Police Name Latino to Foothill’s No. 2 Job : Public safety: Gabe Ornelas, a 27-year veteran with the department, will lead the division’s patrol officers. He replaces Capt. Paul Jefferson.

A Los Angeles Police Department veteran with 27 years experience will take over command of patrol officers in the Foothill Division, which gained notoriety seven months ago with the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King by division officers.

Lt. Gabe Ornelas, soon to be promoted to captain, will assume Foothill’s second-highest position in two weeks, becoming the first Latino captain in the division. Ornelas, 53, now heads the department’s bank robbery detail and has a background in community-based policing.

The Christopher Commission, which issued a scathing report on Police Department practices, recommended that the department drop its often adversarial posture and instead work to become a part of the community.

Ornelas replaces Capt. Paul Jefferson, who has been credited with soothing relations between the division and the community’s minority residents. Jefferson, who is black, will take over the 77th Street Division, which has been beset by conflicts between blacks and Korean merchants.

“I’m following in the footsteps of another outstanding captain, Paul Jefferson, who had a difficult assignment to go in there and regain the confidence of the community,” Ornelas said Tuesday. “I’m looking forward to going in there and providing a sense of stability and a healing process.”

Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker, the top police official in the San Fernando Valley, said Ornelas was chosen because of “a long track record of quality service to the department.” He said Ornelas’ ability to speak Spanish and knowledge of Latino culture also will be helpful in his new role.

During his tenure on the force, Ornelas has held more than 20 assignments, ranging from undercover narcotics to the department’s first SWAT team. Ornelas also served as a liaison between Chief Daryl F. Gates and the City Council for about two years. He said he even designed the department’s first uniform with shorts for officers patrolling the beach.

But one of Ornelas’ greatest assets is his knowledge of community-based policing, said Foothill Capt. Tim McBride, who oversees the division.

Ornelas participated in a program in Venice in 1971 that assigned a team of officers to one community. The officers developed close relationships with many residents, and residents and officers became more aware of each others’ needs and responsibilities, McBride said. The project was later extended throughout the city but ended because of staffing problems.

Ornelas said he will continue to work closely with the community. “My job is to take out those cancers, those problems facing the community,” he said. “If there’s a problem affecting the quality of life, we’ll beat it.”

Jose De Sosa, president of the San Fernando Valley branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said he believed that the appointment of another minority was positive. He and Fred Taylor, a Pacoima civic activist and black community leader, said they would welcome Ornelas.

Nonetheless, Taylor expressed deep regrets at Jefferson’s departure, saying he and others would talk to police leaders about keeping Jefferson in the division, perhaps with Ornelas.

“You lose your momentum when you keep changing quarterbacks,” Taylor said.