Police Captain Who Soothed Minority Fears Is Transferred : Foothill Division: Paul Jefferson took over after the Rodney G. King beating. Civic leaders call his promotion a loss.

A black Los Angeles Police Department captain credited with soothing relations in recent months between the department’s Foothill Division and minority residents is being promoted and transferred to another ticklish assignment, this time in South-Central Los Angeles.

Paul Jefferson, who was put in charge of the division’s 175 uniformed officers seven months ago in the wake of the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King by Foothill officers, will take over the 77th Street Division, which has been wracked by conflict between blacks and Korean-American merchants.

Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker, the San Fernando Valley’s top police official, said Friday that the transfer decision was made by Chief Daryl F. Gates.

Kroeker said the transfer will be completed and a replacement named before the end of the month.

He said he will give “very heavy weight” to placing another minority officer in the post but declined to guarantee such an appointment.

Transfer of the 46-year-old Jefferson has “put us in shock,” said Fred Taylor, a Pacoima civic activist and black community leader. “This is a definite loss to the community.”

Jefferson was “not the typical macho man--the kind of cop’s cop who has trouble relating to the community,” Taylor said.

With tact and sensitivity, Jefferson was “able to soothe what had been a festering sore,” Taylor said.

Jefferson’s emphasis on keeping in touch with community leaders “gave people a sense of security and made them less fearful of law enforcement,” added Jose DeSosa, president of the Valley chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

“We would certainly like to see him remain.”

Both leaders said that after Jefferson’s arrival at Foothill, they and other residents could, for the first time, get through to top police officers by telephone and could obtain answers to their questions.

Jefferson, who before his transfer to Foothill held the same rank and responsibility at the Van Nuys Division, said Friday that his chief policy change at Foothill was “just to emphasize community service to the officers more than probably it had been emphasized.”

“Our motto is to protect and serve, and I think we had kind of overlooked the service aspect.”

At his new post, Jefferson said, he will retain the rank of captain but will go to a higher pay grade and will be in charge of all officers working at 77th Street, not just uniformed officers as at Foothill.

Kroeker, who had promoted Jefferson to the Foothill post in April in the midst of a firestorm of outrage following the King incident, called him a “sterling example of what a police captain should be,” a man with a “gentle spirit, but yet very firm.”