Foothill Division Image Improves : Pacoima: The police station once synonymous with the Rodney G. King beating becomes an attractive assignment. Activists like what they see too.

A wave of retirements this year created openings in the detective commander’s positions at four of the five Los Angeles police divisions in the San Fernando Valley, but Lt. Stella M. Mattson applied for only one: the job at Foothill Division.

“People said, ‘Why not apply for all four? It will improve your chances,’ ” Mattson said. “But I wanted Foothill Division. I took a gamble.”

And won. She took command of Foothill’s 60-member detective squad last month. The 29-year veteran of the department left a job as adjutant to an assistant chief at Parker Center headquarters to come to the division best known for being where the officers who beat Rodney G. King were stationed.

Mattson is not alone in her desire to work at the division that a year ago was considered--at least publicly--more notorious than notable. The Foothill Division, with its sprawling size and diverse population, has long been an attractive assignment for officers.

In the wake of the King incident, the challenge of repairing and renewing ties to the community and the speed and innovation with which it has faced the task have made the division even more attractive.

“In the department, Foothill is the place to be,” said Mattson, who competed with 12 other candidates for her post.

“We have a lot of people who want to work here,” said Capt. Tim McBride, the division’s commander. “We have a waiting list of people at all ranks, for all jobs.”

A year and a half after the King incident, the local community is also steadily being drawn to the division, into what police call a “partnership” that they hope will instill confidence and trust in the department.

The wall of McBride’s office is replete with plaques and citations from local business, citizen and political groups thanking him and his officers for the job they have done since the King episode. Community leaders who called for a wholesale transfer of the station’s command staff--including McBride--after the King beating now are some of the division’s, and McBride’s, most fervent supporters and defenders.

“It’s a different ballgame now,” said Fred Taylor, a community activist who lives in Pacoima and was once one of Foothill’s harshest critics. “It just isn’t the same place it was a year and a half ago. The vibes are different. If I wasn’t living here and observing this, I would not believe the changes. But it’s been a miracle. The attitude of trying to make things work in the community has been amazing.”

In the past, Taylor said, police were often viewed by residents as machine-like figures with little respect for or understanding of the people they served.

“It was a matter of course for Foothill officers to spread-eagle people they stopped to question,” he said. “It was a humiliation thing. I don’t know if that is totally stopped, but I don’t hear the complaints I used to get regularly.”

Others, while acknowledging the gains made by police, remain frustrated because they say improvements have come slowly.

“There has been change, yes, but I find it to be very slow,” said Floyd Turner, a member of the Hansen Hills Homeowners Assn. in Pacoima. “The sincerity of the officers is there and we are moving on the right road, but I’d say we’re only going about 10 m.p.h. A year and a half of improvement isn’t going to make up for how low relations had gone--even before the Rodney King case.”

Regardless of the pace, there appears to be a notable turnaround in the division which only a year ago was under the scrutiny of the FBI, the district attorney’s office and the department’s own Internal Affairs Division, let alone the community and the media.

The public image of the division became synonymous with the grainy amateur video taken of the beating of King by four Foothill officers. The video, and to a large extent Foothill Division, became a national symbol of police brutality.

While both veterans of the station and officers new to it are quick to say Foothill was never the “renegade station” depicted by its critics, they acknowledge policing in the area that spans from Sylmar to Pacoima to Lake View Terrace to Sunland-Tujunga has changed quickly.

“Foothill was not a renegade division,” said Deputy Chief Mark A. Kroeker, the highest ranking officer in the Valley. “That was an insulting label that I don’t buy. But what has happened is that there has been a great improvement.

“I think Foothill has become a flagship of police operations.”

To be sure, there is still much to do, say police and community members. When angry protesters threw rocks and bottles at the station after the not guilty verdicts were returned in the King case, it showed that wounds remain open. But the fact that violence and property damage was minor while it spread unchecked in other parts of the city is testimony to the work done, police and area residents say.

“I cannot tell you that all the issues have been resolved,” said Irene Tovar, a lifelong resident and activist in communities served by Foothill Division. “But there has been tremendous improvement in relationships between the police and the community. There is no doubt that the changes are what helped contain the problems after the verdict.”

What has brought the division to the point of receiving praise from both within and outside the department has been a carefully orchestrated set of changes that are still evolving. They ranged from minor, essentially symbolic, changes--the addition of furniture and a fish aquarium to create a more “user friendly” station lobby--to the vital and long-needed--the placement of at least one bilingual officer at the front desk at all times.

Among the changes undertaken at Foothill since the King incident:

* The transfer of dozens of officers in and out of the division to better reflect the ethnic diversity of the community. Police said 75% of the station’s command staff and 25% of its patrol ranks are new since the King incident with minorities and women now represented at all ranks and all shifts. Though comparisons to before the King incident were not available, the station’s 250 officers are now 64% white, 26% Latino, 8% black and 3% Asian and Indian. The division serves an area that is 60% Latino.

* More than 100 Foothill officers volunteered for a Spanish language teaching program to be taken on their own time in the station roll call room. Police and members of the community obtained grants to pay for the classes.

* Foot beats and bike patrols have been instituted along the division’s main commercial strip on Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima. Anti-graffiti and cleanup days have been sponsored in the same area.

* Officers conducted public awareness seminars in regard to the King case at every high school in the division and held open house events at the Foothill station on Osborne Street in Pacoima.

* Six police substations were set up at shopping plazas and community centers at which officers are posted at regular intervals so that they can be conveniently available to members of the public who wish to report crimes or discuss problems.

* McBride established an advisory council of 65 residents representing all ethnic and economic parts of the division. The group meets with police monthly to discuss community problems and brainstorm on solutions.

* Foothill Division supervisors attended “total quality leadership” seminars designed to help them tailor police service directly to the communities they serve.

* Anti-gang programs such as Jeopardy, which attempts to steer youths away from gangs, have been revitalized and made priority programs. McBride has taken over duties as host of a local cable TV call-in program and used the weekly spot to introduce community policing programs.

* The division has actively sought to increase its number of volunteer employees and reserve officers. The number of civilian volunteers working in the station jumped from 13 before the King incident to 53 currently. McBride said reserve officers have logged more patrol hours than any other division in the department.

McBride said many of the changes at Foothill have come out of the year-old community-oriented policing program that has been established Valleywide. But the station commander said the urgent need in Foothill to address community needs accented by the King incident resulted in it moving at perhaps a faster clip than other divisions.

“The incident happened here and we viewed it as an opportunity to learn and grow and become better than we were,” McBride said. “We grew faster, I think, because the crisis was right here.”

Capt. Gabe Ornelas was transferred to Foothill a year ago to take charge of patrol. He said the station is quickly developing a culture of service-oriented policing.

“It takes any station two or three years to develop a culture,” Ornelas said. “We are going through that now. But we have set the tone inside as to how we want to police the division, how we want to treat ourselves and the people outside.”

Some observers outside the department agreed.

“It is a shame the Rodney King incident had to happen but it has certainly been the conduit for change in the Foothill Division,” said Taylor, who is president of Focus ‘90s, a local business and residents group. “I am amazed at the speed at which it’s happening. By no stretch of the imagination are we done, but we are on our way down the road.”

Taylor’s chief concern is the need for more officers on the street. The positive nature of the new programs at Foothill is undercut when the ranks of officers remain thin, and response times to non-emergency calls are long.

Turner agreed, recalling a recent incident in which he said he waited three hours for police after reporting a man loitering and exposing himself in his neighborhood. Turner said he finally went to the Foothill station to complain. He said the slow response gives rise to community concerns that police are ignoring them.

“The feedback I get from the community is that there are still problems to address. Response time is just one of them,” said Turner, who is also a member of the Foothill advisory council.

Tovar said freezes on department hiring are slowing the move of Latino and black officers to street-level jobs and she believes more cultural awareness training is needed.

“The efforts of the past year have minimized the tension and established better trust in the police,” she said. “But there no doubt are still people who do not trust the police, are afraid of the police. We have to reach them, too. I think what we have now is a beginning, a structure to build on.” McBride said he is seeing signs that the efforts of both police and the community are having an impact.

He said recent crime statistics show suppressible crimes such as robbery, burglary and theft have decreased by 7% compared to last year. Complaints against officers in Foothill Division have so far dropped 70% compared to last year. The number of people attending Neighborhood Watch meetings is on the increase.

When riots broke out in the city after the King verdict, police officers had been working with many gang members who volunteered to help protect Pacoima businesses from looting.

Officer Richard Burrow, who has worked the streets of Foothill Division for 21 years, said the key to such successes is communication and understanding between police and the community.

“Having been here before and after the Rodney King incident, what I have seen has basically been an evolution of communication between the police and the community,” Burrow said. “The King incident has obviously caused an upheaval, but that communication is improving.”

He said in the last year the division has become more innovative and has actively sought to enlist the input and support of all parts of the community.

Taylor said he is an example of that effort. A critic of the department, he is now a member of the advisory council that meets regularly with McBride and other Foothill officers.

“They are including people in the process that would not have been included before,” he said of the local police. “Like myself. A year ago, I would not have been included. It shows they want the input from all levels.”

Innovation at Foothill appears to breed more innovation.

Burrow said there is a philosophy or climate of change in the division, a willingness on the part of the command staff to give new ideas a try.

Lt. Richard Meraz transferred to the station after the King incident and helped develop the Spanish language program. He said he originally agreed to stay at Foothill for a year--until the King controversy subsided--but now “I love it out here” and he plans to stay.

“There is motivation and innovation here,” Meraz said. “It has created a great atmosphere to work in.”

Mattson, the new detective commander, said she also wants to try new things. She plans to have detectives ride with patrol officers once a month to improve the relationship and communication between the two vital wings of the force.

She wants to use reserve officers as detectives to help improve and speed service. Mattson has also taken to appearing at community meetings--usually the bastion of uniformed community relations officers--to help establish ties with residents.

“Coppers like to feel that what they do has an impact,” she said. “I think this is the way to make an impact. . . . If the community doesn’t understand what we do, it makes our work harder and our relationship with the community more difficult.”