Parks Carries Reputation as a Strong Administrator : LAPD: Deputy chief is praised for his hands-on style. But some say he is too much of an insider and micromanager.

When Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Bernard C. Parks is running short on inspiration, he only needs to glance up at the “Wall of Fame” across from his desk.

There he displays photographs of pioneering black police officers who blazed a trail to within striking distance of the Police Department’s top job--a substantial accomplishment in a department that was segregated until 1961.

Parks, who is making a strong bid to complete the trail by becoming the city’s first black chief, recognizes that he owes a historical debt to men such as Homer Broome, the LAPD’s first black captain, and Jesse A. Brewer, the first black assistant chief and now a member of the Police Commission, which will choose a replacement for retiring Chief Daryl F. Gates.

“They’ve been mentors and counselors,” Parks said. “They’re the reasons that Bernard Parks can be a deputy chief and be considered for chief of police in the city of Los Angeles.”

Parks, 48, has spent his entire adult life in the Los Angeles Police Department, where his temperament, style, intelligence and drive have earned him a reputation as a gifted administrator who knows what he wants from his subordinates and goes to great lengths to get it. Said one officer who has worked for Parks: “He seems to take the bullet by the teeth.”

But, when asked what the people of Los Angeles can look forward to if he becomes chief, caution overcomes Parks. “I can’t answer that, because we have a (competitive selection) process . . . going on,” adding that he is concerned some of the other five finalists could lay claim to his ideas.

His few critics say fundamental change is necessary in the Police Department and that Parks, like the other inside candidates, is too wedded to the system to bring it about.

Others say that Parks would fail as chief because he is a micromanager who would crumble under the desire to read too many of the documents generated by a paper-happy organization.

Parks will make only one pledge: “I’m not going to change my style or the way I work.”

His style, according to interviews with him and two dozen associates, is that of an enthusiastic workaholic who has a playful sense of humor and is known for peppering underlings with “brown notes”--missives scrawled in brown ink on brown paper asking for this project or that. He adopted the distinctive memos years ago to set himself apart--just as Gates uses blue paper for “blue notes.”

Parks habitually works until 9 p.m. or so before heading home to his wife of 23 years, Bobbie, a gate attendant for an airline. Television and recreational reading take a back seat to police work. He rises to begin paperwork at 5 a.m. And anything over five hours of sleep, he said, he regards as a waste.

“I used to call him my study in energy,” said his former adjutant, Lt. Rita Knecht, “because he never wasted energy on things he could not change. And he never wasted energy on getting upset with people. His energy was very focused in a positive manner on getting things done.”

Parks will not comment on controversies when he believes speaking out will “serve no purpose.”

That may account for his unwillingness to criticize Gates publicly, although a friend says Parks privately has said that the chief contributes to an “us-versus-them” mentality in the department.

His aversion to wasting energy, he says, also accounts for his refusal to take a public stand on a proposal to limit the chief to two five-year terms in office. That, he said, is for voters to decide in June.

His reluctance to engage in public debates has led to predictions that Parks, with 27 years on the force, is too much of an insider.

“Bernard Parks has neither the will nor the ability to change anything in the department,” said Los Angeles lawyer Stephen Yagman, who has repeatedly sued the department on behalf of clients who have been beaten or shot.

Officer Garland Hardeman, an Inglewood city councilman, said that Parks “has been groomed in a system where there are paybacks, indebtedness and . . . cliques.”

But Parks loyalists say he is exactly what the department needs. “I worked for him as a police officer when he was a lieutenant,” said Ron Seban, now a lieutenant himself. “He likes to hold people accountable . . . and that’s the one thing we need at the LAPD.”

Parks’ father is a retired Harbor Department police sergeant and former bodyguard for then-California Atty. Gen. Evelle Younger. The youngest of four children, Parks grew up in South-Central Los Angeles and attended Catholic schools.

As a boy, Parks was mischievous, his father recalled. He liked to play jokes, like removing the powder from a firecracker, lighting the empty shell, handing it to his dad and walking away.

A track and football standout in high school, he attended Los Angeles City College, then worked briefly “hanging fenders” at the General Motors plant in Van Nuys.

Driving to work one day, he heard a radio commercial for the Police Department. The pay sounded good, he said, and he thought the job would give him an opportunity to work with youngsters.

But Parks almost quit when one of his initial assignments turned out to be standing in intersections directing traffic.

Instead, he resolved to become a detective. Every time he dressed up for court, he made it a point to stop by detective divisions to show his interest. He finally became a detective trainee, working with juveniles, and rose rapidly through the ranks.

One of his advocates in the department was Pete Nelson, a deputy chief in charge of detectives. “I liked his style,” Nelson said. “I liked the fact that he was a straight guy. He is what he appears to be.”

Parks clearly appears to be a man who is excited by his job. But then, by his own account, he is “enthusiastic about everything. I’m enthusiastic about getting up in the morning.”

Built long, lean and muscular at 6-foot-2, Parks says he is too busy to exercise. But his athletic interests have been served by coaching youngsters in Pop Warner football and by his passion for attending big sporting events.

At a Baldwin Hills park, near his Windsor Hills home, he coached youngsters for more than 10 years with other officers, including some whose photos are displayed on his Wall of Fame. Their most famous products are Houston Oiler quarterback Warren Moon and former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Butch Johnson.

Parks also likes to attend NBA all-star games and championship boxing matches. The only photograph on his Wall of Fame that is not of a black police officer is of boxer Thomas Hearns. His next “sports challenge,” he said, is to attend the Indianapolis 500.

Despite rumors that he is close to Mayor Tom Bradley, Parks said he has no ties to the mayor. A registered Democrat, Parks said he has not been active in elective politics, with the exception of the campaign work he did for the unsuccessful 1987 City Council bid by Broome, his ex-coaching colleague. If he is named chief, Parks said, he would not involve himself in political campaigns.

Parks has restricted his major outside activities to professional law enforcement associations, and he belongs to the Urban League. He is a founder of two local black law enforcement groups.

Working out of a fortress-like LAPD building on Skid Row, Parks spends his days talking with people and saves his paperwork for later. For example, he met recently with sergeants to discuss the delicate balance between protecting officers and avoiding unnecessary humiliation of suspects during weapons searches.

Nelson said he expects that Parks as chief would institutionalize this hands-on management style by insisting that high-ranking officers appear regularly at roll calls to communicate directly with officers of lower rank.

“He’s unique,” said one lieutenant who asked not to be named. “He really reaches down and says: ‘What do you think I want?’ ”

While Parks is widely viewed as intolerant of excessive force, he counts among his most significant accomplishments his role in replacing the LAPD’s six-shot revolvers with 16-shot semiautomatic pistols to give officers more firepower against criminals.

He also pointed to a 40% reduction last year in the use of force by his officers in the Central Bureau, which encompasses downtown and the Rampart, Hollenbeck, Northeast and Newton divisions. A use of force incident, in LAPD jargon, occurs any time an officer applies more than a firm grip to a suspect.

Parks said the reduction was achieved by encouraging officers to use alternatives to violent tactics, whenever possible.

Parks said he has never fired his weapon at anyone. But he has been the target of personnel complaints for his conduct while making arrests. The complaints--dating from Parks’ first years on the force--were not sustained and Parks says he can no longer remember what they alleged. Records are not available.

During those early years, Parks returned to school part time, got an associate of arts degree from City College, a bachelor of sciences from Pepperdine University and a master’s in public administration from USC.

He has had two marriages--the first lasted less than two years--and has four grown children.

He prides himself on networking and maintaining long-term friendships.

Everyone who passes through his command gets a personal thank-you note when he or she leaves. Parks also sends people notes congratulating them on promotions even though he may not have seen them in years.

One of his oldest friends is a nun who was his fourth-grade teacher.

“My experience of him,” said Sister Mary Andre, now vice principal of Holy Cross Middle School, “is he’s a very gentle soul. I have been with him in tough times. His stepdaughter had a leg amputated and she died of cancer. . . . He doesn’t deal with hurt in an angry kind of way like I might.”

During six hours of interviews, Parks discussed why he is a police officer and a would-be chief.

“In the police service, you probably have more involvement on a day-to-day basis with doing good in the community than probably any other public service,” he said. “Maybe the mayor and council have more long-term influence in the sense that they can direct funds, but when you can resolve disputes . . . make wrong things right . . . that’s really satisfying.”

Parks revealed only one of his specific goals as chief: removing a hurdle to cooperation among city agencies so that community-based policing has a chance to flourish.

Community-based policing is an anti-crime strategy endorsed by the Christopher Commission and approved by the City Council. It depends on residents and police working cooperatively, sometimes with other city agencies, to tackle neighborhood blights ranging from street crime to poor street lighting to lack of recreational opportunities.

Now, Parks said, each city department carves up the city differently. The result is that Parks--in the Central Bureau--has no counterpart responsible for the same turf in the departments of parks and recreation or public works.

“It’s essential that there be matching configurations (among the agencies) so that citizens groups know where to go and I know who to deal with,” he said.

Speaking in general terms, he also suggested that, if community-based policing is to succeed, the department will have to figure out new ways of measuring how effectively officers coordinate efforts to solve neighborhood problems.

Traditionally, the department has judged how well officers performed by tallying easy-to-measure items such as the number of arrests or traffic tickets.

Parks’ first exposure to community-based policing was in the era of Chief Ed Davis, who called it “team policing.” Davis divided the city into 70 areas, each policed by a team of officers headed by a lieutenant, who acted as a sort of mini-chief for his area.

Parks liked the approach but recalled a major administrative flaw: The team leaders worked eight hours a day but their teams were on duty 24 hours a day. That meant other lieutenants--watch commanders at the 18 geographic divisions--were in charge 16 hours a day and their priorities sometimes clashed with those of the team leaders, he said.

Gates disbanded the program when he became chief.

While Parks would not criticize Gates, he acknowledged being a critic of the use of military terminology to describe police activity. Terms such as “battle plans” were popularized by Gates’ top aide, Assistant Chief Robert L. Vernon.

Parks said he and some others opposed the terms because--as the Christopher Commission concluded--they “gave off the message that it was us and them.”

People who know him, such as retired Deputy Chief Bob Rock--for whom Parks served as adjutant--predict that he will attempt to “integrate the department with the community to the extent that it would be professionally possible.”

In years past, Parks said, he has faced some racial harassment in the department, and some Parks critics in turn have asserted that he has discriminated against whites.

But officers who have worked closely with Parks, including Anglos and Latinos, say the allegation against him is not true.

Knecht, his former adjutant, who is Anglo, said Parks’ affirmative-action efforts have been evenhanded and included women, Asians and Latinos as well as blacks.

As part of the chief selection process, the Police Commission is investigating anonymous allegations that Parks intervened on behalf of a grown daughter’s boyfriend who had run afoul of police. Parks has denied intervening and said he views the charges as a last-ditch effort by people who did not make the list of finalists to get that list thrown out and have the selection process start over.

Parks is second on the list after scoring highest of all inside candidates on an oral exam.

“I am not surprised at his place on the chief’s list,” said his longtime friend Broome. “I would almost say it’s his destiny.”

Profile: Bernard C. Parks

Parks, a deputy chief in the Los Angeles Police Department, ranked second among the six finalists for chief and highest among the inside candidates.

Born: Dec. 7, 1943.

Birthplace: Beaumont, Tex.; raised in Los Angeles.

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Pepperdine, master’s degree in public administration from USC.

Career highlights: Joined the LAPD in 1965. Became a captain in 1977, a commander in 1980 and a deputy chief in 1988. Reduced use-of-force incidents in his Central Bureau by 40% last year.

Personal: Married, with four grown children. Enjoys attending sports events. Member of Urban League.

Quote: “In the police service, you probably have more involvement on a day-to-day basis with doing good in the community than probably any other public service.”