Panel Named to Increase Latino Trust in Police : Enforcement: Valley’s top officer says goal is to counteract fears and language barriers that may keep Spanish-speaking people from reporting crimes.

Citing mistrust he said confronted him after the Rodney G. King beating, the San Fernando Valley’s top police official on Thursday convened a panel to study often-hostile relations between officers and Spanish-speaking residents.

The 20-member Spanish Language Outreach Committee, meeting for the first time in Canoga Park, agreed that fear of authority figures prevents many Latinos from reporting crimes and obtaining police protection, and that language and cultural barriers are partly to blame.

“I want us to be sincere in our concern, long-range in our approach and when the news media have left and we’ve met a few times, that we’ll know we’re on our way to meeting our goal,” said Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker, as he began the meeting in the Lanark Park Recreation Center.

Kroeker, who oversees the Los Angeles Police Department’s five patrol areas in the Valley, assumed his assignment the same day that four Valley officers were indicted in the March 3 videotaped beating of King, a black Altadena motorist. Kroeker, who said he is intent on restoring the department’s image, said Thursday that he began to appreciate the depth of mistrust between police and Latinos while attending a series of community meetings “in the aftermath of that horrible incident, the Rodney King incident.”

As a result, he appointed several Latino police officers, community activists and business people, all bilingual, to the committee to study the issue in the Valley. Committee members include Irene Tovar, a Pacoima community activist; Ed Moreno, the retired principal of San Fernando High School; Bill Beadles, publisher of the Spanish newspaper Mi Casa; and Fernando Viveros Casteneda, deputy consul general of Mexico.

Thursday’s meeting was devoted largely to introductions and a statement of goals. But committee members agreed that an estimated 600,000 Latinos now reside in the Valley, and that at least half do not have full command of English.

That communications gap makes “even a simple ticket a grave issue because there is an immediate distrust,” Tovar said.

“I had one man tell me he didn’t know if the officer was telling him to stay in the car or get out,” Tovar said. She also said many Latino men have complained about being frisked by police for no cause, especially in front of their families.

“Some have told me, ‘They humiliated me in front of my children,’ ” Tovar said.

The committee began its task just days after a pair of Central American immigrants and a support group sued the Los Angeles Police Department, alleging illegal collaboration between police and federal immigration authorities. The suit, filed Tuesday, contends that Los Angeles police routinely turn suspected illegal immigrants over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, even if they are crime victims.

Madeline Janis, executive director of the Central American Refugee Center, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, said Thursday that she was “very skeptical” of Kroeker’s effort because his committee does not include a member who works with illegal immigrants.

One committee member, Jane Arellano, represents the INS. But Kroeker noted that she works in the examinations branch, which advises people seeking citizenship, rather than the law-enforcement branch.

Janis said that despite Kroeker’s efforts, the department’s longstanding policy has been to cooperate with the INS, fostering mistrust. “Community relations is good, as long as it fits with the policy underneath,” Janis said. “When there’s a divergence in the two, it’s false. It appears to be insincere.”

Kroeker responded later that he hoped Casteneda, the Mexican diplomat, would be able to address the concerns of Mexican citizens. He said: “The best thing I can say is, ‘Watch us. Test our credibility.’ We’ll test our success in the months that lie ahead. I have a desire to make this not a cosmetic approach, but a sincere approach to deal with a real-life problem.”