Healing Process Begins for Police, Public After Beating : Community: Activists do not want the incident to overshadow gains in cutting crime and building trust.

In the week since the beating of Rodney G. King first rocked Los Angeles, shock waves have hit particularly hard in the tough, ethnically mixed northeast San Fernando Valley patrolled by the officers of the Police Department’s Foothill Division.

Tension is evident between police and public in the area where the videotaped beating occurred, according to community groups that deal with the police on a regular basis. Some officers appeared on edge, while a few have made a point of expressing regret over the videotaped beating, residents said.

And some officers interviewed said that throughout their working day--whether at a Neighborhood Watch meeting in the Sylmar hills or during anti-gang work with teen-agers in the Pacoima barrio--they get questions and comments about the incident. Chief Daryl Gates has recommended criminal charges against three of their co-workers. Some of the other 12 officers could also be prosecuted or disciplined.

“We know that the healing process is going to take a while,” said Officer Richard Stocks, who works in gang prevention in local elementary and junior high schools. “We answer any question that we can answer. We realize what the community is dealing with.”

In recent years, an array of grass-roots community organizations has worked hard with Foothill Division officers on programs to combat drug dealing, gang violence and drunk-driving problems that have been among the worst in the Valley. The results, officers and local leaders said, include a 23% reduction in the number of major traffic accidents over two years, a decline in drug activity in city housing projects, and creation of the Jeopardy program, one of only two police units in the city in which officers work full time to keep children out of gangs.

Complaints persist that police have been too forceful in the past, community leaders said. But on the streets of the Foothill Division, they said, police and residents need each other. While the wounds of the Lake View Terrace beating will take a long time to heal, police and community leaders said Tuesday that they were taking the first steps to restore a sense of trust.

“Everybody is uneasy, because problems were already festering in the community,” black activist Fred Taylor said. “But we have made some great progress in the past six years. You can’t let this incident stop the progress.”

Capt. Tim McBride, a division commander well-regarded by many community leaders, said Tuesday that he and other senior officers will meet with a cross-section of local church groups, school groups and other local organizations in coming weeks.

“All last week they were in a state of shock,” he said of his officers. “What I was concerned about was keeping the station running, keeping quality of service high. This week we are beginning the process of reaching out.”

During the upcoming meetings, police officials will address concerns about the excessive force issue and reassure residents that police work will not be paralyzed by the uproar surrounding the King incident, McBride said. To emphasize the latter point, he cited an operation last week by a police task force, which conducted two days of raids on the homes of suspected gang members and arrested a murder suspect.

Several residents and activists who work regularly with Foothill officers said they have noticed no change in police presence in the division, which has a population of approximately 270,000 residents and covers about 60 square miles.

But Manuel Velazquez of Community Youth Gang Services--a counseling program supported by the city and county governments to combat gangs--said officers have appeared “tense” and “cautious” during recent traffic stops he has passed in Pacoima.

“I get caught in the middle,” he said of the controversy raging over police conduct. “I can see where the officers are coming from. But there’s a lot of racism too.”

Efren Olvera, president of the Haddon-Mercer Neighborhood Watch group, said he has noticed a newly restrained attitude in some officers who he said previously tended to be intimidating.

“This may end up favoring the community,” said Olvera, who praised the police for curtailing previously blatant drug dealing and prostitution in his neighborhood. But he complained of what he called occasional abuse of residents, particularly Latino immigrants who don’t speak English.

“Unfortunately, it’s been because of this poor guy who got beat up, but I think things are going to change. They are going to lighten up a bit.” Another Neighborhood Watch member, Natalie Baird of Sylmar, said residents who held their regularly scheduled meeting Monday with Officer Ken Roth were concerned and curious about the incident and its impact on Roth and fellow officers. No one asked Roth about it, she said, but there was clear relief when he addressed the issue without prompting.

“He said he was sure we were aware of what happened last week and he said it was unfortunate that it happened,” she said. “He didn’t go into details, but it was good that he talked about it.

“I feel bad about watching on TV what happened. But that doesn’t change the fact that I have to work with the police force.”