A Tough Job for a Tough Policeman : Willie L. Williams will need the support of all Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Police Department is finally going to get what it, and this city, needs--a new chief. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Willie L. Williams has been selected for the post by the Police Commission. It is to be hoped that Williams brings to Los Angeles his passion for reform, discipline, details and community policing and his concern for the officer on the street.

As the videotaped police beating of motorist Rodney King so vividly demonstrated, the new chief will take over a department sorely in need of change, both in terms of its public image and its internal morale. Williams’ appointment should help persuade Los Angeles voters to provide the incoming chief with some of the tools needed for the tough job that awaits. Charter Amendment F, on the June 2 ballot, would strengthen the accountability of the police chief, bolster the oversight of the civilian Police Commission and encourage a partnership between the LAPD and the citizens it serves.

Williams will become Los Angeles’ first black chief, and, perhaps more significant, the first “outsider” in the position in four decades. Like any new leader brought in from outside the LAPD, he will have to prove himself both inside the Police Department and among a public to which he is unknown.

Williams faces a major challenge in earning the trust of the 8,430-member department, in which a majority clearly wanted a new leader chosen from their own ranks. This task may be made more difficult by his reputation as a reformer and a tough disciplinarian.

Other challenges will come from outside the LAPD. Williams will command a force that is outmanned and sometimes outgunned by violent criminals. He will manage a Police Department that is too small for a city of 3 million at a time when the city cannot afford to pay for more cops.

And besides being the chief law enforcer, Williams must also be a healer. The King beating exacerbated existing tensions between the LAPD and much of the black community. The process of selecting a new chief stirred competitive tensions between the African-American population and the city’s larger Latino population. And the calls for reform worried some affluent and middle-class residents who were concerned that police protection might be reduced in their neighborhoods.

The new chief must ease these tensions without relaxing the department’s war against crime or slighting any area of this large and diverse city. He also must demonstrate sensitivity to all ethnic groups, especially Latinos, who make up 40% of the population.

Thankfully, Williams is no stranger to such challenges. Three years before he became the Philadelphia police commissioner, an intense controversy arose after that police department dropped a makeshift bomb on a threatening black cult known as MOVE; the explosion set off a devastating fire that killed 11 people and destroyed 61 homes.

Williams also commanded many veterans who remained loyal to Philadelphia’s best known--and highly controversial--police chief, Frank Rizzo, who provoked fear in many black neighborhoods.

Faced with those problems, Williams put more officers on the street in the face of budget woes, instituted tough discipline and repaired relations with the black community.

Chief Williams could face even tougher going in Los Angeles. He will need skill, luck and help in his new job as top cop. Everyone who truly cares about the future of this city and the LAPD must wish him the best.