Police Program Focus of Inquiry Into Harassment : Devonshire Division: An officer says community-based policing volunteers were subject to sexual misconduct and stalking.

The Los Angeles Police Department has begun an internal investigation at the Valley’s Devonshire Division based on claims by one officer that police there sexually harassed and stalked volunteers in a highly publicized community-based policing program, police officials and other sources said Tuesday.

Although a department spokesman would not discuss details, a Devonshire patrol officer who initiated the probe told The Times that a “high-ranking officer” at the station was a target of the accusations and that the officer and the alleged victims of sexual harassment feared for their lives as a result of airing their complaints.

The whistle-blowing officer, 22-year veteran John Futrell, made his statements before being placed under a department gag order. Futrell called a news conference Tuesday and promised to outline charges of sexual harassment, stalking and misappropriation of funds. But when he showed up to address reporters in front of the Devonshire Division station, he was whisked inside by two Internal Affairs investigators.

A short time later, the uniformed officer re-emerged with a statement. “I have just signed a document from the Internal Affairs Division agreeing not to say anything and if I do, I will be fired from the LAPD,” Futrell said.

Before leaving the news conference, Futrell said he has “all the confidence in the world that Internal Affairs will do an honest job and look into all the facts.”

Futrell was reassigned Tuesday to the West Valley Division of the Police Department pending the outcome of the investigation. An attorney for the Police Protective League, which represents most of the department’s 8,000 officers, said he planned to meet with Futrell today to discuss whether the officer’s free-speech rights had been violated in signing the gag order.

With Futrell on Tuesday was a former volunteer with the station’s community-based policing program, Jan H. Subar, who said that she also had some complaints to make about ranking officers at the Devonshire Division.

After Futrell’s change of heart, Subar declined to comment further. Reached at her home later, she denied being a victim of sexual harassment and said her complaints dealt with the general management of the Neighborhood Watch program, from which she said she had been unfairly dismissed.

The commander of the Devonshire Division, Capt. Vance M. Proctor, was not available for comment on Futrell’s remarks, assistants said. Deputy Police Chief Mark A. Kroeker, who oversees police operations in the San Fernando Valley, declined to comment on the investigation, except to say it was unfortunate the allegations were leveled against the community-based policing program. Community-based policing and Neighborhood Watch are two approaches to crime-fighting that involve civilian volunteers who work with police.

A department spokesman, Sgt. Bill Frio, confirmed that a probe that includes at least some of Futrell’s allegations is under way. But he refused to discuss who was targeted by the inquiry, or their alleged improprieties.

Frio also said the investigation had been ongoing, and was not prompted by Futrell’s attempted news conference.

Futrell and another police source said he outlined his complaints in a Jan. 1, 1993, letter to Police Chief Willie L. Williams, and became angry when he never received a response. “I didn’t even get a phone call about the allegations,” Futrell said Tuesday at his aborted news conference.

When he called The Times on Monday night, Futrell said that after he wrote the letter, police officers began stalking the women who had allegedly been sexually harassed. He did not say in the phone call how many women were involved or give names, promising to disclose those and other details at his news conference.

He also said he feared for his life and theirs. Several police sources described Futrell as a disgruntled employee with an axe to grind against Proctor.

Although she stood at Futrell’s side on Tuesday, Subar, a registered nurse, said she was not familiar with any charges of sexual harassment involving Devonshire officers.

A longtime Neighborhood Watch volunteer who was chairwoman of its Granada Hills program for a year until September, 1992--when she said she was abruptly forced to resign--Subar alleged Tuesday that Devonshire Division officials have spoiled what was a successful grass-roots effort to control crime.

“They may have community-based policing--whatever it is--but they don’t care about Neighborhood Watch anymore,” she said.

Jim Herron Zamora contributed to this story.