Deputies to Strike a Pose to Catch Gay-Bashers : Law enforcement: Sheriff’s Department will play on stereotypes in undercover effort to deter hate crimes near bars.

In most situations, the idea would be offensive.

You take a bunch of sheriff’s deputies, stuff them into T-shirts and Levi’s 501s--key chains dangling--and put a little wiggle in their walk. Presto: instant gay men.

Blatant stereotyping, yes, but this time it will be used to catch the very people who believe it most: the young rednecks who cruise West Hollywood’s crowded bar strips in search of gay men to terrorize.

West Hollywood authorities have teamed up with some of their harshest critics to fight gay-bashing through an innovative program using deputies posing as gays, plus civilian squads patrolling the areas most often plagued by attackers. The program, which is expected to gain City Council approval Monday, would begin within weeks.

The two-part plan, modeled after a campaign in Long Beach, is winning praise from gays demanding local action to confront a rising trend in gay-bashing in West Hollywood and countywide. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which provides West Hollywood’s police services, recorded more than 50 incidents of physical and verbal attacks on gays in West Hollywood last year. Many more cases are believed to go unreported.

Jeff Allison, one of about 30 people at a recent forum where the idea was unveiled, signed up to help organize a residents’ street patrol. Allison said he and a friend were robbed outside a Studio City gay bar two years ago by a group of men who stopped to taunt them because they were gay.

He said West Hollywood, well known as a hub of gay life for Los Angeles, draws people looking to harass homosexuals. “I’m very careful about what I do, where I walk, how I walk,” Allison said. “People are going to target you if you’re alone.”

The session Allison attended marked a truce between city public-safety officials and the group that unsuccessfully pushed the ballot measure to create a city police department last year. The campaign charged that gays are too often brushed off by the Sheriff’s Department.

The ballot group, which joined the city in sponsoring the forum, promises another election next year, but in order to fight gay-bashing it is now burying the hatchet with officials who opposed the initiative.

“It was a bitter campaign. The bottom line, though, was that we all want better law enforcement,” said John Underwood, spokesman for the initiative group, called West Hollywood Citizens for Better Police Protection.

“It’s no secret that we’re going to bring (the city police proposal) back in ’94. In the meantime we’re going to work together,” he said. “It’s uncomfortable--I’ll agree to that.”

A month after losing the election, the group presented a wish list to City Council members Abbe Land and John Heilman and safety officials. At the top was a call for more sheriff patrols where bashings are most prevalent. That would be the west end of Santa Monica Boulevard, a stretch noisy with gay bars and the site of the sheriff’s substation.

Both groups liked the Long Beach strategy. The televised forum was planned as a way to gauge support within the gay community for undercover operations, which traditionally have been viewed as a way to harass patrons of gay bars. No one at the forum opposed the idea, and many rose to praise the Long Beach vice program.

Police there started the stings about two years ago to thwart attacks near gay bars on Broadway, where the fatal 1990 stabbing of a gay man symbolized to many activists a climate of violence against gays. There have been no arrests in five sting operations, but police say that publicity about the program helps deter attacks.

Decoy officers walk in and out of gay bars while police watch from unmarked cars and a van equipped with listening equipment and a camera. So far, decoys have been called names but none has been attacked. Advocates say the experience also has helped make heterosexual police officers sensitive to the abuse that many gays face on the street.

Organizers condemn gay stereotypes, but claim it is the best weapon against the bigots they are after. Officer volunteers are trained by activists to fit a rather cartoonish image of gay men--what to wear, how to wear it--right down to a pigeon-toed John Wayne step.

“Teaching police officers how to walk--that can be kind of funny,” said Jack Castiglione, who advises and accompanies Long Beach police on stings. “We don’t act too flamboyant, but it does have to be part of the package.”

It’s a package aimed at a violent audience. Hate-crime experts say gay-bashers stand out because they tend to go out deliberately hunting for victims and more often assault them. Anti-gay attacks occur most often in public, said Bobbi Kimble, who analyzes hate crimes for the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission.

“(Typical attackers) are young. They frequently have traditional views of sexual roles. They don’t really understand what homosexuality is,” Kimble said. “Although the crimes are frequently premeditated, there’s a certain mindlessness about it.”

Besides the stings, West Hollywood officials are also taking the unusual step of aiding civilian street patrols, an idea that made sheriff’s officials nervous in the past. Nancy Greenstein, the city’s public safety coordinator, hopes to locate leaders within the gay community who will organize the effort, as activists have run a successful year-old patrol program for a predominantly gay area of Long Beach.

The Long Beach Teams Project Inc. places squads of 10 to 12 volunteers on the streets on random nights. Group members--armed with walkie-talkies, whistles and bullhorns--are trained to head off potential violence by calling police and loudly drawing attention to scenes where trouble is brewing without using violence.

“We are not Guardian Angels. We do not go out looking for trouble,” said project leader Jeff Zeigler.

Gay street patrols have come and gone in West Hollywood, but this would be the first time the city has offered its official blessing. The new push also reflects a wider effort by the Sheriff’s Department to answer criticisms that it doesn’t take gay-bashing seriously and is insensitive to gays and lesbians. For example, reports of gay-bashing--no matter how sketchy--are now noted in a special log at the West Hollywood substation. Deputies receive special sensitivity training from a city committee of gays and lesbians.

The police-initiative committee unearthed a reserve of discontent in capturing 47% of the vote to dump the sheriff last fall. The success of the proposed gay-bashing campaign may well cut into that unhappiness, possibly hurting the group’s hopes for a revived initiative next year.

Members say that would be just fine, as long as the city remains serious about the program. The committee will meet today to decide what role it will play.

“Safe streets are a priority. If we can help, it would show we are not upstart crybabies who don’t want to roll their sleeves up,” said committee head Paul Amirault. “If it’s a sham, we’ll blow the whistle.”