Officers Quiet on Settlement Covering Gays : LAPD: There are deep divisions over pledge to treat homosexuals fairly, but few are willing to discuss the issue publicly. The sergeant who filed suit says silence is a sign that the rank and file will accept changes.

Whatever Los Angeles patrol officers think about their department’s pledge to ensure fair treatment of gays and lesbians, they are loath to make their comments public. And that, says Mitchell Grobeson, is as good a sign as any that change is afoot.

“It’s a very, very positive sign when officers say ‘I’d rather not comment’ “--instead of feeling free to grumble--said Grobeson, a former Los Angeles police sergeant who sued the city, alleging that harassment forced him out of the department in 1988 because he is gay.

Last week, the City Council approved a landmark settlement of his case, reinstating him on the force and calling for a wide range of personnel policy changes designed to improve working conditions for homosexuals in every city department.

In the settlement, the Police Department agreed to recruit gay men and lesbians, to strictly enforce the city’s anti-discrimination policies, to expand officer training in gay and AIDS-related issues and to screen out vehemently anti-gay applicants to the force. Grobeson and two other officers who joined him in the suit will also be awarded $770,000 in damages.

“The times have changed, and I think the department just has to adjust to this and try to make sure we are fair to everyone, regardless,” said Police Commission President Jesse A. Brewer, who was assistant chief under former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, one of the defendants in Grobeson’s suit.

How easy that adjustment will come remains an open question. Officials of the Los Angeles Police Protective League were pointedly silent on the settlement, turning down several requests for comment last week. And of about 20 officers approached by The Times, most refused to talk about the subject or give their names.

“This is a terrible thing to get your name in the paper,” one officer said nervously as he covered his badge and nameplate with his hand.

“There’s no way we can come out looking good on this,” said another.

Those who did offer comments revealed the deep divisions within the ranks on the issue. “I’ve never known a gay officer in 24 years on the force,” said Detective Ron Bailey of the Devonshire Division, adding that he would have no objection to working with one. “The question is whether someone makes a good police officer--period.”

Others said they thought the settlement would hurt morale, already low as result of the Rodney G. King beating and the force’s handling of last year’s riots.

“Police, like the military, are one of the most conservative segments of society and this is a very conservative department,” said one officer. “A lot of guys are going to be uncomfortable about this. A lot of officers are very religious.”

“Don’t make me out to be prejudiced, I don’t want any trouble,” said another officer. “(But) I’m a Christian and my faith does not approve of the gay lifestyle.” Despite his misgivings, the officer said he would adhere to department policy. “Society is changing and I understand that the department needs to change too--but that doesn’t mean this is the best thing.”

For the handful of openly gay officers on the force, the settlement makes official what they already had begun sensing under Chief Willie L. Williams: Attitudes at the top of the department have begun thawing.

“This settlement offers some things that are new and some things that have been going on for some time under Chief Williams,” said patrol officer Marc Goodman. He is one of six openly gay officers on the force and the director of Pride Behind the Badge, a Southern California group of 150 gay law enforcement officers, about a third of whom are in the LAPD.

“In order for these things to really change takes time,” Goodman said. “But Chief Williams is setting the tone for the department. We’ve been shown some true leadership. I think it will filter down.”

Grobeson, who has been working for the San Francisco Police Department, also praised Williams, with whom he met twice recently to discuss the settlement terms. “My impression was that you were looking at a man who was seriously committed to making the situation better.”

In contrast, Grobeson said he “always thought of (Gates) not as a chief, but as a criminal,” because, Grobeson said, the chief violated city ordinances barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Grobeson said that under Gates, department applicants were routinely asked for the name and address of a member of the opposite sex they were dating. In counseling gay law enforcement officers and recruits after he left the force, Grobeson said he would refer gay men to gay women, so they could name each other as romantic interests.

Gates, who has made anti-gay statements in the past, last week dismissed Grobeson as “a whiner and a complainer” and said that while he does not believe homosexuals should be specifically recruited, he harbors no prejudice against them.

Grobeson, who was a top Police Academy graduate, said he was repeatedly harassed by fellow officers. They glued his locker shut, gave him an “AIDS survival kit” and refused to back him up on dangerous calls.

Nonetheless, Grobeson says he will return to the department.

“My whole life is down here in Los Angeles,” Grobeson said. “I dedicated seven years of my life to being a Los Angeles police officer and it was robbed from me. This is an opportunity to get it back.”

In settling the suit, the city admitted no wrong. But Brewer conceded that Grobeson had been mistreated by fellow officers. “We did some things I’m not proud of in regard to Mr. Grobeson. . . . Fair is fair. I think we have to make sure we don’t do those kinds of things anymore.”