CRISIS IN THE LAPD: THE RODNEY KING BEATING : Gates Urges Education on Arrests : Police: The chief endorses the idea of a video program on how to be taken into custody. He tells a council panel it would make encounters with officers less frightening to the public.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates on Wednesday said that the public can do more to eliminate excessive force in encounters with police officers and endorsed the creation of a training program for citizens.

Gates’ statements came during his appearance before a City Council committee hearing called to allow Gates to suggest ways to improve department training practices and curb alleged police brutality.

City Council member Joy Picus, who chairs the Human Resources and Labor Relations Committee, warned the chief that “we are here to put your feet to the fire” on possible reforms of Los Angeles police policies, training and community relations.

Instead, the hearing turned into a rambling and rancor-free meeting between the chief and three of his staunchest supporters on the City Council--Picus, Joel Wachs and Joan Milke Flores. The controversy surrounding the police beating of Rodney G. King on March 3 was seldom mentioned.

At one point the focus of the hearing shifted to what citizens can do to improve relations with police.

When Flores asked Gates if he saw a need for a video program on “how to be arrested,” the chief agreed.

“No question.” Gates said. “There is a need for teaching people not so much how to prevent crime, but how police-citizen contacts can be made less frightening.”

“We teach the use of force--that’s part of being a police officer,” Gates said. “When people see that, they are almost always repulsed by it (and) really believe in their own mind that amount of force was not needed. . . .

“It does take some understanding from people on both sides,” the chief said. “It is certainly our responsibility to do the right thing first.”

He did not elaborate on what he believes the public should be taught or shown about police work.

Gates acknowledged that the 8,300-member department in recent years had hired more new recruits than it was adequately training, and he said that rising crime and more violent criminals have left his officers overworked.

The chief also reminded the council members that he has launched a 10-point plan to examine the causes of police misconduct and improve community relations in the wake of the police beating of King.

Among other things, the plan calls for psychological profiles of police officers who commit violent acts, and an extensive review of departmental training procedures.

Picus concluded the hearing by saying that the information gleaned from the chief, coupled with upcoming findings of an independent investigation into the department, will help “rebuild public confidence” in the Police Department.

“With the look we are giving, and the work the Christopher Commission is doing,” Picus said, “a whole bright new day could dawn for LAPD . . . and Rodney King will not happen again.”

In the regular council meeting, criminal defense attorney Michael R. Yamaki was unanimously confirmed by the full council to serve on the beleaguered Police Commission.

In stiff questioning led by City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, Yamaki, 43, agreed to try to have the commission review controversial tape-recorded statements made years ago by Assistant Police Chief Robert Vernon.

As head of the Police Department’s Office of Operations, Vernon, 57, commands all of the department’s patrol units and most of its detectives, and oversees recruitment and promotions.

Yaroslavsky said statements attributed to Vernon in the current edition of Los Angeles magazine voiced the opinions that “a woman is to be submissive to a man,” and that homosexuality is a sin.

The remarks were reported to be on a six-part series of audiotapes recorded in 1977 and now being sold through Vernon’s Grace Community Church of the Valley in Sun Valley, a fundamentalist Christian church.

“Do you find these statements objectionable?” Yaroslavsky asked Yamaki, the first Asian-American to serve on the citizen panel.

“Absolutely,” Yamaki said. “That person may disagree with my particular opinion.”

“It’s one thing to have an opinion,” Yaroslavsky interrupted. “It is another thing to have an opinion when you are in charge of virtually every promotion in an 8,300-member . . . department.”

In an interview later, Yaroslavsky defended his questioning of Yamaki saying, “I’ve heard many complaints from officers who say there is preferential treatment if you are in sync with Bob Vernon’s beliefs.”

Vernon could not be reached for comment. But Gates said that Vernon told him recently that he never said such things and “even offered to let me hear the tapes.”

On one of the tapes obtained by The Times, Vernon said, “Man is to be the leader over the woman. . . . Someone has to make decisions.” In discussing how to properly punish children, he said, “They won’t die if you use a stick on them. Punishment will keep them out of hell.”

Yamaki was appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley to serve on the city’s citizen panel in April as the Police Commission began its investigation of Gates and the Rodney King affair.

Although some City Council members have accused Bradley of using his influence with appointees to the Police Commission to oust Gates, Yamaki said he is a strong supporter of the Police Department and has no opinion on whether the chief should resign.

“I think the public is tired of that whole issue,” Yamaki said at a news conference held after he was confirmed. “The real issue is this: Why did those police officers feel compelled to beat this guy as badly as they did?”

Yamaki, past president of the Japanese-American Bar Assn., joins two other lawyers on the Police Commission--Acting President Melanie Lomax and Sam Williams--and civil libertarian Stanley Sheinbaum.

Yamaki and Sheinbaum were appointed to fill vacancies created by commissioners who quit recently. A third vacancy, which remains unfilled, was created May 7 when Dan Garcia resigned as president on grounds the integrity of the panel had been severely damaged by its ongoing dispute with the City Council over Chief Gates.