Police Try to Mend Some Fences During Visit to Pacoima School

Los Angeles police turned the playing fields of Maclay Junior High School in Pacoima into an outdoor classroom Monday, giving students a hands-on primer in police work as part of a program to improve the relationship between officers and teen-agers.

The event was organized by Foothill Division officers, who gave students an opportunity to climb through a patrol car, pet a police dog and try on the SWAT team’s body armor during physical education classes.

Planning began in January, but officers conceded that an aim of the event now is to mend community relations strained by the police beating last month of Rodney G. King. “Right now, we need a lot of positive, in-close, hand-to-hand communication,” Deputy Chief Mark Kroeker said.

“It shows that we’re not a bunch of bad guys,” Officer Ray Bussard said. Nevertheless, the students quizzed him on why no one is ever glad to see a motorcycle officer in his rear-view mirror and why it sometimes takes so long for police to respond to a call.

But as far as the King case is concerned, the students seemed more interested in the nuts and bolts of police work than in the debate swirling around the department.

Moving from exhibit to exhibit, students tentatively patted horses used by mounted patrols and passed around a deactivated pipe bomb. At one station, the youths got a close-up look at weapons used by the SWAT team--shotguns, 9-millimeter automatics and sniper rifles with night scopes.

Kenny Morris and other students even got to try on some body armor and a gas mask. “I felt like I was in charge, like nobody could hurt me,” said Kenny, 13, an eighth-grader who said he wants to play football for the Los Angeles Raiders.

Ninth-grader Jose Perez, 15, said he was considering a career in law enforcement. “One part is dangerous, but the other part is nice to help,” he said. “If I had a choice, I’d go for the SWAT team.”

Officer Isaac Galvan, who grew up in Pacoima and attended Maclay, said he had a personal interest in bringing the event to the school. Galvan said that when he was a youth in the housing projects a police officer took a special interest in him and kept him out of trouble.

“I want to show these kids that we care about them and that there is more out there,” he said.