I don’t really like fighting and nobody needs to know what is going on but you and me.’ They would do it and we would be in the car and gone in no time.”