Slowdown by LAPD on Routine Tasks Is Sporadic : Law enforcement: Job action is designed to force a pay raise. Patrols appear to keep up with calls.

For the first time in more than a decade, Los Angeles Police Department officers Monday launched a job action designed to bog down routine LAPD operations and put pressure on city leaders to grant pay raises.

But participation among the city’s 7,600 police officers appeared sporadic at best, as many officers found themselves caught between the will to protest and their commitment to duty at a time of heightened uncertainty on the streets. In precincts citywide, patrol units generally appeared to be keeping up with calls despite widespread concern among officers about slumping morale.

“I think there’s too many things going on at one time,” said Lt. Mike Mines, who was overseeing field units at Rampart Division, the city’s busiest station house, in the densely populated area west of Downtown. “We’re here trying to prepare for the (impending verdicts in the) Denny trial . . . and we don’t have a lot of people working anyway, because the deployment is so low.”

Elsewhere, officers expressed moral support for union objectives but conceded that they are preoccupied with their seemingly under-manned war with gangs and the escalating threat of anti-police violence. Last week, police received death threats after two LAPD officers, convicted in the Rodney G. King civil rights beating case, were allowed to go free pending a Supreme Court appeal. A day after the faxed threat, veteran Officer Ray Mendoza was ambushed and seriously wounded by gang members in South-Central Los Angeles.

At Newton Division, where Mendoza is assigned, officers spent much of last week collecting contributions for a gift. There was also talk about the planned union action, but on Monday patrol cars hit the streets as usual, said daytime watch commander Sgt. Gary Grubbs. Expected delays in filing reports did not seem evident, Grubbs said.

“With the recent shootings and stuff, we’ve got more important things to worry about (than the job action),” the sergeant said. “Everything’s been routine business for us today.”

It was much the same in South-Central’s 77th Division. “The general consensus is that 77th is going to continue to function,” veteran Officer Donald Watkins said. “We’re in tune with what the (Los Angeles Police Protective) League wants to do--all of us want a raise--but as far as a job action or slowdown, we’re more concerned with getting the job done here.”

The LAPD’s rank-and-file officers have been without a contract for 15 months and have not received a raise in two years while their pay has slipped steadily in comparison to other California police departments. Officers are demanding a 9% pay increase over four years, retroactive to July 1, and other benefits, including new protective vests and the reinstatement of a psychological counseling program for officers and their families, said Dave Zeigler, president of the union.

To underscore its demands, the union, representing officers up to the rank of lieutenant, has asked members to conduct procedures “by the book” on the LAPD’s slowest days, Mondays and Tuesdays. As part of the protest, which continues today and indefinitely through weeks ahead, officers were being asked to complete exhaustive investigative reports, as they were taught at the Police Academy; to carefully inspect their patrol cars and turn them in for needed repairs, and to meet other department requirements in ways that would slow non-emergency operations while costing the city extra money.

The action is the first by the union since 1980, when officers briefly stopped writing tickets in a contract protest.

Sgt. Dennis Zine at Valley Traffic Division said it was difficult to gauge the effect of the slowdown because it coincided with Chief Willie L. Williams’ order to send out officers in pairs--a strategy aimed at bolstering safety. That, by itself, would delay response to many calls because it means fewer patrol cars on the streets.

Like many of his colleagues, Zine spoke with frustration about the rising violence and the police union’s inability to win concessions from the city, which says a huge projected deficit leaves it with no money for officer raises.

“Morale is in the toilet and heading for the sewer,” Zine said.

Officer Joe Onorato, a 22-year veteran working in the crime-plagued Southeast Division, echoed those sentiments, saying embattled officers are struggling to serve the public out of personal pride, despite low morale, faulty equipment and undersized staffs.

“Policemen are walking a really fine line right now, because they don’t know what to do anymore,” Onorato said. “We’re in a civil war here with these gangbangers. It’s really scary to know how many policemen we have out there at any given time. It wouldn’t be hard for anybody to take over the streets of L.A.

“(We’re) like the little Dutch boy putting his finger into the dam . . . and that crack keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

Zeigler said some evidence of the job action was apparent Monday at the Police Academy’s firing range, where a larger-than-usual crowd of about 50 officers showed up to requalify on their handguns--a task they must complete every two months.

The union had asked its members to flood the range during the first week of the job action.

The union--which stressed that no emergency calls would be delayed because of the protest--also asked its off-duty members to show up at court for criminal cases in which they were needed as witnesses, rather than wait at home on call. That way, they would qualify for a full day of overtime pay, not just two hours, Zeigler said.

“We’re going to hit the city where it hurts--in the pocketbooks,” he said.

A few dozen officers followed that directive Monday, showing up at the criminal courts building Downtown.

But Deputy Chief Bernard Parks, who oversees the department’s operations, called the job action “basically nonexistent” and said officers appear reluctant to jeopardize the public’s trust. “I don’t think our support in the community is such that you can play with it,” Parks said. “Things are very delicate.”

Late Monday, Commander David Gascon said an examination of calls made to the 911 system during a 16-hour period turned up “no evidence of an adverse impact of any delay” because of the job action.

In the precincts where the front-line battles are waged against street crimes, most officers apparently chose to make do with aging radios and patrol cars.

“Death is not something you do a work slowdown over,” Lt. Sergio Robleto told his detectives in the South Bureau homicide detail. With 62 detectives and 318 homicides this year, the detail is the largest and busiest in the department.

Sgt. Jim Mateer, who commanded the early watch at Rampart, sent out eight cars at 7 a.m.--none went for repair--to cover an area roughly the size of Long Beach.

“What I’ve got to cope with is an unmanageable situation,” Mateer said. “It would be OK to work under these frustrating circumstances if we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t see it.”

Times staff writers Robert J. Lopez and Ann O’Neill contributed to this story.