A LOOK AHEAD * Hawaiian Gardens fashioned a police force to fit the low-income community. But now that leaders want to disband the agency and rehire the Sheriff’s Department . . . : Officers Must Pass Muster Once More

After a short-lived experiment in running their own police force, Hawaiian Gardens officials want to rehire the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to protect their one-square-mile community in order to trim costs.

There’s just one problem. City officials are hoping the Sheriff’s Department will retain the Hawaiian Gardens officers, many of them popular fixtures in the community. But the Sheriff Department’s brass questions whether some of the officers--some hired for their people skills rather than for flawless backgrounds--will meet the department’s more stringent requirements.

“We’re applying the same standards to them that we do to everyone else,” said Undersheriff Jerry Harper. “We have to look at previous drug usage, credit ratings, job references. . . . You can say some of them don’t meet the standards.”

It is a dilemma similar to the one unfolding between the Los Angeles Police Department and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as their police forces merge: Officers who meet the criteria of one law enforcement agency might not qualify for jobs with another. In Hawaiian Gardens--which was the first Los Angeles County city in 25 years to launch its own police force--this predicament has proven to be doubly difficult.

“The officers came here with good intentions, and under the belief that the city was financially able to support or maintain their department,” said Mayor Lupe Cabrera. “They were lied to from the beginning. . . . I respect all those guys. They are all trying to do what’s right.”

On the other hand, officials said, the city must consider its fiscal plight. The department--which was formed in February 1995--cost far more to run than the blue-collar city of 14,000 residents can afford.

Claiming that the financially struggling city could save $700,000 annually by contracting with the Sheriff’s Department, officials say they hope to finalize a plan within the next few weeks to disband the 20-member police force.

“We just don’t have enough money to support a police department,” said City Clerk Domenic Ruggeri. “I was against forming the thing in the first place. But now that they’re here, even though we can’t afford them, we should do right by them. . . . There are some good ones there who do a good job for the city. Crime actually went down.”

Supporters of the department argued that the city needed its own force because the Sheriff’s Department had a poor response time--an allegation that sheriff’s officials have denied. (Previously, the city had shared sheriff’s services with Lakewood, Bellflower and Artesia.)

But detractors argued that the move to form a separate department was just a political ploy on behalf of council members who were seeking reelection.

The new Police Department was expected to be funded by a 6% utility users tax--which was put to a vote in March 1995. But, to the dismay of city officials, voters rejected the tax--setting into motion the slow dissolution of the Police Department. On Aug. 12, the council is set to take up the fate of the Hawaiian Gardens police at its regular meeting.

In the meantime, Harper said that sheriff’s officials continue to do background checks on the 16 officers remaining on the local force. He declined to discuss how many have failed to meet the Sheriff’s Department criteria. Harper also declined to divulge specific reasons why they have been rejected.

(In a similar situation, nearly one-quarter of the 178 MTA police officers who applied for transfer to the LAPD under a proposed merger of the two agencies have failed background checks and do not meet the LAPD’s standards for employment, officials said last week. Of the 120 MTA officers who tried to transfer to the Sheriff’s Department, questions remain about 12 to 18).

Hawaiian Gardens Police Chief Walter McKinney said he understands that the Sheriff’s Department needs to uphold its standards, but he is urging that it consider the loyalty of the small force when making its decision on who stays or goes.

“That’s the non-tangible in this conversation,” McKinney said. “I have to take responsibility for employing all the people here. I wasn’t designing a police department for Lakewood or another more upper middle-class neighborhood.