Residents Want Slate Wiped Clean : Foothill Division: Community leaders to appeal today to police administrator for wholesale leadership changes.

Residents and community leaders of the northeast San Fernando Valley will meet with the area’s top police administrator today and request that the leadership of the Foothill Division be replaced because of the highly publicized police beating of a black motorist in Lake View Terrace.

“Why not wipe the slate clean? In light of what is happening, let’s start over,” said Fred Taylor, one of the organizers of the meeting with Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker.

Taylor is president of Focus ‘90s, the homeowners and business coalition that is sponsoring today’s forum along with the Ministers Fellowship of the Greater San Fernando Valley.

“Healing begins with change,” said the Rev. James Lyles, president of the ministers group. “We believe the community would benefit substantially if all key command posts at Foothill were filled with new people.”

Lyles and Taylor said that in a meeting earlier this week with Kroeker, representatives of the two community groups asked that a black or Latino captain be placed in command of the Foothill Division. They stressed that the request was not based on specific difficulties with the current commander, Capt. Tim McBride, who is white.

But Taylor said the majority of the residents the division serves are minorities, and a black or Latino captain would be more sensitive to the law enforcement issues facing the community.

“It’s not a personal situation” with McBride, Taylor said. “I think it’s a valid request and it couldn’t hurt.”

Police administrators, including Kroeker, have said repeatedly this week that they will not comment on what personnel transfers, if any, are being considered to help restore confidence in the department following the beating incident.

One transfer, however, has already been made. The white lieutenant who was night watch commander during the March 3 incident--who had been on the job only a week--was transferred out of the Foothill station and Kroeker has replaced him with a black lieutenant.

Kroeker was appointed to the Valley post by Police Chief Daryl F. Gates after the incident in which Rodney G. King, 25, was pulled over for speeding and beaten by three officers while several others stood by. Four officers have been indicted on criminal charges in the incident, which was videotaped by a nearby resident, and an investigation is continuing.

Kroeker has said that at the forum today at the Greater Community Baptist Church in Pacoima, he will express his hard-line stance against police misconduct and his commitment to restoring the community’s confidence in the department.

Kroeker said “police awareness seminars” are being planned for all five police stations in the Valley so that residents can meet commanders, tour stations and learn how the department handles misconduct reports and polices itself.

Although the beating incident has set off a national furor and a debate over whether Gates should resign, the community groups sponsoring today’s forum are not taking up that issue. Instead, Taylor said, they have specifically chosen to focus on the police station that serves them.

“This is where the incident happened,” Taylor said. “So when the smoke clears, we want to make sure we have an improved relationship with police.”

Lyles said: “We don’t want police brutality, but we also don’t want the police abused. We want to establish the lines of communication.”