Understanding the Riots--Six Months Later : A New Blue Line / REMAKING THE LAPD : Q & A : Nicholas M. Wade, <i> Patrol Sergeant, Van Nuys Division</i>

While growing up in South-Central Los Angeles, Nicholas M. Wade’s hero was his uncle, a Los Angeles Police Department motorcycle officer. Wade remembers that as a child he loved to climb on Mac Johnson’s motorcycle and pretend he was chasing bad guys. As an adult, Wade followed in his uncle’s footsteps, first joining the LAPD as a fingerprint technician 19 years ago, then becoming a sworn officer three years later. Wade is now a patrol sergeant in the Van Nuys Division.

Since January, Wade, 45, has also been president of the Oscar Joel Bryant Foundation, a black law enforcement association with more than 400 members. He recently talked with a Times reporter about the LAPD’s future.

Q: What are the most pressing issues facing the Police Department?

A: We have to re-establish our reputation with the community. Since the riots, since Rodney King, everyone basically has the same types of comments about the LAPD: What happened? What are you guys doing to get back to where you were?

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Q: What can be done to accomplish that?

A: One big thing is to listen to the community and then have some type of response to what is said. All too often with the past administration they were not listening to the voice of the community, be it the black community or the Asian or the Hispanic or the white community. But we, the Police Department, work for the citizens and we have to listen to (them). Matter of fact, we should go to them on a regular basis and ask them what they would like to see us do.

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Q: Is the department going to the community enough?

A: It is now. Everything has to start rolling from the top. We have a chief of police now who has demonstrated in his time as chief in Philadelphia that that’s a priority of his. He understands the concept that law enforcement was designed to work with the community (in) attaining whatever goals are set.

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Q: What is your opinion of the job Willie L. Williams has done?

A: So far, good. He has handled a couple of controversial things (and) done great--as far as it looks to the public and officers in terms of his decision-making ability. From the inside I have to reserve my judgment because there are key things--training, promotion, disciplinary type things--that really have much more effect on police officers. He has gotten the freeze on promotions lifted. Now before I can make a judgment, I want to see whom he promotes and how he does it.

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Q: How difficult is it to be a cop on the streets of Los Angeles right now?

A: It is a little bit harder sometimes. The time that the Rodney King tape was all over the place--that was hard to take. I know that what I saw was not the policy of this department. I know that was not the actions of the majority of the officers. Yet, everybody thinks they are all like that. When the verdict came down in the King case, it was another situation that made it hard to do the job. Right now, I think it is starting to come back around. Others might have a difference of opinion (but) I hope that they see that change is the best thing that could happen to this department.

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Q: That indicates there is a chasm between officers embracing change and those who are not? How can the department go about healing rifts with the community if there is an internal rift?

A: There is a significant group of officers out there, the majority of whom are white, who believe because we have an outsider as chief and because he is black that we will no longer be the No. 1 department we have been, that the department is going downhill. I surmise that it is because Chief Gates (was forced) out and the City Council and the mayor went outside the department for the chief. Also, it is because the new chief is black. I was initially apprehensive about an outsider. But I think Williams, after studying his background, can only bring good things to the department. I am saying to those officers who fear the changes to give the chief time. He has said he will be fair to all officers. I think he will.

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Q: What about the rift between the department and the community, particularly the black community? Is the department doing enough to try to mend it?

A: Now? Yes. The biggest cause of the problem was the lack of hearing a voice in the black community. Now, I think with the new administration that is not going to be a problem. The department is reaching out, saying, “We want to work with you. We want to hear what you have to say about this department.” It all starts from the top and I think the major problems this department had with the black community had their impetus at the top.