Security Plan Draws Fire : Safety: Public housing residents pan the proposal for metal detectors and gun searches at L.A. projects.

President Clinton’s call for tougher security in public housing projects, including metal detectors and random searches, was generally rejected Monday by residents at the Nickerson Gardens project in Watts.

“We should not have any more sets of rules than the public at large just because we live in public housing,” said Nora King, a past president of the project’s Residents Advisory Council.

Clinton made his call Saturday in an effort to rid gang-infested housing projects of guns after a federal judge in Chicago blocked authorities from conducting sweeps for weapons. The judge ruled that the sweeps violated constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Public housing residents in Chicago requested the sweeps because they are “nearly desperate with conditions as they are,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros said.

But Los Angeles is not Chicago with its high-rise public housing, residents at Nickerson Gardens said.

“People get robbed and raped in those elevators,” King said. “From what I’ve seen, Los Angeles has it far better than people in Chicago.”

Metal detectors might make sense in Chicago, but there are no elevators and no common entry areas at the 1,066-unit Nickerson Gardens, the city’s largest public housing project, residents said.

“Where would they put metal detectors here?” asked Larry Moore, 25, who has lived in the projects all his life. “At everyone’s front door?”

Along with suggesting metal detectors, Cisneros said housing officials can retake their projects from gangs and drug dealers by erecting fences around the complexes, by conducting weapons searches in common areas such as on the grounds and in stairwells, and by urging tenants to sign consent forms permitting police searches.

The get-tough policies “are targeted to Chicago, but the same approach will be available to other communities,” Cisneros said Saturday.

A Chicago police officer visiting Locke High School in Watts on Monday as part of an anti-gang rap music show said he is opposed to weapons sweeps at housing projects in his city.

“Why sweep the buildings, when we should be sweeping the public schools, the entire neighborhoods,” said Officer Eric Davis, 32, who is touring several cities with two other Chicago officers. The trio’s rap group is called the Slick Boys.

“We can chase guns out for one week,” said Davis, who patrols Chicago’s Cabrini Green public housing project. “But what about when the searches stop? We want to figure out how to give people self-esteem--give them a future.”

Weapons searches at Nickerson Gardens are not necessary, said Delaina Carr, a 15-year resident, “because people have a right to privacy.” Security guards at night would be more helpful, she said.

A RAND study released last year showed that the crime rate in Los Angeles public housing projects was three times as high as the citywide average from 1986 to 1989. But by the time the study was released, a reduction in violent incidents had begun, housing officials said.

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Gang violence, drugs and burglaries are still a concern, Carr said, but “it is quieter here since the gang truce a year and a half ago. You still hear gunshots, but you don’t feel like a prisoner in your own unit.”

Fences, as suggested by Cisneros, might help control some crimes--especially those committed by people who do not live in the project, Carr said.

“They would improve security,” she said. “People couldn’t run from police, who could catch them easier before they could climb a fence.”

King said a survey of residents several years ago showed that the majority were opposed to fencing in the project’s 68.8 acres. But that attitude seemed to soften later, she said, and some residents now would support an architecturally attractive fence.

Moore gave a qualified endorsement to weapons searches, saying: “They could be cool. But they could lead to a lot of harassment.”

He said he is skeptical about any proposal to search people who look suspicious. “I’ve seen criminals in three-piece suits,” he said.

For one woman standing in her doorway, allowing searches is a moot question.

“They do it now, anyway, don’t they?” she asked.

One man who has lived at Nickerson Gardens for 31 years said he would support bringing in more police, but only if the new officers “know what’s going on here.”

“Train some of the residents to be police,” said the man, who asked to remain anonymous. “We don’t need police who’ve been watching too much television news.”

King supports hiring people who live in the community, and she is convinced that such officers would respond more quickly to calls.

“It takes hours for the Housing Authority police to respond--if they come at all,” she said. “If you’re not white, you don’t get that quick response.”