As the national controversy brewed over the beating of Rodney G. King at the hands of some Los Angeles police officers, Santa Monica Police Chief James F. Keane began getting messages of support from members of his own community.
Keep up the good work, some people told the chief. Don't let the Los Angeles Police Department controversy get you down, said others.
Keane had all the messages, many of which arrived via the city's innovative public computer network, printed up together, and made sure they were read aloud at roll calls and meetings so that every one of his department's 161 sworn officers could hear them.
Fearing that the resulting cloud over the LAPD might spread west to his department, Keane said he wanted to make sure his officers knew that they were not viewed with scorn and suspicion by everyone in the community. "I'm sure the officers on the street get (angry) comments made at them," Keane said this week. "So I think these messages were appreciated."
As Los Angeles police try to weather the turbulence that has come with the King beating and the furor it has created, Keane and the police chiefs of the Westside's other two independent police forces--in Beverly Hills and Culver City--said this week that they have felt the need to address the issue as well.
So far, four LAPD officers have been charged and entered not guilty pleas in the March 3 beating of King. As the investigations continue, the incident has exposed an undercurrent of tension between the LAPD and segments of the community it protects.
LAPD officers say their rules of engagement have informally changed since the videotape of King's beating became national news. They say they have tried to be more cautious and even more courteous, perhaps, and that they have encountered more hostility than usual from the public.
In the relatively peaceful enclaves of Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Culver City, however, the police chiefs say that much of that tension is, and always has been, absent.
Each of the three police forces has fewer than 200 officers, compared to more than 8,300 on the Los Angeles force. Each department is therefore far easier to manage, with much more direct supervision of officers. The three cities are considerably more affluent and less vulnerable to violent crime than Los Angeles, and citizens are appreciative that serious crimes in many cases actually has decreased during the past few years, the chiefs said.
