Chief Unveils Massive LAPD Reform Plan : Police: Williams calls for returning more officers to street patrols and for citizen councils to advise authorities.

Riding a wave of public goodwill, Police Chief Willie L. Williams on Tuesday revealed the first details of his plan to dramatically revamp the department, bringing it closer to the communities it serves while laying “a solid foundation for the revitalization of Los Angeles.”

William’s blueprint, outlined in a meeting with the Los Angeles Police Commission, calls for sweeping reforms that include redesigning beat patrols, initiating a strategic planning process and creating police community councils in the city’s 18 police divisions to help shape department priorities.

The chief made his announcement while informing the commission that the federal government had agreed to pay part of the $607,000 he said it would take to implement his proposals and launch community-based policing throughout the city within 18 months. A key architect of the plan is Jack Green, a Temple University professor who was an adviser to Williams when he was Philadelphia’s police commissioner.

The chief’s plan represents a distinct departure from the policies and practices of his controversial predecessor, Daryl F. Gates, whose tenure was marred by turbulent relations with vast segments of Los Angeles and who was roundly criticized for his department’s slow response to last year’s riots.

The new chief noted that patrol car beats had “fallen into disarray,” preventing officers from gauging neighborhoods’ needs. Williams also said that, unlike Gates’ sometimes autocratic style of leadership, he will involve all levels of the department in decision-making to increase managerial accountability through the ranks.

Williams told the commission that many Los Angeles residents feel unconnected to government agencies, creating an environment of “mutual distrust, further alienating the community from the police.”

“Such a climate,” he said, “makes the delivery of public safety services more problematic. . . . In a complex urban society, the need for the police and the public to work together in a partnership is paramount.”

Williams said that in creating his reforms, he drew on his contacts “with literally thousands of people” throughout the city, including LAPD personnel, city leaders, and community members.

He said he has decided to pursue three major strategies in “transforming the LAPD from a department which reacts to crime, disorder and neighborhood social problems, to a department which proactively seeks opportunities for community collaboration toward solving neighborhood problems.”

The chief said he will start by rebuilding the patrol force, including “its very foundation--the basic car plan.”

“All too often, patrol is the last place where resources are invested and the first place from which they are taken,” he said in his federal grant application. “This is true in Los Angeles as it is in other places.”

He said that in the past the LAPD has splintered into specialized units at the expense of patrol, creating a situation in which beat patrol officers “rotate in and out of car areas with little or no consistency.”

To restrengthen beat patrols, Williams hopes to have senior lead officers work as the eyes and ears for beat officers in specific neighborhoods, gathering crime information, tips and other community concerns to ensure that beat officers understand neighborhood problems.

As the beat system develops, Williams said, it will emerge as the mainstay of its community-based policing effort.

Williams’ second strategy calls for LAPD management to devise goals and policies. “Without such a picture,” the chief said, “community-based policing in Los Angeles will be relegated to the status of the current fad.”

He said department managers will be surveyed about the values they seek for the LAPD. This information will be examined during an executive-level police retreat later this year. The goal, he said, it to set a “strategic vision for the LAPD.”

The third component calls for the chief to appoint a staff-level commander to oversee a special mapping of the neighborhoods where intense community-based policing efforts should be targeted. Special police community councils will be set up in the 18 area police commands, a program begun during Gates’ final months that is intended to build a partnership in crime-fighting.

Williams said the councils will continually advise area police commands on safety concerns. He estimated that up to 300 potential council members will be trained to assist the police in each area command, and he said they will form into free-standing panels that will advise police and issue regular “State of the Community Reports.”

Williams’ rebuilding plans were embraced by several members of the Los Angeles Police Commission.

“The patrol force is the backbone of any law enforcement agency,” commission President Jesse A. Brewer said. “To see us get back to that, I think, is really going to be the solution to our problems, in addition to having that better relationship with the people we serve.”

Commissioner Ann Reiss Lane also applauded Williams’ efforts since becoming chief last summer. She noted that in the last two days she has received numerous congratulatory messages for the way police officers were safely deployed after verdicts were announced Saturday in the Rodney G. King federal civil rights trial.

“I have had calls from across the country who all have expressed relief but also great praise for the Los Angeles Police Department,” she said.

On Monday, Williams said that the large show of force during the King jury deliberations last week was an example of the kind of policing he hopes to muster--an operation in which there are enough patrol officers that crime is reduced and residents once again feel safe to return to the streets.

Williams also videotaped an address to his rank-and-file officers, which was played at police station roll calls around the city. He described his delight while driving around the city Saturday and seeing police officers and residents showing renewed signs of friendship and trust.

“Working together with the relationships that have been built over the last six or nine months,” he said, community-based policing “really came together just this past weekend.”

“We can make not just the LAPD a better department, but also this city,” he said.