For 15 Years, KTTV Channel 11’s Chris Harris Has Been on the Case

For Chris Harris, anchoring KTTV Channel 11’s special coverage of the trial of four police officers accused of beating motorist Rodney G. King is a logical step.

For the last 15 years, Harris, 48, has covered crime and law enforcement in Los Angeles, first at the former KHJ-TV Channel 9, now KCAL-TV, and for the last 11 years at KTTV, L.A.’s Fox broadcasting affiliate.

“I covered McMartin from Day 1 till the last day, all seven years, the DeLorean case, ‘Twilight Zone,’ Hillside Strangler, Night Stalker,” Harris said, ticking off the names of some of the Southland’s most notorious cases. “That really has become a specialty.”

Harris--who lives in Newbury Park with his wife of 18 years, Martha--said that the main lesson he’s drawn from all this exposure to the underside of society is that “the system does work.”

“It may take forever to do it,” Harris said. “It may take 17 years for (Benny) Powell and (Clarence) Chance to get out of prison, it may take seven years for McMartin to be adjudicated, but it does work.”

The lesson to draw from the King case, he said, was that without a neighbor’s videotape of the event, the case would never have come to prominence.

“Without that videotape, we would not even be talking about it,” Harris said. “Daryl Gates would not have set a semi-certain date to retire and the Christopher Commission would not have happened.”

A father of three grown children, Harris’ main job is as co-anchor of KTTV’s 10 p.m. newscast. And while there was a time that he wanted to move on to network news, Harris said, he plans to stay at KTTV.

“Local news is the most fun,” he said. “It’s where you really connect with a community, because you’re part of it. And there’s an investment. I invest in the community, and the community invests in me.”