Gates Explains Release of Data : Investigation: Chief says he gave officers’ addresses and phone numbers to the FBI because he feared a subpoena that would make information public.

Seeking to allay officers’ fears that he jeopardized their privacy, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates has issued a memo to his troops in which he admitted supplying officers’ home addresses and phone numbers to FBI agents investigating police brutality after the Rodney G. King beating.

The chief’s memorandum, obtained Thursday by The Times, states that Gates made the extremely rare move of providing private personnel records of his officers because he was concerned that federal agents would obtain the numbers through legal action and that it then would become public information.

“When it became apparent the Justice Department could and would subpoena the information, I relented and released it to the FBI,” the chief said in the memo, only the eighth one he has sent this year to his 8,300 sworn officers.

Gates said that “my first inclination was to refuse” the FBI’s demand for the records. But he added in the July 11 memo that he relented “when it became apparent that the Justice Department could and would subpoena the information.”

He added that he turned over the private phone numbers and addresses “with the understanding that the information would be kept confidential.”

Shortly after King was beaten March 3 by a group of Foothill Division police officers, the FBI announced a nationwide review of all police brutality complaints in recent years. As part of that inquiry, the federal agency began attempting to locate more than 200 officers assigned to the Foothill station.

The agents were seeking to gauge whether the King beating was an aberration, as Gates contended, or whether it fit a pattern of racism and excessive force in the LAPD, as the Christopher Commission later found in its report on the Police Department.

In late March, Gates announced that he was “very upset” that the FBI was interviewing his officers. “I think it’s a bad decision,” he said then, declaring that he would prefer that the agents talk to the officers at the police stations, rather than in their homes.

As the interviews were scheduled, many officers declined to cooperate. They were bothered that FBI agents would not guarantee that what was said would not be used against them in a criminal investigation.

Fred Reagan, an FBI spokesman, recalled Wednesday that “Gates got his nose somewhat out of shape that we were conducting interviews.” Nonetheless, Reagan added, the bureau’s investigation is continuing.

The situation heated up recently when Cliff Ruff, legal director for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, accused Gates of breaking with department policy by helping the FBI to locate the officers.

In a stinging letter in the June edition of the league newspaper, The Thin Blue Line, Ruff noted that 95% of the department’s 8,300 officers “very strongly” supported Gates in his effort to stay in office.

“The chief has verbally thanked the officers for that support,” Ruff wrote.

“But why has the chief rolled over and ordered the names, home addresses and home phone numbers to be released on all Foothill officers to the FBI, and then later ordered that same data released to the Christopher Commission on several officers throughout the department?”

The league has learned that personal data on officers “has (been) and is being reviewed and catalogued by questionable legal and non-legal personnel outside the control of the department,” Ruff wrote.

“There is absolutely no need for data to be gleaned from an officer’s residence address and home telephone number. This personal area of confidentiality is most sensitive to the privacy and safety of police officers.”

He suggested that “leftist” organizations, in which he included the American Civil Liberties Union and The Times, might be able to obtain the same information. He said that would “violate the sanctity of officers’ home lives.”

“We love and support you, chief,” Ruff wrote. “But give us some support back and protect (officers’) addresses from the leftists.”

Ruff declined to discuss the matter Thursday. But he said he will issue a written response to Gates about the chief’s memo.

Ruff said he will bring up the fact that even if the FBI had sought a subpoena to obtain the records, the information could have remained sealed under a judge’s protective order.

“The chief’s got enough problems,” he said. “He doesn’t need me bothering him.”

Gates was on vacation this week and could not be reached for comment.

Gates closed the memo by saying how “decently and professionally the FBI has conducted itself throughout this affair.” And then he gave his troops kudos.

“This is a difficult time for all members of the department,” he wrote. “It is only made more difficult by the dissemination of rumor, innuendo and misinformation.

“All of you have been doing a great job continuing to provide first-rate service. I hope that having accurate information on this particular decision will help you keep doing what you do so well . . . protecting and serving the people of Los Angeles.”