RESIDENTS CONCERNED OVER SHIFT OF OFFICERS.

Byline: Theresa Moreau Daily News Staff Writer

The Los Angeles Police Department is shifting senior lead officers from their community liaison assignments to more direct crime-fighting roles patrolling the streets, a proposal that is drawing opposition in some areas.

The community liaison role was a key element of the reforms instituted by then-Chief Willie L. Williams. But his successor, Bernard Parks, believes the latest change will more effectively fight crime and maintain close relations between the community and police.

Gail Polevoi, a Neighborhood Watch captain and a member of the Valley Village Homeowners Association, said Thursday that she feared the change would be ``a real blow to community policing.''

``They're taking officers away from us. It's going to have a big impact . . . instead of moving forward, we're moving backward.''

But sergeants will take over some of the senior lead officers' community work, police said.

Chief Parks said the transition has already gone into effect in some areas of the city, and will apply citywide by the middle of next year.

``First we have to train the sergeants to take over for the (senior lead officers),'' he said Thursday night.

He predicted the program would be an overwhelming success.

``We want to make sure officers are there and visible, even if you don't need them . . . to stop in and talk about issues.''

``It's going to take a while, but in the long and short term it's going to be an overwhelming success. Let's bite the bullet and make changes and move forward,'' Parks said.

Not only will more police officers be responding to emergency radio calls in the near future, but more will be participating in community-based relations, said LAPD Capt. Ronald Bergmann of the Foothill Division.

Previously, the police force has been split between ``community cops'' who act as liaisons between residents and the department, and ``real cops'' who patrol their designated area and respond to emergency calls, he said.

The re-deployment means that the two will combine to form a single force of ``real community cops.''

In the Police Department's tentative plan, the numbers of senior lead officers will not change. The only change will occur in their assignments.

The 168 senior lead officers posted citywide - 48 in the San Fernando Valley - will be removed from their office and returned to the field where they will respond to radio calls and train probationary officers with less than one year of experience.

Half of their numbers will be replaced by police sergeants who will take over much of the duties currently performed by the senior leads.

``The big change people are concerned about is that they will not have access to officers in the community police program, and that's not true,'' said LAPD Capt. Richard Wemmer of the Van Nuys Division. ``They will have just as much contact with the community, and also have an opportunity to meet more officers assigned to their basic cars.''

Polevoi enjoys the ``old-fashioned'' style of communication she now shares with her area's senior lead officer, Ed Brentlinger, of the North Hollywood Division. She also noted with pride that he was one of those officers caught in the cross fire of the North Hollywood shootout in February.

``With all the emphasis on community policing in recent years, it seems very strange that once we got community officers, once we got to know them, and once they got to know our neighborhood, they got taken away from us,'' Polevoi said.