Seminar Aims at Making Police Culturally Aware : Community relations: Improving trust between police and public is goal of sensitivity class for officers on the Westside.

One by one, in the bright mustard-colored conference room, the community representatives rose and gave the newly assigned police officers a polite piece of their mind.

Expect a refusal if you ask an Orthodox Jew to sign a jaywalking ticket on the Sabbath.

Don’t be so sure that a young Latino is a gang member just because he dresses like one and hangs around in a park.

Realize that some gays and lesbians will confront you face to face--closer than you may consider comfortable--during a time of crisis. And be aware of the fact that some Asians may not want to talk to you just because you’re a cop.

For more than two hours last week, such were the words of caution, advice and concern that the group of ethnic and racial minority community leaders heaped on the officers, who had just been assigned to the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Los Angeles station.

The new officers were participating in a cultural awareness program being promoted by the Police Department’s Westside brass. Its aim is to make officers better and to lessen distrust and friction between the police and the public.

Top police officials on the Westside say the need for increased cultural awareness has been made all too clear in the months following the police beating of motorist Rodney G. King--a watershed event for the Police Department in many ways. For while the beating served immediately to focus suspicion and distrust on the police, particularly in minority communities, it also served to launch a process of examination and self-examination of the Police Department that is likely to produce significant changes in its approach to law enforcement.

The program was first tried in the Police Department’s Wilshire Division in January, two months before the King incident. Based on initial results--and spurred by the Christopher Commission report on police-community relations in the aftermath of the King beating--Deputy Police Chief Glenn Levant ordered that the presentations be included in training seminars for new and newly transferred police officers at the four Westside police divisions he commands.

Levant, regarded as a possible successor to Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, says police need to make more of an effort to understand the cultural differences among minority groups and become sensitive to those differences.

“This is very important to us,” Levant told the new officers assigned to West Los Angeles. “If we’re going to serve our community, we don’t have to just know the neighborhoods, we have to know the people.”

Officer Sharyn Michelson, a Police Department spokeswoman, said police bureaus throughout the city are coming up with ideas to address issues of cultural sensitivity, but called the Westside program “unique--no other bureau is doing it.”

“I think it’s a great idea,” Michelson said. “It could help a lot.”

During the presentation last week, West Los Angeles Patrol Capt. Willie Pannell told his new officers that this is a particularly challenging time to be a member of the LAPD, a police force that has the eyes of the nation upon it.

“What you do and what you say represents 8,300 police officers,” he said. “The old (ethnic) jokes . . . cannot be commonplace anymore--that’s the way it is.

“We’re coming out of the Dark Ages and into the Light Ages here in the department,” Pannell said. “We will treat people the same, regardless of race, creed or gender.”

The presentation was cordial, with the community leaders each taking 15 minutes or so to tell the officers a little about their community and its customs, how they interact with the police and what some of their concerns are.

Rabbi Henry Kraus, an LAPD Westside reserve chaplain, said Orthodox Jews will not drive, or even use a pen to sign a document, on the Sabbath, which runs from Friday evening to sunset Saturday. He suggested that they be allowed to sign tickets for jaywalking or other violations at the police station after the Sabbath is over.

Adel Shojapour, a representative of the large local Iranian-American community, said Iranians are law-abiding, and their efforts to get out of a car immediately after being pulled over by police should be interpreted as a gesture of respect, not an effort to cause trouble.

John Ferry and Darling Matta, members of a gay and lesbian police advisory task force, urged officers to not make anti-gay slurs. And they told the officers to be aware that some gays and lesbians have had bad experiences with police, and will resent them simply because they are authority figures.

“Also, we may get closer to you physically in a crisis,” such as the aftermath of a hate crime. “Keep in mind that it is not aggression or disrespect.”

Nancy Au, of the Asian Pacific Agency, which represents Asian community groups, said thousands of Asian families have come to Southern California from homelands where the police can be agents of terror and repression.

Lorenzo Merritt, the head of a group trying to keep black and Latino young people away from gangs, asked police to stop unnecessarily provoking youths by “challenging their masculinity.”

“It intensifies their hostility and anger, and can make simple situations into complicated ones,” he said.

Dave Abalar, executive director of a West Los Angeles center for Latino youth, told the officers that many children grow up in cultures where gangs have existed for generations, providing them with a sense of kinship.

“So when you see kids on the street, they may be bad guys, but they may not be,” Abalar said.

The officers listened intently, some in their uniforms, some in suits. One of the new recruits said the presentation was similar to seminars at the Police Academy. “Nothing really new,” he shrugged, munching a doughnut during a break.

But Officer Jeff Stapleton, recently transferred from Southwest Los Angeles, disagreed.

“I think it will help us deal with people here better, and make our jobs easier,” he said.

After the presentations, police officials discussed ways to improve cultural sensitivity. “Treat everyone like your mother was watching,” Levant said.

Capt. Michael Bagdonas, commanding officer of the West Los Angeles Division, warned his new charges that there is another important reason to be aware of cultural differences: The media, some citizens and even courtroom juries have little sympathy for police in the wake of the King beating, and use-of-force verdicts “are basically coming down against us.”

“That’s why we have this cultural awareness thing, and why it will keep going,” Bagdonas said. “We don’t want to bankrupt the city because of huge civil (lawsuit) penalties. So remember--you are the initiator of the criminal justice system, not the administrator of justice.”