Plan Unveiled to Attain Gender Balance in LAPD : Law enforcement: Yaroslavsky proposal would increase percentage of female officers to that of the general work force--43%--by year 2000.

Saying women are better than men at averting violence, City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky on Tuesday unveiled a comprehensive plan to achieve gender balance in the Los Angeles Police Department by the year 2000.

Flanked by leaders of several women’s organizations, Yaroslavsky cited studies, including the Christopher Commission report, showing that female officers are more likely to use verbal communication skills rather than excessive force in confrontations with suspects.

“Increasing gender balance perhaps holds the best promise for reducing violence and excessive force within our Police Department,” Yaroslavsky said at a news conference. “We have so much to gain by achieving gender balance on the force we’d be nuts not to.”

As of July, women made up 13.3% of the 8,269 officers on the force--or 1,100 officers--well below the 43.4% of women in the city’s overall work force, Yaroslavsky said.

The best gender balance of any police department in the United States is reportedly in Madison, Wis., where 19.2% of the officers are women.

The five motions Yaroslavsky brought to the City Council on Tuesday--devised in consultation with women’s organizations, including the Fund for the Feminist Majority and the California Women’s Law Center--aim to end male domination of the department and reduce complaints of excessive use of force.

The proposals would increase the number of female officers to meet work force parity, achieve gender balance on the Board of Police Commissioners, aggressively recruit female candidates for chief of police and ensure that women’s issues are included in the interview process for a new chief, and require the Police Commission to take steps to eliminate sexual harassment and discrimination.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, who has said he intends to leave office sometime next year, was unavailable for comment.

Police Department spokesman Cmdr. Robert Gil essentially agreed with Yaroslavsky’s goals, saying: “Hire more women and train them? Hey, we’re all for that.”

“We’ve hired more than 1,000 female officers and we’re proud of that,” Gil said. “But we’ve had difficulties in attracting females to the line of police work.”

But some council members, including Yaroslavsky, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Michael Woo, contend that the department has not been aggressive enough in its recruitment efforts.

For example, a court decree issued in 1980 requires that the department hire women for 25% of its officer positions until 20% of the force is female. Thus far, the department has only managed to increase the number of women officers from 2.6% in 1980 to 13% today, city officials said.

“As a member of the council’s ad hoc committee on police, I think equality for female officers is one of the most important issues we face,” Ridley-Thomas said. “I urge all of my colleagues to support these proposals--that’s the only way we can break down institutional sexism.”

Yaroslavsky’s reform package was referred to the council’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Christopher Commission Report. The committee is expected to debate and discuss recruitment and training of female and minority officers at a meeting Thursday.

In July, the Christopher Commission report--compiled in the aftermath of the police beating of motorist Rodney G. King--found there were no female officers among the 120 officers with the most use-of-force reports. The commission also found that female officers accounted for 3.4% of the officers involved in incidents underlying the 83 most serious lawsuits against the LAPD settled between 1986 and 1990.

The proposals were also strongly endorsed by women’s rights advocates who believe that parity on the force is the only way to increase the department’s sensitivity and responsiveness to female victims of crime and violence.

“Up until now, bringing more women into the department has been seen as a problem--male officers have worried it would lower department competency and morale,” said Katherine Spillar, national coordinator for the Fund for the Feminist Majority.

“Sexism and gender discrimination increase the epidemic of violence against women and reduces the ability of the police force to respond to domestic violence calls and to sexual assault and rape calls,” Spillar said. “All the research shows that women police officers take violence against women calls more seriously.”

Ann Reiss Lane, the newest member of the five-member Police Commission and the civilian panel’s only woman, agreed, saying she intends to “make every effort” to see that the proposals, if approved by the council, are implemented.

At the Police Commission hearing Tuesday, Lane sharply criticized the Police Department’s annual affirmative action report, charging that police administrators were setting hiring and promotion goals for women employees that were “far too unrealistic.”

The review predicted that in the next few years, women would make up 25% of the sworn police force and that the department’s lone female captain would be promoted two ranks to deputy chief.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing these goals, but only if we also developed a plan to make them happen,” Lane said. “Otherwise, I don’t want to see it on here.”

Likewise, commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum said he was “bothered” by the slow rate of promotion for female police officers, noting that numerous women hired in recent years have been stymied in their attempts to make sergeant.

Cmdr. Jim Chambers, contending that prior police commissions wanted “overly optimistic” affirmative action predictions, agreed to revise his report.

In other action, the commission voted to urge the city’s Civil Service Commission to appoint women to at least half the positions on a new selection panel to find a replacement for Gates.

Meanwhile, Jenifer McKenna, managing director of the California Women’s Law Center, said the Police Department and Gates must assume “direct responsibility” for ending “institutional bias” in the department.

As it stands, the highest ranking female in the LAPD has achieved the rank of Captain III. There are eight female lieutenants, 112 detectives and 31 sergeants on the force.

“Women are virtually absent from command positions,” McKenna said. “We are missing an entire contribution that women could be making to law enforcement in this community.”

Police Officer Cheryl Dorsey, who has worked as a training officer for two years, agreed. Female officers, she said, “are good at talking a suspect into jail.”

“When a man deals with another man, egos take over,” Dorsey said. “But most male suspects seem to think they don’t lose face giving in to a woman--they don’t see themselves as a . . . wimp.”

Times staff writer Richard A. Serrano contributed to this story.

Women in Blue

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky proposed a plan to increase the number of women officers in the LAPD to 43.4% by the year 2000 in order to match the percentage of women currently in the work force. Here is a look at the percentage of female police officers employed by various law enforcement agencies around the nation.

POLICE TOTAL POLICE WOMEN PERCENTAGE DEPARTMENT OFFICERS OFFICERS WOMEN OFFICERS Madison, Wis. 313 60 19.2% Chicago 12,180 1,806 14.8% New York City 27,390 3,734 13.6% Los Angeles 8,269 1,100 13.3% L.A. County Sheriff 7,813 1,035 13.2% Miami 1,082 135 12.5% San Francisco 1,808 212 11.7% Houston 4,047 396 9.8% Phoenix 1,999 167 8.3%

SOURCE: Law enforcement agencies listed

Compiled by Times editorial researcher Michael Meyers