The New Mayor and the Challenge : The Mayor and the Police Chief : Without a good relationship, city is in trouble

Los Angeles needs Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Chief Willie L. Williams to work together as a team. These two committed and intelligent men, allied together, could prove a powerful force for good. But if they work at cross purposes, they will only neutralize each other and negate their individual strengths.

Riordan brings energy and innovative instincts to City Hall; Williams, a nationally respected law enforcement reformer, is determined to excel in a crucial job. Thus these two should add up to a marriage made in heaven. But they may not be off to the greatest start. For instance, fans of Williams keep raising questions, fairly or not, about the mayor’s commitment to the Christopher Commission police reforms. And rumors keep surfacing that the chief is steamed over the deputy-mayor appointment of William C. Violante--the onetime police union head who had criticized Williams in public.

MUCH AT STAKE: For his part, Riordan needs to fully support the reforms, as he says he does. And Williams has the ability to learn to live with almost anyone the mayor chooses to have in his Administration. Each surely would agree that too much is at stake to let misunderstanding or pettiness intrude on their working relationship.

The key thing is for both Riordan and Williams to keep talking. They should confer often--by phone, in person, over a barbecue in their back yards, whatever. They should be honest with each other, trust each other, not be afraid to differ with each other. They need to find common ground whenever possible.

BIG DEAL?: Williams has been openly skeptical of Riordan’s proposal to field 3,000 new police officers in four years--perhaps Riordan’s most famous campaign promise. Disagreeing, Riordan insists 3,000 is still possible. But what’s the big deal here? The disagreement is not over whether to have more police on the streets but only over how many can be recruited, trained and deployed. Both agree there must be--and more important will be-- more , indeed many more properly trained police officers. That’s the important bottom line.

Los Angeles must not develop another frightening grand fissure between its mayor and its police chief. In the final years of their tenures, Mayor Tom Bradley and Chief Daryl F. Gates hardly even spoke to each other. What a disgraceful situation--and how irresponsible. Remember the city government’s astonishing ineptitude in responding to the initial phase of the 1992 riots? That’s what can happen when the mayor and the chief aren’t even on speaking terms--indeed, if truth be told, when they’re acting like children.

Even if a mayor and a police chief don’t like each other--and we’re absolutely not saying that’s the case here--they have to get along.