Possible Interim Chief a Sharp Contrast to Williams

For Bernard C. Parks, an out-of-the-blue phone call from Mayor Richard Riordan on Monday morning catapulted him back to a familiar place: the center of controversy’s spotlight.

In his call Monday, Riordan told Parks he intended to recommend that the Police Commission appoint him as interim chief of police, should one be needed to fill in for Police Chief Willie L. Williams. That thrust Parks into the middle of the hottest topic in Los Angeles politics, and focused attention on him as one of two front-runners for the permanent job, a position insiders say he shares with fellow LAPD Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker.

Both men have been talked about as chief material before.

Five years ago, with the Rodney G. King beating still reverberating throughout the LAPD and the 1992 riots unforeseen on the horizon, Parks and Kroeker finished in the top six in that contest, with Parks topping all internal LAPD candidates on the oral examination.

So close was Parks to the prize in 1992 that sources say a single vote on the Police Commission might have tipped it his way.

Instead, the post went to Williams, who was then serving as Philadelphia’s top cop. It was a fateful decision, one that reflected the then-Police Commission’s strong belief that the LAPD needed to reach outside for a leader. But it also pitted the department’s two most prominent African American officers in a rivalry that has spanned the past four years.

Williams and Parks, both lifelong police officers, brought vastly different temperaments to the table. Williams is conciliatory and gentle, Parks incisive and sometimes unforgiving. Williams often is vague about police procedures or rules; Parks’ knowledge of those areas is encyclopedic. Williams’ professional upbringing was through the Philadelphia park police; Parks was raised in South-Central Los Angeles and came to work for the LAPD after hearing a radio recruiting ad for the department.

The two men even look like opposites: Williams is hefty, barrel-chested and loping; Parks, a high school track and football standout, is lean, angular and ramrod straight.

For two years, Parks and Williams labored uncomfortably together; Parks thinly concealing his lack of respect for Williams and Williams barely hiding his distrust of Parks. Then, in late 1994, after first denying that he and Parks were at odds, Williams demoted his top deputy, suggesting that he was partly to blame for the department’s lack of progress in various areas.

The move shocked political leaders, some of whom held Parks in higher regard than his boss. And it marked a turning point for Williams, who never fully recovered from the political fallout that ensued. The City Council, whose members included a number of strong Parks loyalists, voted to give him a raise.

Since his demotion, Parks has held the title of deputy chief and has overseen special operations for the LAPD, a post that gives him enormous internal power, even though much of it is invisible to the public. Among other things, Parks oversees the department’s Internal Affairs Division, giving him access to knowledge about the LAPD’s most sensitive inner workings.

A tough manager with a reputation for handing out stiff discipline, Parks has made his share of enemies within the department.

Some officers in West Los Angeles resented his decision to launch a 1993 audit of sexual harassment charges there, and the Los Angeles Police Protective League once accused him of reverse discrimination when it came to promotions in the Narcotics Division.

In both cases, Parks held fast.

He brushed off the reaction in West Los Angeles, plowing ahead with a historic analysis of harassment and discrimination at that police station. When the Protective League attacked him in 1994, he pointed out that the league had never had a black or female director, a counterpunch that effectively silenced the usually vocal organization.

Since then, Parks and the league have mended fences, but they still have differences. Among other things, the union has made adoption of a modified work schedule its central mission. But Parks has voiced concern about the union’s favored schedule, one that calls for patrol officers to work 12 hours a day for three days a week.

But if Parks has shown a willingness to engage his opponents, he also has long demonstrated a knack for building political alliances. He conscientiously fires off notes of congratulation to colleagues and keeps tabs on the many officers who have served in his commands. Outside the department, even some of Williams’ strongest supporters confide in Parks, whose network within the city’s political and law enforcement is vast.

When he was installed as president of the Peace Officers Assn. of Los Angeles County last year--a position he relinquished in January--hundreds of luminaries attended. Among those included on the varied guest list: conservative state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, liberal county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, longtime law enforcement official Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block and longtime law enforcement critic Carl Douglas, a lawyer and associate of Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.

Parks is “one of the stars in law enforcement in this country and certainly in this city,” Yaroslavsky said Tuesday. “He’s very smart, focused, intense and widely respected by the troops. . . . I’ve found him to be a leader. He has vision. If he is made interim, it will allow Bernie, for the first time, to articulate his vision for reform and change.”

Councilman Richard Alatorre, another influential elected official and longtime admirer of Parks, agreed.

“He’s a brilliant career officer,” Alatorre said.

Block, meanwhile, praised Parks for his administrative and managerial skills.

“He’s very much in tune with professional and training issues,” the sheriff said. “Everything I know about him has been positive. I can’t think of a single negative comment I could make about Bernie. He knows the organization. He knows the jobs that subordinates need to do. He’s very articulate and an excellent communicator. I believe he knows where law enforcement needs to go in the 21st century.”

But Parks also has his critics. Some question his style of management, saying his attention to detail can be overbearing. And some dispute the notion that officers would rally around him.

Attorney Thomas White, a former police officer who is a member of Police Watch, an organization that monitors police abuse complaints, said Parks lacks the support of the rank and file.

“They don’t care for him,” White said. “They look at him as somebody who did things to undermine Williams. . . . He’s kind of a back-stabber. Maybe he was hurt he didn’t get picked last time, but the rank and file are very disenchanted with him.”

Carol Watson, another longtime observer of the Police Department and co-chairwoman of Police Watch, said she too has reservations about Parks’ leadership. He came of age at the LAPD under revered but controversial Chief Edward M. Davis and was promoted to the department’s upper tier under Daryl F. Gates, whose leadership drew much fire from LAPD critics.

Parks, said Watson, would bring his mentors’ philosophies back to the forefront.

“He’s very much in the mold of Daryl Gates,” she said. “He got to his level by being subservient to the Gates philosophy of policing, and I think the community wanted to get rid of that kind of attitude. This would be like returning to the Gates era.”

For now, Parks’ high-profile pat on the back from Riordan means little more than that he is the week’s most talked about police official in Los Angeles. The coming weeks and months will demonstrate whether he or Kroeker or some other candidate emerges as the favorite of the city’s leadership.

Already, the lobbying has begun for the various possible applicants. The American Civil Liberties Union wants city officials to look outside the LAPD, but a range of officials--from Williams to Riordan to various City Council members--has expressed the view that this time the city might do better tapping an insider.

That will keep Parks and Kroeker, as well as other senior LAPD officers such as Deputy Chief David J. Gascon, in the news for many weeks to come.

“The good news is there are several people in the department who can do the job,” Yaroslavsky said. “The bad news is only one will get the job.”

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Profile: Bernard C. Parks

On Monday, Mayor Richard J. Riordan said he would support Parks’ appointment as interim police chief, should one be required.

* Born: Dec. 7, 1943

* Residence: Los Angeles

* Education: Bachelor’s degree from Pepperdine University; master’s degree in public administration from USC

* Career highlights: Joined the LAPD in 1965; reached level of deputy chief in 1988; promoted to assistant chief by Chief Willie L. Williams, who later demoted him to deputy chief; Parks now oversees LAPD’s special investigations, including Internal Affairs.

* Family: Married to Bobbie Parks; they have four grown children.