Police Panel May OK Uniforms at Street Fair : Policy: Commission president predicts that Gates will be overruled, allowing off-duty gay officers to recruit wearing official garb.

The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners probably will overrule Chief Daryl F. Gates and authorize gay and lesbian officers who volunteer for a weekend recruitment drive at a Silver Lake street festival to wear their uniforms, commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum predicted Thursday.

Sheinbaum called a special meeting of the commission for today to discuss the issue after a “strong expression” for quick action Wednesday by the City Council. In a unanimous vote, the council had approved an emergency motion calling on the commission to overturn Gates’ policy that prevented off-duty gay and lesbian officers from wearing uniforms while helping recruit at the Sunset Junction Festival in the heavily gay Silver Lake district.

“I think the commission would come out, generally, where the council came out,” Sheinbaum said.

Despite the overwhelming City Council vote, Gates refused again Wednesday to permit off-duty gay officers to wear uniforms, saying the recruiting effort would be handled by on-duty officers specifically assigned to the task. Allowing volunteer, off-duty officers to wear uniforms increases the city’s liability, could qualify them for overtime pay and may confuse citizens seeking assistance, Gates said.

Mayor Tom Bradley on Thursday also urged the Police Commission to reverse Gates’ policy.

Representatives of gay groups are expected to attend the special meeting and support the reversal of Gates’ policy.

“The community needs to see” openly gay officers recruiting “to know that we are there and that we are welcomed,” said Sandra Domingue, co-chair of the Gay and Lesbian Police Advisory Task Force.

Gates has “indicated to us he recruits based on ethnicity and gender because he is mandated by law to do that,” she said. “Since the gay community has not been identified as a recognized minority he refuses to do it because he hasn’t been told to. It doesn’t seem to be an issue as to whether or not it is right.”

Paul Butler, an LAPD reserve officer who said he is “on the record as an openly gay officer,” said gays need to be able to ask gay officers how they are treated when they apply to the Police Department, whether they are harassed while on duty because of their sexual preference, if being gay harms their chances for promotion and if they will have the same opportunities as anyone else.

Butler, who volunteered as a recruiter during a June effort, said his answers to those questions are “absolutely” positive. He said he has had “a lot of support from my fellow officers” since informing his LAPD superiors in June that he is gay.

The commission has a dual problem to tackle at today’s meeting--the immediate issue of whether gay volunteer officers should be allowed to wear their uniforms and recruit at the weekend festival, and the long-term policy of officers in general wearing their uniforms while off duty.

LAPD spokesman Lt. Fred Nixon said Gates objects to officers wearing their uniforms when they are not officially on duty because “he believes citizens have a right to expect police service from someone they see in a police uniform” and should not encounter situations in which an officer might say, “I’m in a Los Angeles police officer’s uniform but I’m off duty. I’m not able to provide the services that another fellow in the same uniform can provide.”

Some officers, such as those who are paid by movie companies to provide security at locations on city streets, can wear their uniforms while off duty, but Nixon said “that’s an exception that has been made by the Police Commission.”