ZINE PATROLS WEST VALLEY AFTER HOURS COUNCILMAN-COP KEEPS HIS FINGER ON PULSE OF 3RD DISTRICT AT NIGHT.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

A new kind of councilman is on the prowl: Armed. Alert. And leader of his own civilian posse.

Cop-turned-City Councilman Dennis Zine is back on the streets, this time as a reserve police officer, one of the lowliest beats in the Los Angeles Police Department. But that doesn't dim Zine's zeal as the first - and only - councilman-cop in Los Angeles.

``Lookin', checkin', watchin' ... this is what police work is all about,'' Zine said recently on his first tour of duty, eyes scanning from curb to curb as he gunned his LAPD cruiser through a gantlet of midnight shadows.

His second tour is scheduled for tonight with new police Chief William Bratton, who will help him keep tabs on Halloween revelers in the west San Fernando Valley.

His first time out, Zine encountered violations and the riff-raff he aspires to rid from his 3rd Council District: a parking lot filled with vagabonds. A matron making an illegal left turn. Abandoned cars. Illegal trash. Illegal garage sale signs. Gangbangers. Drunks.

``It's natural, like I'd never left,'' he said.

A 33-year LAPD veteran, former police union boss and retired motorcycle cop, Zine had not driven patrol in 10 years.

But fulfilling a campaign promise to return to a black-and-white, the Hollywood native ordered a uniform - 17 1/2-inch neck, 38-inch waist and reserve badge No. R12125. He dusted off his 9 mm Beretta and checked his Sam Brown belt. It fit.

``This is history, man, you've never seen this in the history of Los Angeles. I'm all pumped up, man, pumped up,'' said Zine, 55, whose duties run three shifts a month, on patrol and on detective warrant duty. ``Maybe we'll see some action.''

He does.

But not before getting acquainted with car No. 568, and the latest in LAPD protocol. He fumbles with the shotgun, once an Ithica, now a Remington. It jams. He marvels at the Mobile Digital Terminal, the new brain of patrol, mounted where the shotgun once sat. He forgets his nameplate.

On the road, Zine becomes Kojak, his police sense in high gear.

A Mercedes making an illegal left turn: ``Good ticket!,'' he yells, gunning the cruiser to make the traffic stop.

A slew of garage-sale signs tacked throughout his West Hills neighborhood: ``It's tacky,'' he said, stopping the cruiser to rip down the signs. ``It's about quality of life.''

And, in a dramatic highlight, he dropped by to offer his help at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where a man reportedly high on speed and cocaine had plowed his car through a glass door and into the emergency room.

What Zine purports to accomplish by riding patrol is to see his district firsthand.

``You can read reports till doomsday and never know what's happening,'' he said. ``I want to see it so we can solve the problems.''

Zine also wants to inspire new reserve police personnel - the force has dwindled from 2,000 to a mere 300. He wants to relieve officers from difficult holiday shifts. He desires a better connection to community and police problems.

He will donate his $50-a-month reserve pay to charity, just as he donates $25,000 of his $140,000-a-year councilman's salary.

Most residents who encountered Zine hadn't a clue who he was.

``Wow, I don't know him,'' said a waitress at the Frisky Kitty Gentleman's Club, as Zine and his partner checked for illegal activity.

``He's for real, the real deal? I think it's great,'' said Jay Miller, general manager of Yankee Doodles, a popular sports bar nightclub in Woodland Hills. ``It's really wild. He can tell himself what to do.''

Cops praised Zine, whom they described as the only councilman to ever inquire about their personal health and safety.

``Love him, love him, love this guy,'' said Sgt. Cory Palka. ``He'll actually call at 2, 3, 4 in the morning, because he really cares.''

``I've been in the Valley 22 years and Dennis is the only councilman who asked to be notified if an officer is seriously injured - and that's 24/7,'' said Sgt. Rolland Cannon, a watch commander at the West Valley station.

``That speaks volumes.''

Following his reserve-shift debut, Zine donned his uniform again and hit the streets with 40 trained members of his P.O.S.S.E. - or People Organized for a Safe, Secure Environment - to report 122 incidents of neighborhood blight, including 37 abandoned vehicles, 53 illegal trash dumps, 16 walls of graffiti, 11 shopping carts and three potholes.

To Zine, getting back in the black-and-white is cool. Three days a month, he works for Chief William Bratton; 28 days a month, the chief works for him.

When he requested the ride-along with the chief during a recent meeting of the City Council, Bratton replied, ``I look forward to supervising you.''

On his reserve tours and monthly P.O.S.S.E. sweeps, Zine hopes to make his West Valley district an example for the entire city.

``It relates to the Old West,'' Zone said as he navigated an alley known to harbor drug dealers. ``You've got the sheriff and the community going out to catch the bad guys.

``I'm the sheriff, and I've got my posse.''

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Photo:

(color) On his first assignment as reserve police officer, ex-LAPD cop- turned-City Councilman Dennis P. Zine checks out an odd crash in Northridge.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer