Riordan Gets an Earful From Disgruntled Officers : LAPD: Rank and file complain about low morale and the police chief. Mayor tells them to work with Williams.

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan paid a visit to the thin blue line Thursday, and found it exceedingly blue.

The mayor attended morning roll call at the LAPD’s Van Nuys station, where officers cheered Riordan but told him that they feel they work in a vacuum with little support from the community or the top department brass, particularly Chief Willie L. Williams.

Their remarks gave Riordan, in his 15th day as mayor, a glimpse at the reality of the lives of rank-and-file officers who believe that morale in the department has never been lower.

“Lawyers complain about lawyer-bashing and we feel like we’ve been (bashed),” said Officer David Gray, a 26-year veteran. “I feel like the Pepsi people--our product has been tampered with.”

But Gray said that although PepsiCo. took decisive actions to restore public confidence after a recent syringe scare, little has been done by LAPD management to restore confidence in the force after two years of upheaval.

Riordan sought to reassure the officers, saying: “I know that when you’re put in situations where you have to be tough and make tough arrests, that you’re subject to criticism. I think we have to step back and give some latitude, to know that you’ve got to be tough, and when you’re tough, things don’t always come out the way everybody wants them to.”

But his words of reassurance worried department critics, who have questioned his determination to crack down on officers who use excessive force.

“We are not clear what the mayor meant by what he said,” said Allan Parachini, public information director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Los Angeles chapter. “We think he should clarify what he means. We are a little concerned that officers could interpret what he said as giving them license to use inappropriate use of force.”

But Thursday belonged to the rank and file. And for half an hour, complaints poured forth in the room packed with about 75 officers. They said that the public has lost respect for them, that the chief is more interested in public relations than their safety, that they are severely short of equipment, and that in the aftermath of the Rodney G. King case they fear being disciplined or even prosecuted for doing their jobs.

More than a dozen complaining officers were backed by cheers. No officer offered any contradiction.

“I have never seen morale as low as it is right now,” Gray told Riordan.

The visit came against the backdrop of a public dispute between the mayor and the chief over Riordan’s campaign promise to add 3,000 officers to the force by the end of his four-year term. Williams said this week that such a feat is impossible because the numbers needed are far beyond the training capacity of the Police Academy.

Riordan was quick to defend Williams, calling for the rank-and-file officers in the department to support him.

“Chief Williams I found to be a very brave, very dedicated person, but he can’t do things alone,” Riordan said. “This is a very bright person, but he needs people standing with him to make very tough, very thorough changes.”

Riordan also assured the unhappy officers that despite Williams’ misgivings, he plans to steadfastly stick to his goal of increasing the force to 10,500 officers, calling that figure the “absolute minimum” needed to make the city safe. He mentioned the possibility of doubling the size of the Police Academy or finding other ways to train that many new officers.

The visit was a first by Riordan, who said he plans weekly visits to police station roll calls. He was boisterously greeted by the officers as he delivered an upbeat message.

“The future of this city is in your hands,” Riordan told the officers. “If we are going to turn the city around, we have to make it safe. Businesses do not want to come into a city that is not safe. Tourists don’t want to come into an unsafe city.”

Accompanying Riordan was his new deputy mayor for public safety, William C. Violante, who as head of the officers union, the Police Protective League, was Williams’ fiercest public critic. Although Violante has now pledged to work with Williams as a team, his comments once carried much of the same anger and bitterness heard in the session with the officers Thursday.

When Riordan took questions from officers, they complained that they have seen little change within the department during the last year--except for moves they view as threatening, such as Williams’ plan to increase the ranks of the Internal Affairs Division, which investigates complaints against them.

Saying the exterior image of the LAPD undergoing change was “one of the myths going around town,” Officer Luke Magee said: “I really haven’t seen a change inside the department.”

Other officers said they are hampered by severe equipment shortages or complained about stalled labor negotiations that have left them without a contract for more than a year. Officers said the problems are causing veteran officers to retire and younger officers to consider transferring to other departments.

In an interview this week, Williams conceded that “morale is not--on a scale of one to 10--is not up around an 8 or 9.” But the chief said he believed morale would improve once the union and city agree on a new contract for officers. He also said the city needs to approve new and better equipment for LAPD officers because deteriorating police stations and cars contribute to the waning officer morale.

Still, during Thursday’s gripe session with the mayor, Sgt. Dennis Zine (an unsuccessful City Council candidate) drew cheers of agreement when he said there is an anti-police climate in the city that has made morale plummet and created a fear in officers of being prosecuted and not supported by department brass or the city attorney’s office.

“Officers in the field have a great fear of being indicted and of the city attorney’s office walking away” from their defense, Zine said.

Riordan promised to address the officers’ concerns, most notably saying that next week he will form a task force with City Atty. James K. Hahn to studies ways of improving relations between police and prosecutors.

After Riordan’s visit, many officers said their spirits were buoyed.

“I was very impressed that he came out,” Magee said. “It’s all about support. I’d go without a pay raise if I had support and a precise mission. The chief isn’t doing that; he’s out running a public relations campaign.”

Officer Jason Samuels, a patrol officer for three years, did not speak during roll call.

Later, though, he agreed wholeheartedly with his more experienced colleagues. “Morale is absolutely down,” he said. “This department has just gotten so bad as far as the level of support it receives from the community and the higher echelon of the department. Hopefully, it will get better now.”

If it does, Samuels will not be around to see it. This is his last week as a Los Angeles officer. He has accepted a job as a police officer in Atlanta.