Chief Seeks Changes in LAPD Sex, Bias Policy : Harassment: Williams proposes new oversight unit. Transfers are under way at troubled West L.A. station.

Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams proposed sweeping changes Tuesday in his department’s handling of sexual harassment and discrimination complaints, while sources said his subordinates are working behind the scenes to transfer a number of sergeants, detectives and other officers out of the West Los Angeles police station.

Three sergeants have been transferred out of West Los Angeles recently, said Capt. Robert Kurth, the commanding officer of that station. The transfers, which sources said may eventually involve detectives and officers of other ranks, are not intended to punish the officers but are an attempt to improve the working environment of a police station with a long--though disputed--reputation for hostility toward women.

Williams has generally declined to comment on developments at the West Los Angeles station and did not mention the transfers in his report Tuesday to the Police Commission. Instead, the report highlighted a number of proposed LAPD reforms, most notably creation of a specialized unit to investigate all harassment and discrimination complaints.

Creation of such a unit has been eagerly sought by some women’s advocates, but reaction to Williams’ proposal was mixed, largely because many proponents of the concept hoped that the group would report directly to the Police Commission, rather than through the LAPD chain of command, as Williams recommended.

Commission President Gary Greenebaum, who referred the chief’s proposal to a committee, said he was gratified by the chief’s recommendations, which he described as “generally on the right track,” but added that he was inclined to favor having the unit report to the commission.

“It’s my sense that people who have complaints do not feel comfortable working through the department because there’s a sense of reprisal,” Greenebaum said. “When I hear over and over again the same fears and the same concerns it makes me feel that (complaints) ought to come through us.”

The unit, if approved by the commission during the coming weeks, would be “responsible for receiving and investigating all complaints dealing with discrimination based on ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation,” Williams said in his report.

The unit would be part of a newly configured Equal Employment Opportunity Division, which also would be charged with providing employee counseling and with coordinating harassment, bias and discrimination training.

Under the present system, some harassment and discrimination complaints are handled by Internal Affairs, while others are investigated by the Employee Opportunity and Development Division, the Women’s Coordinator or the complainant’s commanding officer.

“This diluted process has caused confusion for the employees of this organization and implies to employees and people who examine the department from the outside that there is not a concerted effort to quickly and concisely prepare resolutions to these complaints,” Williams said.

In addition to the creation of the new complaint unit, Williams outlined several other proposals for combatting harassment and discrimination. The chief wants every LAPD officer to receive special harassment training, and he pledged to forward to the commission a timeline to assure that the training is delivered promptly.

“It is not enough to simply reorganize and respond to complaints of our employees,” Williams said. “We must also ensure that all the current and future members of the department receive training to ensure that they fully understand the policies and procedures relating to discriminatory behavior in the areas of ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.”

As part of that training, every officer will receive a packet of material on sexual harassment and discrimination, Williams said. Some critics warned that repackaging the department’s current harassment and discrimination material is not enough. They said the LAPD should instead revisit those materials and draft better ones.

In a bow to the City Council’s Personnel Committee, the chief said he also has ordered that every departing LAPD employee be questioned about harassment, gender bias and other forms of discrimination. Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who chairs the Personnel Committee, had asked that discrimination and harassment questions be posed as part of the exit interview process.

The chief’s recommendations come in the midst of a shuffle at the West Los Angeles station, as a few longstanding officers there are being asked to take positions elsewhere in the department. Kurth, the commanding officer, stressed that the officers who are moving are not accused of any wrongdoing and said that such transfers are encouraged to “recharge the batteries” of employees who have been in their assignments longer than five years.

The West Los Angeles station has been the subject of a long-running internal LAPD audit into the working conditions there, particularly with respect to sexual harassment, though allegations of racism also are being addressed. Although some elements of that audit still are under way, it has sparked a number of changes. At least two officers are under investigation, and disciplinary action could be brought against them or others.

The transfers and the proposed LAPD reorganization come after news reports and City Council hearings this spring that detailed the problem of sexual harassment in the LAPD ranks. The department’s responses represent its most sweeping efforts to root out that problem, but they fall short of changes that some women’s advocates had proposed and they were greeted with guarded enthusiasm Tuesday.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Katherine Spillar, national coordinator for the Feminist Majority and co-chairwoman of the Women’s Advisory Council to the Los Angeles Police Commission. “It’s not enough. It’s something that we would never have seen under the previous chief or the previous police administration, but it’s still not enough.”

Carol Sobel, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who will announce today the filing of a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit against the LAPD, agreed.

“I think it’s fair to say that all of us . . . are pleased that there are some affirmative steps toward dealing with this problem,” she said. “But there’s enormous concern that this piecemeal approach does not cut it.”

Most of the attention Tuesday was focused on the chief’s proposal for the new unit.

If approved, the division would be located outside police headquarters, a move Williams said “should reduce the stress that some of our employees currently express about entering Parker Center to express a concern about their peers, supervisors or managers.”

That and other changes were sought by women’s advocates during a series of Personnel Committee hearings in March and April. But some women’s advocates worried that the new unit’s effectiveness would be undermined if it is staffed by police officers and required to report through the Police Department.

“We need an independent, civilian-staffed unit that reports directly to the Police Commission,” Spillar said. “That’s the only way to insure that this unit can do the job.”

From the start, however, department insiders had questioned whether the chief would be willing to turn over such a sensitive function to a civilian unit, particularly because personnel issues are involved. The LAPD traditionally does not release personnel information except in rare circumstances, such as when it surfaces in matters that go before police disciplinary boards.