Area Police Cope With Spillover of King Case : Law enforcement: Local officials say complaints have increased since the videotaped LAPD beating of the motorist.

The controversy surrounding the police beating of a black motorist in Los Angeles has spilled over into Ventura County in the form of increased public criticism and scrutiny of local police agencies, according to the county’s top law-enforcement officers.

The March 3 videotaped beating of Rodney G. King also resulted in an increased number of police brutality allegations that law-enforcement officials believe are mostly exaggerated or unsubstantiated.

The Oxnard Police Department has been the only county agency to implement additional training as a result of the King controversy.

Oxnard Police Chief Robert Owens said he required all 140 of his officers to view a videotape on avoiding physical confrontations. He also moved up the date of a seminar on the same subject, which he had scheduled for later in the year.

“The King case accelerated our concerns,” he said.

And while most officers already had seen the now-famous King videotape, Owens directed every officer to view it at the police station because he said he “wanted to clearly demonstrate the extremes of unacceptable behavior.”

Top officers in the four other city police departments and in the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said they did not believe that additional training or policy changes were needed as a result of the King controversy.

“We don’t feel we share the same problems that they have,” said Port Hueneme Police Lt. John Hopkins, who is second in command of the department of about 20 officers.

Santa Paula Police Chief Walt Adair agreed. “We have a smaller department,” he said. “We have the advantage of being much closer to the people and the community.” The Santa Paula Police Department has 30 officers.

Ventura County Undersheriff Larry Carpenter said Los Angeles and Ventura counties cannot be compared without taking into consideration the vast differences in population and demographics.

Even the Sheriff’s Department, which has 596 officers, is difficult to compare with the Los Angeles Police Department, with 8,332 officers, he said.

Ventura County’s top law-enforcement officers agreed that the heightened public awareness following the King beating can play a positive role in keeping police officers and sheriff’s deputies honest.

But they also said the incident has prompted some residents and attorneys to become overly sensitive.

Carpenter said a man who claimed he was beaten by sheriff’s deputies about a year ago did not file a complaint until after the King incident. The man’s allegations were unfounded, he said.

“My general feeling is that perhaps the King incident is helping the plaintiff’s case,” Carpenter said.

Lt. Steve Giles, who heads the department’s internal investigations unit, said his office received about a dozen complaints alleging excessive force in the two weeks immediately after the King beating.

The complaints have since dwindled to three or four a month, which Giles said is about average for the Sheriff’s Department.

In the months before the King beating, Oxnard police received about two complaints a month involving excessive force, an investigator said. After the incident, the number of complaints increased to four or five a month, he said.

Since the beating, Oxnard’s Owens said his department has been named in several police brutality lawsuits, “some of which are more ridiculous than you can imagine.” He declined to name the cases.

Owens also cited an incident a few days after the King beating in which an Oxnard man who was wanted in the slaying of his estranged wife delayed surrendering to police, claiming that he was frightened by the King beating.

At the time, Owens insisted that the man was merely using the King incident as an excuse to stall. “The guy’s wanted for murder,” Owens said. “He’s looking for any way of gaining sympathy, and what better week to do it than this one?”

Hopkins said Port Hueneme police receive an average of seven or eight complaints a year involving excessive use of force. But immediately after the King incident, he said two motorists complained that a Hueneme police officer used excessive force on a suspect who was being arrested.

He said an investigation found that excessive force was not used.

Cmdr. Mark Hanson, who heads the internal investigation unit of the Santa Paula Police Department, said he investigates about 10 complaints of excessive force each year.

While the number of investigations has not increased, there has been more criticism, he said.

Less than a month after the King beating, officers were sent to investigate a complaint of a loud party. When the officers arrived, Hanson said, some of the party-goers began to yell at them.

“Who do you think you are, the LAPD?” he quoted one party-goer as saying. “What are you going to do, hit us with your batons?”

As for the recommendations made last week in a report by an independent panel investigating police brutality in the LAPD, reactions of Ventura County law-enforcement officials were varied.

After 100 days of review, the Christopher Commission called for far-reaching changes in the department and urged Chief Daryl F. Gates to step down.

Simi Valley Police Chief Paul Miller, who has been credited with improving the once-tarnished reputation of his 105-officer department, declined to comment on whether Gates should resign.

But he offered: “The chief executive of any organization is ultimately responsible for whatever goes on in that organization.”

Owens said he believes that Gates has been too closely tied to the King controversy to stay in office. “He will leave. But I clearly would not like to see him get the bum’s rush,” he said.

Santa Paula’s Adair said he believes that Gates should not resign. “If the entire department is corrupt or has problems, then maybe they should be looking at the top brass,” he said. “But I think Chief Gates is an honorable, credible, efficient police chief.”

The Christopher Commission also suggested that a chief be limited to two five-year terms. Gates has served 13 years. Gates told The Times this week that he expects to retire late next year or in early 1993.

Owens, who has served for 21 years as Oxnard’s top cop, said he does not support the recommendation of limiting a chief’s term. He said a chief should be allowed to stay in office as long as he does a good job.

The Sheriff’s Department’s Carpenter agreed. He said police protection in Ventura County has been good because of consistent leadership among the county’s law-enforcement agencies.

“Ventura County has had stable leadership and has good police departments and good police chiefs,” he said.

Sheriff John Gillespie, who has been in office for 10 years, has been reelected to that post twice.