Plans Eased for Limits on News Helicopters After King Verdicts

Following strong protests from several of Los Angeles’ biggest television and radio stations, Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams and the Federal Aviation Administration appear to have backed down somewhat on the matter of banning news helicopter flights at the time of the Rodney G. King trial verdicts.

At a meeting with four station executives Wednesday afternoon at police headquarters, Williams, according to both sides, said that “only in extraordinary circumstances” would he request the FAA to ban flights under 2,000 feet and then only for serious safety reasons.

Williams indicated no request would be made to coincide with the verdicts, but would only be made if very substantial violence, creating safety hazards to aircraft, followed the verdicts. He said that he, not lower-ranking police officials, would make such a request of the FAA, the only agency empowered to ban flights.

Shortly thereafter, an FAA spokesman said that if flights are banned it will be only over small areas, not all of Los Angeles County, as had previously been suggested.

Last Friday, the FAA spokesman, Fred O’Donnell, said that the Los Angeles police and fire departments, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol had asked that aircraft be banned without prior approval from flying under 2,000 feet over the whole county when the King verdicts were made public.

But after the Williams meeting with station executives, O’Donnell disclosed that FAA officials had held a new meeting with law enforcement representatives on Monday, and that as a result of these discussions no request for a flight ban is now pending.

“We have no intentions at this time to make a decision to put any sort of blanket restrictions on flights,” said O’Donnell. “We will entertain any request for a temporary flight restriction, should circumstances change, and at that time we would attempt to negotiate the size of the area affected.”

In contrast to a law enforcement official who had suggested last week that a reason for a ban would be to avoid direct coverage by news channels of events that might encourage the spread of riotous conduct, spokesmen for both the police and the FAA emphasized this week that only safety considerations for police and other aircraft would lead to a ban.

In an interview Tuesday, Sheriff Sherman Block said that one such consideration might be to protect helicopter pilots and other news personnel from shooting from rioters who have become aware since last year’s events that pictures taken of their misconduct can be used in prosecuting them in court for criminal violations.

“I think that people who were involved in mischief (last year) kind of flaunted themselves and liked to see themselves on television,” Block said. “But now that they see that TV replayed in the courtroom, I don’t know that they’re going to have quite the same attitude toward the media.”

Nonetheless, a number of television news executives reacted negatively to the suggestions of any flight ban after they were made last week.

“My job is covering news, and we try like hell to do that,” said Warren Cereghino, the news director at KTLA-TV Channel 5. “I don’t like this restriction, but we’ll do everything we can to circumvent it legally.”

Jeff L. Wald, executive director of news programming at KCOP-TV Channel 13, declared, “We’re not in the censorship business, we’re in the news business. . . . We’re like the Red Cross, the third party, the neutral entity, bringing the truth to people, and there will be a credibility gap if we’re not allowed to show what’s happening.”

On Monday, at the behest of a large number of stations, Milli Martinez of KABC-TV Channel 7, who is president of the 350-member Radio & Television News Assn. of Southern California, wrote a stiffly worded letter to Williams protesting a ban and asking for a meeting to discuss it.

“Since your assumption of the office of chief of police you have gone to great lengths to improve what were badly damaged relations with much of the public and the media,” Martinez said. “To suddenly choose to restrict the news media from air space over vast areas of Los Angeles without cause or justification seems counter to your efforts.”

The Martinez letter also noted that in recent months “we have seen several similar air space restrictions imposed by your department for what can only be considered capricious reasons and clearly without high level consideration.”

Station executives said that among the incidents she was referring to were a closure of air space for a Metrolink collision with a truck last fall and a condominium fire in Brentwood over the Christmas holidays. They said lower-ranking LAPD officers, not the chief, made the requests.

Williams quickly agreed to a meeting and met with four station executives: Wald, Robert H. Peetee Jr. of KNBC-TV Channel 4, Michael Horowicz of KCBS-TV Channel 2 and Bob Sims of KNX-AM (1070) after noon Wednesday, where he gave the reassurances.

Afterward, the executives called it, in Horowicz’s words, “a good meeting, a positive meeting.” They said they were particularly gratified that Williams had told them it was absolutely untrue that the LAPD had any prearranged plan with the FAA to close air space after the King verdicts.

Lt. John Duncan, a police spokesman, who had been present, confirmed the station executives’ account of the meeting.

Williams’ chief spokesman, Cmdr. David Gascon, said, “Clearly, the chief is very sensitive to these matters. We also are not in the business of censorship and his only concern is the safety of all pilots, law enforcement and media over the sites of any violence.”