Williams Urges Support for Police Tax Measure : Law enforcement: The chief tells the Chamber of Commerce that he is sympathetic to their pleas, but he says the department lacks the resources to make the streets safer.

Responding to calls for increased law enforcement in Hollywood, Police Chief Willie L. Williams urged a sellout crowd at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon Monday to support funding for more uniformed officers on the streets.

Introduced by City Councilman Michael Woo as “the newest star in Hollywood,” Williams commented that the Police Department is so understaffed that it has more “actors”--officers acting in unfilled command positions--than the entertainment capital.

The chief spoke after Woo said that businesses and jobs would not come to Hollywood “until we all feel safer on the streets,” and leaders of community groups called for extra officers to staff a special gang unit and to increase support for Neighborhood Watch.

“The center of ‘lights, camera, action’ cannot be a boulevard of drugs, prostitutes, homeless and broken car windows,” said Chris P. Baumgart, chairman of the Hollywood business group.

“I’ve heard your message loud and clear,” Williams said. But with the LAPD fielding 2.2 officers per 1,000 residents, compared to 4 per 1,000 in his previous post in Philadelphia, the actual number of officers on patrol at any time is far too low, he said.

“What you want to see is uniform visibility on the streets wherever you go,” he said. “I get the same message in South Los Angeles, in East Los Angeles and in the (San Fernando) Valley.”

Already, Williams said, he has reassigned command officers from headquarters to the field and ordered a stop to the purchase of unmarked cars in favor of buying more black-and-white patrol vehicles.

“Because, when the police car turns the corner, you want to see the lights and the two-tone car and you want to see the people scatter, is that right?” he said, as the crowd laughed and applauded.

For now, he said, the department could field another 300 to 400 officers a day if the City Council authorized full payment of overtime in money instead of compensatory off time for officers who work extra hours.

Neighborhood Watch, narcotics squads, gang officers and the Hollywood Security Program are all good starts, the chief said. Under the newly approved program, guards will roam Hollywood Boulevard to assist tourists and keep an eye out for trouble.

But Williams said his main goal is winning approval on the November ballot for extra funding to hire 1,000 police officers.

A larger, more visible force, he said, would enjoy improved morale, expand the community policing plans introduced by former Chief Daryl F. Gates and start to rid the streets of violent, habitual criminals, “people that belong under the jail, not just in the jail.”

In answer to a question from Heber Jenks, president of the Church of Scientology, Williams said the department’s intelligence-gathering activities will be strictly monitored.

“The Police Department’s policies regarding intelligence gathering and retention and dissemination are going to be the policies of the United States, of the state of California and the policies set down by the City Council of Los Angeles, and we’re not going to have a few extras just in case,” Williams said.

Asked whether he expects more riots after the federal trial for officers charged in the Rodney G. King beating, Williams said, “I’d hope and expect that all of us in the city have learned that’s not the answer.”

Williams said that the department is working on plans to deal with future violence and that the answer lies in communication.

“We need to walk and talk to each other now,” he said. “Not wait until the jury comes out. That’s too late.”