Williams Sworn In as Chief, Calls for Healing : LAPD: He says we must ‘make peace with ourselves and with each other,’ unveils plan to recruit minorities.

Amid high expectations and formidable obstacles, a new era in Los Angeles law enforcement opened Tuesday when Willie L. Williams ceremoniously was sworn in as the Police Department’s first black chief and warned that we must “make peace with ourselves and with each other.”

The Police Academy gala, celebrating the installation of the city’s 50th police chief, took place under a hot sun and blue sky, which Williams used as a metaphor for the beginning of his administration.

“The sun found time to shine this morning,” he said. “It’s very bright. It is very special. We are glad to see the sun is out.”

Six police helicopters flew overhead as the 48-year-old Williams, the son of a meat cutter who rose from a patrol beat in Philadelphia to head that city’s Police Department, took charge of the larger and more troubled police force in Los Angeles.

Sometimes smiling broadly, sometimes somberly aware of the difficult task ahead, Williams spoke passionately about a number of programs he hopes to initiate to infuse new spirit into a department that has suffered an erosion of public confidence since the Rodney G. King beating.

He unveiled a new police recruitment drive designed to increase the number of minorities on the LAPD and said the force will not tolerate racism, sexism and brutality. He pledged to work hard for more money for his officers, but also threatened to come down hard on those who abuse their powers.

And, as he did as commissioner of police in Philadelphia, Williams promised that community-based policing, which brings the community into a partnership with law enforcement, will be a hallmark of his administration.

“The LAPD,” he said, “will open its doors to the 3.4-million citizens who live and work in this city.

“We must begin today the process of talking to each other, and not just at each other. Each and every one of us has to realize that we cannot exist for very long without the help and/or assistance of our brothers and sisters, or our neighbors.

“We cannot remove the tensions that hang in the air like dark glooming storm clouds if we are afraid to meet our neighbors, both old and new. Tensions cannot be removed, nor will we see justice prevail, if we continue to run back across the street, lock our doors or speed up our cars whenever we come upon one who is a stranger.”

Speaking from a dais on the academy’s athletic field, Williams was surrounded by Mayor Tom Bradley, the City Council and invited city officials. On the lawn were 50 of his friends and relatives from Philadelphia and hundreds of rank-and-file officers outfitted in a sea of blue uniforms and caps.

The tone and theme of the 90-minute extravaganza were of rebirth and unity. The only hint of conflict surfaced when Bradley and Police Commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum disagreed over whether the city has the means to pump additional funds to the department for more officers and equipment to serve a growing and culturally expanding city.

After the ceremony, in his first news conference as police chief, Williams vowed: “I will fight very publicly and loudly about any cuts in the Police Department.”

He also recalled a time four years ago when he was sworn in as head of the Philadelphia Police Department.

“The first day,” he said, “the mayor cut 400 police officers because of a reduction in the budget and we had three drive-by shootings. So I’m used to crash entries.”

Conspicuously absent from Tuesday’s festivities was Daryl F. Gates, whose last year as LAPD chief was mired in the King beating fallout and who retired only after considerable pressure. Gates spent the morning in the dentist’s chair and said he did not see the television broadcast of the ceremony.

When told about the themes of burying the troubled past, Gates replied: “It’s a shame to start out on a negative footing.”

Gates’ name never surfaced during the ceremony. But Williams, recognizing the difficulties that have battered the LAPD since the March, 1991 beating of King and Gates’ retaliation against those in the department who criticized his management, said:

“We who lead must stop rocking the ship, and begin steering the ship, and navigate it through some very difficult and troubled waters that lie just ahead.

“From this day forward, I will insist that we encourage an atmosphere where disagreement and dissent, diverse views and opinions, are taken as information and building blocks and not seen as seeds of career destruction and isolation.”

Also sounding a positive note for rebuilding trust in the Police Department was A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., chief judge emeritus of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Higginbotham, a longtime friend of Williams, administered the oath of office.

“In this time of racial polarization and economic riots,” he said, “we have no choice but to attempt the impossible.” He said Williams’ tenure in Philadelphia “testifies to almost nothing less than the perpetual achievement of the impossible.”

Bradley, following Williams to the podium, recalled his own graduation from the Police Academy 52 years ago, but noted that with gangs and drugs now dominating the criminal landscape, “those days were a piece of cake to what our officers face today.”

Nevertheless, the mayor warned that current city budget restraints and possible state cuts from Sacramento could throw water on many of Williams’ plans for infusing the department with more manpower and other improvements.

“Don’t come soon to ask for more money; it simply isn’t there,” he told Williams.

But Sheinbaum, who presided over the morning ceremony, challenged city officials to find the resources.

“I will tell you that the money is there,” he said, receiving the loudest applause of the day. “It just takes the intelligence and the wisdom of the people in government to get it to us.”

Later, at City Hall, Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani called Sheinbaum’s remarks “uninformed.” City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky added that “Stanley Sheinbaum is obviously not up to date on what is going on in Sacramento,” where legislators and Gov. Pete Wilson have discussed cuts that could take as much as $250 million from Los Angeles in the fiscal year that begins today.

A ballot measure to add about 2,000 officers to the current level of 8,100 has been proposed by first-term City Councilman Mike Hernandez. But veteran city officials said the prospects for passage of such a measure appear bleak, considering it would need approval of two-thirds of the voters in the midst of a recession.

At the Police Academy ceremony, rank-and-file officers--along with those who have fought for, and opposed, the change in leadership that came about after the King beating--reflected on the historical significance of Tuesday’s official changing of the guard.

“This is really a great day for Los Angeles,” said Warren Christopher, who led the independent panel that last year documented racism, brutality and mismanagement in the LAPD. “It means reform is really on its way.”

But Bill Violante, president of the Police Protective League, which represents the vast majority of line officers, said a series of specific recommendations pushed by the Christopher Commission--many of which the labor union resists--still must be resolved. He also said that police officer morale remains at rock bottom.

“Our position is that we’re not going to judge him by his actions in Philadelphia,” Violante said. “This is not Philadelphia. This is Los Angeles.”

Also in the crowd was Capt. Thomas F. Elfmont, one of the LAPD officers criminally charged--and acquitted--in the notorious 39th and Dalton police raid in which officers destroyed an apartment during a drug search. Reflecting on the intense infighting that went on inside the LAPD during Gates’ tenure, Elfmont said he was hopeful that Williams’ regime will be fairer.

“Hopefully this is going to end the madness,” he said, recalling that many officers under Gates were treated poorly if they spoke out about problems in the department.

“And that’s what’s been going on in this organization for the last couple of years,” he said. “Madness.”

Also attending the ceremony was Los Angeles airport police officer Michael Briseno, a brother to Theodore J. Briseno, who was one of the four LAPD officers accused in the King beating. Noting that his brother was found not guilty, Michael Briseno said he hoped that Williams’ words of “healing” would translate into his brother being accepted back on the LAPD.

“He’s only hoping now that Chief Williams will be understanding and realize that this whole King thing should be put behind us,” he said.

UNDER THE GUN: New chief faces pressure from inside LAPD and the public. B1