Williams Touts His Record in Jewish Federation Speech

One day after announcing his intent to seek a second term, embattled Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams appeared in Sherman Oaks, ostensibly to speak on crime in the San Fernando Valley but instead delivering what sounded like a campaign speech.

Williams spent the better part of his half-hour address Wednesday morning telling members of the Jewish Federation’s Valley Alliance that the city was safer today than when he took over in 1992, but that he needs more time to implement community-based policing programs, modernize archaic communications and record-keeping systems, and complete other long-term projects.

On Tuesday, Williams said he would seek another five years in his post, but has yet to file a formal application for the job. That has prompted some critics to speculate that he is trying to shore up his bargaining position in case the city offers him a settlement to leave quietly--a possibility City Council members have publicly broached.

But he told the small gathering that if the five members of the city’s Police Commission judge him on his works, there would be no reason to deny him another stint as chief.

“What concerns me is when the decision is made purely for political reasons,” he said.

Williams said he did not regard his appearance Wednesday as a campaign appearance. Flipping open a folder after the meeting and pointing to a speaking invitation that the Jewish Federation had mailed him in September, Williams denied speculation that his remarks were delivered in an effort to marshal support before what is predicted to become a fierce dispute over who will guide the country’s third-largest police department into the next century.

At times, however, the speech sounded like an oral resume, including references to his previous job as Philadelphia’s police commissioner.

Williams detailed his membership in the Mayor’s Alliance for Public Safety, a group that has raised, as Williams pointed out, nearly $17 million in private donations to set up a computer network linking LAPD stations.

He told the audience that murders were down on his watch, and officer recruitment efforts up. He said his predecessor, Daryl F. Gates, was unprepared for the 1992 riots, but that the police force under his leadership quickly halted looting after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Williams told the group, made up mostly of business people and other professionals, that the Police Department is “one of the largest businesses in the city. . . . We should operate like a business.”

And for the second time in as many days, Williams hinted that he may grant--at least in part--the No. 1 wish of the often-hostile union representing rank-and-file officers: a “compressed” workweek during which officers might work three 12-hour days, or some other configuration that would mean longer workdays but fewer of them per week.

“The private sector’s going that way,” Williams said.

Dennis P. Zine, treasurer of the union, the Police Protective League, said it was his understanding that the chief would give the compressed schedule “his stamp of approval” in the next few days. While declining to speculate if Williams’ announcement was meant to garner union support for a second term, Zine said any such change in the workweek “will generate goodwill with police.”

And, he added: “They often say timing is everything.”

“It sounded like he was running for office,” Valley Alliance President Jonathan Cookler said after Williams’ appearance Wednesday. And, Cookler said, “I think the chief made a very good case for himself.”

While declining to comment on Williams’ statements, Police Commission President Raymond C. Fisher said that if and when Williams officially applies for the job, the commissioners would evaluate him and any other candidates on their strengths and weaknesses.

“We will look at a number of factors, including past performance and the needs of the department on an ongoing basis,” Fisher said. But, he added: “He hasn’t made a formal application to us . . . so we’ll have to see how matters evolve.”