‘There Has Been Progress Made’ : Response: Community-based policing has received wide--but not universal--praise from residents and organizations.

Several community leaders and heads of organizations voice positive opinions on community-based policing in the San Fernando Valley, though few know about it in detail.

A sampling of views:

* “I think there has been progress made,” said Jose DeSosa, a Valley resident and state president of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. He reports improvement in the relationship between police and the community, particularly in the Valley, since the Rodney G. King beating. He says complaints to his organization about police abuse have been reduced considerably in the last few months.

* Paul Hoffman, American Civil Liberties Union legal director, reports favorable community reaction. He adds that “the information has really been anecdotal and not comprehensive in any way.”

* Relations between the police and Los Angeles’ homosexual community are “absolutely getting better,” said David Smith, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. He attributes most of the improvements to Police Chief Willie L. Williams, who “made it clear from Day One that he will not allow discrimination” against gays.

* Pacoima activist Irene Tovar said: “There is no doubt in my mind that there is better community relations.” Before community-based policing there was little communication between police and the Valley Latino community, she says, and that has changed.

* Karol Heppe, executive director of Police Watch, a private citywide agency that advises victims of police abuse, said she has seen little improvement in police-community relations. “It’s business as usual,” she said of complaints to her office. Complaints averaged 51 a month in 1990, surged to 82 in 1991 and have gone down again, to 48.