WESTSIDE / COVER STORY : A New Kind of Sheriff in Town : Relations were frosty between deputies and West Hollywood residents. But the department changed all that by tailoring its services to the community.

West Hollywood resident Norma Kemper was surprised when she heard a knock on her front door at 9:30 p.m. Her surprise grew as she discovered Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Connors standing on the porch. He apologized for the late hour, explaining that he had just come on duty, and said he wanted to introduce himself to residents in the neighborhood he had been assigned to patrol.

“I was completely flabbergasted; I thought it was great,” said Kemper, a member of the city’s advisory Public Safety Commission.

In an era when most citizens are clamoring simply to see a cop drive through their neighborhood, a deputy stopping by just to say hello signals a welcome change in the policing methods of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in West Hollywood, residents said.

With its high-profile bicycle and foot patrols, widespread Neighborhood Watch groups and joint city-law enforcement crime prevention programs, the West Hollywood station has become a leader in community-oriented policing.

Clearly aware of the special needs of the congested and eclectic city, law enforcement has been tailored to the local issues: A hate-crime detective investigates gay-bashing, a team of deputies has been designated as policing ambassadors to the community, and programs target such longstanding problems as street prostitution.

Although definitions of community-oriented or community-based policing abound, experts usually describe it as a method of law enforcement that emphasizes contact with the community and programs that prevent crime.

“It can be as simple as stopping your patrol car and getting out to talk to residents,” said Sgt. Mike Parker, leader of West Hollywood’s new seven-member Community Oriented Policing Sheriff’s team, nicknamed COPS. “What follows is people get to know us, are less hesitant to call, and there is a drop in the fear of crime.”

Because of its unique needs, West Hollywood was one of the first Sheriff’s Department stations to adopt community-oriented policing strategies in 1984. In fact, the city and the station have been held up as a model of community policing by Sheriff Sherman Block.

Said Block: “The city of West Hollywood has been progressive, really since its inception, to develop programs in cooperation with us--the kind of programs that have enhanced the quality of life.”

Before West Hollywood’s incorporation in 1984 and immediately after, police patrols were a different story, city and sheriff’s officials agree. Challenges stemmed from the diversity of the densely populated city, which has an active gay and lesbian population, a large number of senior citizens and an influx of Russian immigrants.

The gay population had longstanding animosity toward the Sheriff’s Department, accusing deputies of harassment and homophobia. Residents complained that the department failed to crack down on street hustlers on Santa Monica and Sunset boulevards. The city’s parks were crime-ridden, and inside the department, deputies suffered from low morale.

For several stormy years, some residents tried to jettison the city’s $9-million annual contract with the Sheriff’s Department and start a West Hollywood Police Department. Besieged by complaints from constituents, city officials began to take action on their own.

Realizing the need to change, the West Hollywood station chief, Capt. Rachel Burgess, brought deputies and gay activists together for meetings. Their once-hostile gatherings developed into the respected Gay and Lesbian/Sheriff’s Conference Committee.

In addition, after years of evolution as an informal body, the powerful Public Safety Commission was formed in 1989. It has since spawned other groups that have continued to build alliances between the sheriff’s station, City Hall and residents.

In 1992, the James G. Kolts report, which found in the Sheriff’s Department a “deeply disturbing evidence of excessive force and lax discipline,” praised the West Hollywood station as a model of community-based policing. The report, patterned after the Christopher Commission report on the Los Angeles Police Department, followed an investigation into complaints that the Sheriff’s Department used excessive force.

The success of the West Hollywood station stems from deputies working together with the community and city officials, experts say.

“West Hollywood is further along than other stations,” said Natalie Salazar, who oversees community policing in the Sheriff’s Department. “There is an ongoing and successful relationship between the [West Hollywood station], the community and the city--which is a triumvirate you don’t necessary expect.”

This year the city has seen a boom in the number of new programs.

One of the biggest changes came recently with the full-scale deployment of the COPS team. Funded primarily by President Clinton’s crime bill, the deputies were picked for their enthusiasm for community policing. Traveling only by bicycle, foot or public transit, the COPS team concentrates on mingling with residents and merchants in an effort to solve small neighborhood issues before they are full-grown problems.

For example, the team recently worked on what deputies called a “problem property,” an apartment in the northwest part of the city that had generated dozens of complaints from neighbors.

The COPS deputies began to document the problems caused by the tenants, including a rash of burglaries in which they were suspects. The deputies had the tenants declared public nuisances, and the landlord was required to evict them.

The reaction was immediate and heartfelt. Said team leader Parker: “It made the landlord and 20 neighbors happy, and it improved the lives of all the people [who] lived there.”

The large Russian immigrant population, now about 12% of the city’s 36,000 residents, has prompted wide-ranging Russian-language crime prevention campaigns. Using a public safety hot line, a newsletter and a Russian community specialist, the city has tried to introduce the police-wary Russian community to the West Hollywood deputies.

The outreach programs have helped, according to Nancy Greenstein, West Hollywood’s public safety administrator.

Recently, for example, the deputies learned that Russian immigrants on the east side of town were being robbed by a man on a bicycle. Before the outreach programs, Greenstein said, the victims had been reluctant to report the crime because of cultural or language barriers.

Faced with a more than 10% rise in auto burglaries, a joint force of city officials and Neighborhood Watch activists decided to take things in hand. They periodically walk the streets, handing out flyers warning motorists about the thefts and telling them how to avoid becoming victims.

These programs that incorporate city leaders, residents and the Sheriff’s Department are effective, Block said. “Law enforcement can’t do everything. But through a partnership with the community, residents can help take some responsibility for their own safety.”

The addition of six COPS deputies on bicycles has beefed up a 5-year-old bicycle patrol program that supporters say builds rapport between police and community members.

“If they know us, [residents] are less hesitant to call and report an incident,” Parker said. “Often, they don’t want to bother us because they hear in the media how busy we are, or they are too embarrassed to call because it may turn out that nothing was wrong. But if they know us, they know we want them to call.”

Residents’ participation in Neighborhood Watch programs fluctuates depending on what issue is paramount, city officials said. Although overall crime remains relatively low, more than two dozen Neighborhood Watch groups meet in a town of only 1.9 square miles.

Of particular concern in a city where almost a quarter of the population is gay are assaults against gays and lesbians.

Both the city and the Sheriff’s Department say they have tried various methods to combat gay-bashing, although it is difficult to judge their success because the crime is frequently unreported.

Deputies conduct sting operations in gay bars, and in cooperation with the city have produced a pamphlet listing precautions people can take to avoid attacks.

Less than a year ago, Dave Winkler received permission to become the West Hollywood station’s first detective specializing in hate crimes.

Winkler, on call 24 hours a day, investigates a couple of gay-bashing incidents a month, as well as incidents that target specific groups, such as Russian residents or senior citizens.

Last year, West Hollywood deputies aggressively attacked prostitution along Santa Monica Boulevard. Working with a community task force, officers made more than 700 arrests and substantially cleaned up an area that had been a source of tremendous community frustration, residents say.

Many residents say much of the credit for improved citywide policing and the abatement in prostitution should go to recent station Capt. Bill Mangan.

“Bill made the commitment to change the hustler problem on Santa Monica Boulevard, and he followed through with his promise,” said longtime resident Ruth Williams. “Now the deputies are staying on top of it.”

Mangan, who has been promoted to commander and now oversees several stations in the region, won the hearts of community activists during his 14-month tenure in West Hollywood.

They say Mangan was one of the city’s strongest advocates for community-oriented policing, expanding on the style of his two predecessors as captain, Clarence Chapman and Burgess.

The chairman of the Public Safety Commission, John Aultschul, cited one incident in particular as typical of Mangan’s methods of policing:

An angry resident complained to the commission that he had not been well treated when he called 911. Mangan, who attended all the commission’s monthly meetings, listened intently and promised to investigate.

Next month, Mangan admitted that the Sheriff’s Department had made a mistake. He said the 911 operator was no longer working for the station.

Now, Aultschul says, many residents’ comments about the department at commission meetings are positive. And statistics show that things have improved.

Arrests are up about 16% for the first four months of 1995, compared to the same period last year. Calls for service and the number of serious crimes, including homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft, and arson, remain about the same.

Because of the successes in West Hollywood and elsewhere, community-oriented policing is the law enforcement philosophy of the future, Block predicted.

“We can’t think of law enforcement as a one-size-fits-all philosophy,” he said. “We need to secure input from the communities to see what they need.”

The ultimate achievement in the partnership between police and the community is that people feel they have a role to play and feel their advice is appreciated, he said.

Community leaders were surprised and happy this year when Block, for the first time, let West Hollywood residents and the city manager’s office weigh in on the selection of the new station captain.

In April, city leaders said they got their man: Capt. Richard Odenthal, who they predicted will be the fourth in West Hollywood’s line of community-based policing aficionados.

Mangan, who is now overseeing the implementation of community policing in Lennox, said there was a simple direction to follow and a bottom-line goal to be met.

“West Hollywood wants just what every community wants: to feel safe and protected,” he said. “They want us to aggressively police and end up with the bad guys.”