TV CUTS TO THE CHASE DESPITE PLEAS, MOST STATIONS RUN WITH VIDEO.

Byline: James Nash Staff Writer

Less than a week after Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn and Police Chief William Bratton asked media leaders to curtail their coverage of live police chases, most local television stations broadcast video of a shoplifting suspect evading police on a wild chase through the Cahuenga Pass on Monday afternoon.

News directors, who said they were unswayed by Hahn and Bratton's appeal, maintained that they would continue to broadcast police pursuits that they deem newsworthy.

The 35-minute chase from downtown Los Angeles to North Hollywood was covered in whole or part by KABC-TV (Channel 7); KTTV (Channel 11) and its sister station, KCOP (Channel 13); and KCBS (Channel 2) and its sister station, KCAL (Channel 9).

``In his news conference last week, Mayor Hahn himself described chases as 'life-and-death situations' which threaten public safety,'' said Arnold J. Kleiner, president of KABC-TV, which picked up Monday's pursuit shortly after it began at 4:30.

``A story that fits that description is generally worthy of live coverage,'' Kleiner said in a written statement. ``Today's chase definitely fits that description.''

Aides to Hahn and Bratton offered no direct criticism of the stations that broadcast Monday's chase.

Neither the mayor nor the police chief watched coverage of the pursuit. Hahn and Bratton's top media representatives said they saw only snippets of the broadcasts.

``The chief's feeling is that while pursuits have some news value, his concern is that they're being packaged for entertainment value,'' said Mary Grady, Bratton's spokeswoman. ``He doesn't understand why stations cover it for hours on end.''

Julie Wong, a spokeswoman for Hahn, said there's rarely any value in television stations airing pursuits live since drivers - who have the most reason to be concerned about chases - shouldn't be watching television. Wong said she was encouraged that some television stations declined to air Monday's incident live.

``From the mayor's perspective, it's usually the right decision not to air a chase,'' she said.

Officials at KCBS and KCAL declined to comment other than referring to a written statement in which they pledged to cover incidents ``as thoroughly and responsibly as possible'' when public safety is endangered. Both stations are owned by Viacom and share news-gathering operations.

KTTV and KCOP (Channel 13), which are jointly owned by Fox Television Stations, aired portions of the chase during their regular newscasts. A program manager for the stations declined to discuss their reasons for airing parts of the chase.

Officials at KNBC (Channel 4) and KTLA (Channel 5), neither of which carried the pursuit live, could not be reached Monday afternoon.

Most television news directors continue to insist that live police pursuits - with their potential for injury or death to officers, suspects and innocent people - are newsworthy, said Crys Quimby, president of the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California.

``If the police are chasing a suspect, that's news,'' said Quimby, the news director for radio station KFWB-AM (980), which interspersed its newscast with updates of Monday's chase.

Rick Marks, a journalism professor at California State University, Northridge, said only about one of 20 police chases is actually newsworthy. But he said news directors will resist anything that seems like an order from the government to change their coverage.

``We are not going to be told what to do,'' Marks said. ``It's almost like a red flag.''

Marks said that while police might have found a convenient scapegoat in blaming the media for excessive coverage of police chases, the larger safety concern arises from police giving chase too often.

The Los Angeles Police Department has revised its chase policy due to recent deaths and injuries. After April 6, officers will limit pursuits to people wanted in felony crimes.

The man arrested after Monday's chase, 41-year-old Refy Lusky, still would have been pursued because initial reports suggested he had robbed a clothing store at Eighth and San Pedro streets in downtown Los Angeles, said Officer Lucy Diaz, an LAPD spokeswoman. Officers later downgraded the alleged crime to shoplifting, which would not have given rise to a vehicular pursuit.

Lusky sped west to the Westlake District and north into Hollywood, after the 4:27 p.m. incident, police said.

He drove through red lights and at one point backed up for nearly a block when he encountered stalled traffic at one intersection. He headed through the Cahuenga Pass and into North Hollywood.

Shortly before 5 p.m. the red Toyota came to a stop in the 12000 block of Oxnard Street in North Hollywood and the suspect ran into an apartment complex where he apparently lived, said Lt. Roger Deranian.

Officers found Lusky inside his apartment and put him in cuffs shortly after 5 p.m., Deranian said.

Staff Writer Helen Gao and City News Service contributed to this report.

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