Police to Survey Public’s Views on Law Enforcement : Program: The quizzing of Valley residents will be the department’s first effort at gauging community attitudes.

Los Angeles police announced plans Friday to ask San Fernando Valley residents their attitudes toward law enforcement in the department’s first public opinion surveys.

The surveys, part of a new community-based policing program, will be carried out by Cal State Northridge to gauge community attitudes toward the department’s officers and their performance, said Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker, the highest-ranking police official in the Valley.

“We want empirical ways of measuring what we’re doing on the street,” Kroeker said Friday. “Right now all we have is crime statistics and a lot of anecdotal information.”

The survey plan comes at a time when police officials are trying to mend the department’s image in the wake of the March police beating of motorist Rodney G. King in Lake View Terrace. In recent months, the Valley’s police divisions have aggressively expanded public relations efforts. Kroeker said he sees the surveys as a tool to fine-tune these efforts. The survey results will be made public.

In the surveys, which may begin next month, a statistical sample of about 1,500 Valley residents--broken down by ethnic group, income, area and gender--will be quizzed on their attitudes toward police. Residents, whose identities will remain confidential, will be polled by graduate students four times a year at a cost of about $15,000 per survey, said Bernard Thorsell, chairman of the Cal State Northridge Sociology Department.

Thorsell said the surveys will “give the police information about public opinion that they have probably never had.”

The surveys, which are still being designed, will focus on three separate areas of police performance, Kroeker said. These include:

* General attitudes and impressions of the Los Angeles police. Respondents who have had some experience--positive or negative--with police will be asked to describe and assess that experience.

* Service. Respondents will be asked whether they believe police service has declined or improved and to give their suggestions on upgrading service.

* Effectiveness. Questions will be included on what types of crime people fear in their communities and their judgment of police effectiveness in dealing with those crimes.

“We want to get a gut-level idea of their opinion of our work,” Kroeker said. “If it shows the warts of the department then let’s see them so we can treat them.”

Alfred N. Himelson, professor of sociology and director of the Center for the Study of Crime and Corrections at CSUN, said although he is excited about conducting the study, it may prove more difficult than initially anticipated.

“It’s a painstaking process in the Valley because of the multiethnic character” of the region, Himelson said. “We may have to interview more than 2,000 people to get a really comprehensive breakdown.”

The other problem could be the study’s cost. Kroeker said Friday that he hopes to recruit Valley businesses to help defray the costs.

Critics of the department welcomed the survey announcement with cautious optimism.

“Something like this has a lot of potential for good but we have to see what they end up doing,” said Paul Hoffman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. “If it’s done by a group outside the department, there’s a better chance people will be more candid in their answers.”

Police often hear from their supporters and also their most vocal critics, “but there are a lot of people in the middle that we never hear from,” said Officer John Girard, who is assigned to the North Hills area. “We want to hear from the silent majority who never makes it to neighborhood watch meetings.”