CHIEF, PANEL AT ODDS OVER LEAD OFFICERS.

Byline: Alexa Haussler Staff Writer

A Los Angeles City Council committee challenged Police Chief Bernard Parks' authority Monday, seeking to revive the popular senior lead officer community-policing program he killed as inefficient.

The council's three-member Public Safety Committee indicated strongly that it will support reinstating the program in which the senior lead officers worked as neighborhood liaisons. The program had been launched as part of the Christopher Commission reforms after the 1991 beating of Rodney King.

But Parks told the committee he will stick by his decision to place the senior lead officers back in patrol cars and train all of the department's officers in community-based policing.

``They have not been lost. They have not been misplaced. They are basically working in the field,'' Parks said.

After hearing from Parks and a string of LAPD officers and city residents, the committee voted to ask the city attorney whether the City Council and Police Commission have the power to order the chief to reinstate the program.

The committee plans to forward a recommendation to the full council after the attorney's opinion comes, possibly within two weeks.

``The bottom line, chief, is we're not going to change your mind, I can tell already,'' Councilman Nick Pacheco said. ``The question is, How do we get this changed without changing your mind?''

About a year ago, Parks shifted the duties of the 170 who had been designated as senior lead officers, saying community policing is a responsibility of all patrol officers.

``We believe, in order to be a truly supportive department of community-based policing, that we have to have all members involved,'' he said.

Officer Sonia Grace, who is a senior lead officer under the new structure, supported the chief's decision, saying SLOs on patrol can teach younger officers how to work with the community.

``Ideally this relationship that everybody's talking about in this room - that they miss so much - will be established with every officer in LAPD,'' she said.

But neighborhood activists decried the move, saying SLOs under the old system provided their only chance for face-to-face contact with the department.

``We no longer have that face that goes with the uniform that goes with the badge,'' said Brendan Breslin, a Van Nuys Neighborhood Watch coordinator. ``They were a face, a name, an identity and a dedication from the Police Department we no longer have.''

Breslin and others criticized Parks for doing away with the familiar system.

``It wasn't broke, so why is he fixing it?'' asked Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Association. ``The senior lead program is missed, and the general public wants it back.''

Councilman Joel Wachs, who introduced the motion to revive the program, told Parks, ``If you want to develop community policing in Los Angeles, you'd better talk to the community.

``It's time to involve the community.''