Image of LAPD Is First Concern for Valley’s Top Cop : Police: Deputy chief took over job on the day four officers were indicted in the brutal assault on a motorist.

Mark A. Kroeker may have the most difficult police job in the San Fernando Valley. But he doesn’t think so.

As a deputy chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, the 26-year veteran took over as the top cop in the Valley on the same day that four Valley officers were indicted in the brutal beating of a motorist stopped for speeding in Lake View Terrace.

The incident was videotaped by a bystander and the images of the officers clubbing a man offering no resistance set off a firestorm of outrage against the Police Department.

It is now Kroeker’s job in the Valley to restore public confidence in the department. He acknowledges that the task will be difficult, but believes the toughest police job in the Valley is not his.

“The most difficult job in the department is the job of the street police officer,” he said. “They are the ones that have to keep going out there day after day.”

Kroeker, 47, lives in the Santa Clarita Valley. He comes to the San Fernando Valley with a wide range of experience, including numerous investigative assignments. For three years, until January, he was commander of the Personnel and Training Bureau, where he was chairman of the department’s Use of Force Review Board.

On his first day in charge in the Valley he quickly began what he called the “healing process”--both within and outside the department.

He attended a news conference in Canoga Park to talk about police efforts to combat drug activity in a neighborhood park. And he attended his first roll call, telling the officers of the Van Nuys Division: “Take some courage and keep going. . . . Don’t let anyone tell you that your badge is tarnished.”

While unpacking boxes in his new office, Kroeker answered questions about his new assignment.

Q. Chief Daryl F. Gates has placed you in command of the Valley Bureau at one of the most difficult and controversial periods. How do you plan to go about restoring the community’s confidence in the Police Department?

A. The confidence that the community has in the Police Department has been shaken. There is no question. Our best friends have looked at us with serious questions in their eyes. On the other hand, I believe that there is a considerable amount of understanding out there in the community. We have been in the business of community-oriented policing for years and that has brought us very close to the community. They don’t need Chief Gates to tell them the incident is an aberration. They know it. However, there is that malaise that is created by this incident. It needs very careful and focused attention.

On the one hand we have to produce a healing effect on our police officers. They have to know that we in leadership believe in them, that what we know as the L.A. police officer is in fact an honest, hard-working, service-oriented, law-abiding man or woman. I also need to remind them, however, of responsibilities that exist in supervision, about accountability, about the discipline that must be maintained. We have to remind them of their responsibilities to do with excessive force, that only that force that is necessary and reasonable shall be applied. Beyond that, it is excessive.

As far as the community is concerned, we need to go eyeball-to-eyeball more intensely than ever before. I have a strong desire to meet with people and express to them our deep commitment to doing the right thing in the right way day after day. That’s what we are known for. And I believe that is the reason for the big swirling controversy; because it is, in fact, such an exception for us to go through something like this. So I intend to meet with groups, I intend to meet with individuals as much as I can to reaffirm our commitment to professional police service and to assure them that acts of misconduct and acts of excessive force do get investigated, do get prosecuted if necessary.

Q. You have a strong background in the department in the area of training and were in charge of a departmental board that reviewed use-of-force issues and complaints. Should you be perceived as a disciplinarian assigned here to rectify a problem in training or discipline?

A. I believe I am perceived as a balanced leader. I have the department’s interest in my heart. I have the officers’ interest in my heart. I have the community’s interest in my heart. All of these form a balance that draws us to trying to make good judgments. I think, and I hope, that I have a reputation of having a balance of prudence and concern for people. I have this tenet that says that when everything is said and done, it isn’t the machinery, it’s not the technology, it’s not the buildings or the cars or the computers, the only thing that really counts is people. I honestly believe that.

Q. The chief, you and other officials have called the beating incident an aberration. Will you do any auditing or review of use of force by police in the Valley to reassure the public and make sure there is not an institutional problem?

A. Unfortunately, the public doesn’t always know the details of the inner working machinery to keep the department free from misconduct. And so one of the things I intend to do is talk more about that, to give the community an assurance of what we do inside the organization, how we keep ourselves clean and honest. We have a good system. However, like any incident that occurs, this should bring us to a careful self-assessment. We need to really look inside right now and see if there are any things that need to be improved upon. We need to examine our training system. It is one of the things I intend to do in the Valley. I intend to examine our use-of-force reporting mechanism and, specifically, the community’s confidence in that system. Do people feel they have access to report acts of misconduct? And if they don’t, why?

I know we can learn from this incident and I don’t intend to let those lessons escape us.

Q. Are you planning any changes in the command structure below you in response to the incident?

A. As far as I know, there are no plans for command structure changes. We will evaluate in the days ahead all the positions in the organization. We are going to be looking at strengths and weaknesses and it will bring us to another assessment. I would hesitate to make any judgments now, but we are certainly going to look at where people are placed.

Q. Is there a specific message you are going to send to your field officers in regard to use of force?

A. I intend to remind them of responsibility and accountability . . . that we have discipline. We have been trained toward handling certain things in certain ways. And that discipline cannot break down or else we have incidents like the one we have been through--where things can happen that absolutely unsettle the whole world. I want to remind them what reasonable and necessary force is and where the line is in it becoming excessive. They know where the line is. They don’t need a videotape to tell them there is a certain point where you are way beyond that line.

Q. Aside from the present controversy, what are your priorities for the Valley?

A. My priorities are to commit myself to developing the highest quality of life for the people who live in this valley. I recognize that law enforcement is just one slice of the entire picture, but we have the ability to mobilize other segments to bring things together on a systemic basis. The police are the community. The community is the police. My job is not just to be the top cop in the Valley. My job is to be a change agent for good in the social system that is out here.

We need to address the things that are of concern to the people. The crime. The fear. People should not have to go to bed wondering if someone is going to break into their house. There is a fear level that exists in our city. I intend to address that in some of the classic ways having to do with crime and apprehension, but also in some of the non-traditional ways of dealing with the community with reassurance and soothing and understanding.

I intend to make a priority out of customer-oriented service. We have a computerized operation and we need good technology. But beyond the technology comes the human need to respond to human needs in a customer-oriented way. I want officers to represent themselves as the Nordstrom of police work, that when people have contact with a Los Angeles police officer they go away shaking their heads saying: “That was really incredible. I was well-treated and I am going to go back for more service.” Now we don’t sell products, but we certainly do have customers. They pay a lot of money as taxpayers. That money has to come back to them in good, quality, customer-oriented service.

Q. In the past, police officials have repeatedly said that gang and drug problems in the Valley are growing, following a trend seen in other parts of the city. What can be done to stem this trend?

A. There is a substantial gang problem in the San Fernando Valley. There has to be a systemic approach to the problem, where you consider the gang members, the community environment they operate in, the graffiti they produce, the jobs they don’t have, the lack of a criminal justice system to make things work when they are arrested. All of those things must be brought together in a community setting and attacked in a systemic way to produce a good result. Because people are concerned about gangs. It’s a real concern and they have a right to be concerned. We have the opportunity here to deal with it maybe in a little more of an infancy stage. That’s an opportunity I intend to seize.

There is a linkage between drugs and gangs. That linkage I think is sometimes overdramatized. However, it is there and can’t be denied. We do have plans in place to attack the drug problem. There is a need for enforcement and education, a systemic approach on the drug problem as well.

Q. What other priority problems face the Valley?

A. Another priority has to do with traffic--traffic congestion, traffic accidents, people who can’t get from point A to point B because of the traffic problem, the frustration it presents to them. I look at traffic not only in the raw numbers but the raw frustration people have as human beings in their quality of life. There is another interaction that is necessary there. Not only the officers enforcing the law, but using the entire system to deal with the problem.

Q. What do you think is the department’s image in the eyes of the general public right now?

A. Right now in the eyes of the general public--underscoring “general”--our image is very good. In certain segments of our community there are big question marks. In certain groups that are vocal there are more than question marks; there are major accusations. It doesn’t mean we should ignore these accusations or not refer to those questions. We do need to be concerned. We need to deal with them face to face. If there are lessons there, let’s learn them. If there is a cleaning-out needed, let’s clean out. If there are criminal charges and administrative penalties to be meted out, let it flow.

When something like this incident happens, we are going to make a big lesson out of it. We are going to get a lot better and our image is going to improve. If I want something for this Police Department and this chunk of it that I have been assigned to, it is a strong improvement in our image.