Police Panel May Seek Gay Hiring : Law enforcement: The commission will consider expanding officer recruitment policy. Gates strongly opposes the idea.

Over the strenuous objections of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, the Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday said it will consider expanding department policy to include the active recruitment of gays and lesbians.

The move, albeit tentative, marks yet another step in what gay community activists have termed a “historic event”--the opening up of the Police Department to gay and lesbian officers. It came just two days after a handful of uniformed LAPD officers declared their homosexuality and waged their first recruitment effort at the Gay and Lesbian Pride Festival.

“The fact is that, until a week ago, there was not one openly gay or lesbian officer on the LAPD,” Roger Coggan, a lawyer for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Center, told the commission. “The fact that we have had people come out of the closet and people recruiting is in large measure due to the efforts of this Police Commission.”

In urging the panel not to “let this window of opportunity” close, Coggan also told commissioners that 60 gay and lesbian LAPD officers dropped by the recruitment booth over the weekend to express their support. However, he said those officers did not wear uniforms and have not publicly disclosed their sexual orientation.

Tuesday’s Police Commission action came after a series of acrimonious exchanges between Gates and Commissioner Stanley Sheinbaum. Gates, as he has in the past, argued vehemently against recruitment based on sexual orientation. Sheinbaum accused the chief of creating an atmosphere of homophobia within the department.

“Do you emanate signals that you would prefer not to have gays?” Sheinbaum asked.

“I don’t know how to answer that, commissioner,” Gates replied. “I don’t know if I emanate signals.”

When Sheinbaum told Gates that his public statements have given that impression, the chief answered: “We all have made public statements commissioner--you too.”

“Not as many as you,” Sheinbaum retorted.

Whether the commission will, in fact, attempt to change the Police Department’s recruitment policy is unclear. The citizens panel, appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley to oversee the department, said it will re-examine the existing recruitment guidelines at its July 9 meeting. Commissioners did not say whether they will vote at that time.

Along with Sheinbaum, Melanie Lomax, acting commission president, said she favors recruiting gays and lesbians in the same fashion in which the department recruits other minorities. But Commissioner Sam Williams said he was opposed. Commissioner Michael Yamaki was not present.

Gates said the department does not discriminate in its recruitment, but it also does not seek out potential candidates from the gay and lesbian community.

The department does, however, actively recruit blacks, Latinos and women. That practice, in effect since 1980, is the result of a federal court consent decree that requires the LAPD to meet certain hiring goals so that the complexion of the 8,300-member police force reflects the Los Angeles-area labor pool.

Gates, who has said he considers last weekend’s recruitment effort a one-time event, maintains that until the courts recognize gays and lesbians as a legally protected minority, the department is under no obligation to go out of its way to offer them jobs.

“I oppose recruitment on that basis,” Gates said. “They are not protected under the law and until the law is changed I don’t think we should engage in that kind of thing. We don’t go out and seek heterosexuals, and I don’t think we should go out and seek homosexuals.”

In other business Tuesday, the Police Commission asked Gates to provide it with a report on confidential department memos regarding the controversial 1988 drug raid on two apartment buildings at 39th Street and Dalton Avenue.

The Times reported last September that the memos analyzed why police officers got out of hand during the raid, leaving the apartment buildings a shambles. Three officers were recently acquitted of misdemeanor charges in connection with the raid.

The memos were discussed again Tuesday by the City Council, which voted unanimously to pay $30,485 to civil rights lawyer Stephen Yagman because Gates and his lawyer failed to disclose the internal reports.

Yagman is suing the Police Department and various city officials on behalf of the buildings’ owners. Last year, the lawyer alleged that the reports had been kept secret from him.

Times staff writer Jane Fritsch contributed to this story.