Gates Says He Welcomes Audit of Department : Police: Chief says he won’t be forced out and defends work of his officers. Bradley orders examination that could take up to a year and cost more than $1 million.

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said Friday that he welcomed a thorough audit of the Police Department, as long as it is done by an independent consultant outside City Hall, and dismissed speculation that the mayor and City Council are seeking the audit as a prelude to removing him.

“This chief is not going to be manipulated out of here,” Gates said when asked at a crowded Parker Center press conference if he interpreted the audit as the first step in a political process to seek his ouster.

“I will pick the time when I leave this department,” Gates said. “I may have a big mouth, but I know how to run a major police department. And I’ll leave when I choose to leave.”

A management audit of the Police Department, ordered by Mayor Tom Bradley on Friday, would be one of the most sweeping examinations of its kind, taking up to a year to complete at a cost that could exceed $1 million, city officials said.

Bradley said he wants the audit to determine “from top to bottom how the department is deploying its 1,500 new officers and what results the public has received for its huge investment.” The Police Department has a $1-billion annual budget.

“I welcome an audit,” the chief said. “I think the Los Angeles Police Department is the most effective, most efficient police department in the country. Not because of me, but because of a management team, because of a spirit, because of the fine police officers in this organization. And because of the public that supports us over and over and over again.

“Any kind of review of this organization would be helpful, particularly if it’s done by an outside consulting group.”

Gates stopped short of criticizing the mayor, however, for ordering the review. “Tom has had his troubles,” the chief said. “I’ve had a lot of people ask me to step forward and criticize the mayor. But I refuse.”

But Gates declined to detail a conversation he had Friday morning with the mayor, in which Bradley advised the chief that he was calling for the audit.

“It was a conversation between the mayor and myself,” Gates said. “It was a very agreeable conversation, and I told him if he chooses to have an audit, he has my full support.”

But Gates did blast Bradley’s inner circle of advisers at City Hall, calling them “a young staff over there that has let him down.”

He took particular aim at Deputy Mayor Mark Fabiani. “He’s a slick-haired fella that sits over there as a young kid,” Gates said. “I have no idea what he’s trying to do, or if he does anything.”

And he criticized Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky’s comments about an increase in the crime rate. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Gates said. “But that’s not new.”

The chief saved most of his venom for The Times, and repeatedly blamed the newspaper for a series of recent articles that he said were “badly reported.”

He expressed his disgust for articles about his remark that casual drug users ought to be “taken out and shot,” problems with the internal police disciplinary system, and recent allegations of police misconduct in the so-called “39th and Dalton” drug raid.

He accused “new management” at the newspaper of using those articles to prod the City Council and Bradley to remove him from office.

“I don’t know of anybody who’s trying to orchestrate my departure except the Los Angeles Times,” he said. “This has been orchestrated very cleverly by one newspaper.”

He said The Times did not appreciate his comments before Congress about casual drug users. “I don’t know why they’re lobbying for the casual drug users, but obviously they are,” Gates said of the newspaper. “That might say something about that organization.”

Craig Turner, metropolitan editor of The Times, responded: “It is our responsibility to report thoroughly and accurately on the public agencies that serve Southern California, including the Los Angeles Police Department. We have done so for the last 108 years and will continue to do so.

“Any suggestion that The Times is somehow trying to ignite a feud between the mayor and the chief, to orchestrate the chief’s departure, or to lobby for casual drug users is ludicrous.”

Fabiani also dismissed Gates’ criticisms. “Mayor Bradley makes the decisions around here and if Chief Gates thinks otherwise, he’s kidding himself,” Fabiani said.

Yaroslavsky responded to Gates’ comments by saying: “As far as I’m concerned, this isn’t about personalities, but about getting the best use of taxpayer dollars.”

In another development Friday, Police Commissioner Stephen D. Yslas resigned after more than 10 years on the five-member panel. But he maintained that his resignation is not related to the recent department controversies.

“My decision to resign was completely personal,” Yslas said.

Sources at City Hall said the resignation may be the first in a series of changes on the commission in the coming months as Bradley attempts to gain tighter control over the Police Department.

Gates said there was no secret about how the 1,500 new officers are being deployed. He said that except for a few detectives and narcotics investigators, and 400 recruits in the academy, the vast majority are out on beat patrols.

City officials said they had requested an accounting two months ago from the department and have yet to receive a response. But Gates said the report was sent over last week.

At the City Council on Friday, Yaroslavsky introduced a motion calling for the formation of a Police Department Audit Review Committee to ensure a “thorough and objective process.”

“It is absolutely critical that the city identify what the audit must encompass, how and who will be selected to perform the audit and who will supervise the project,” Yaroslavsky said.

Keith Comrie, the city’s chief administrative officer, said the scope and depth of the review could exceed the six-month, $1.2-million examination of the Department of Water and Power that produced a 585-page report earlier this year. That report found that the DWP failed to adequately plan for the city’s future water needs and concluded that planning for new sources of water “should receive immediate attention.”

The Police Department, with 8,400 sworn officers, is one of the largest and most complex city departments. The management audit would be the first of its scope in a decade, officials said.

Gates, in welcoming the audit, said he hopes the evaluation is exhaustive and confirms his opinion that “a lot of things” need improvement.

He said narcotics detectives work in cramped quarters, that 400 officers are crowded into the Rampart Station, and that some police helicopters have a dangerously high number of flight hours.

But at the same time, he said, police are making inroads in fighting crime. He said burglaries have decreased by 40% over the last decade, that “homicides are coming down” in some areas, and that police officer response times have dropped from 9.2 minutes in 1986 to 6.8 minutes today.

“This is a safe city,” the chief said. “Safer than any major city in the country.”