The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 186

i 2 July 19, 1979 HO Peace Keeping the i i- i if ill 'sj Police Job: Continued from First Pago The Police Department's No. 1 priority is keeping officers and patrol cars in the field. Every other resource training, backup services, planning and research, and headquarters operations is strained to meet this. At any one time, there may be eight cars, or nine, or 12, manned and ready for service. The department now has 128 sworn people ready and able for duty.

An additional 14 sworn officers presently are on long-term illness or disability leave. That is considered a higher than average number on a percentage basis, and the absence of these people is hurting the department. City Manager Allen J. Parker says the department should have between 150 and 170 sworn officers to do an optimum job. But he said that the city doesn't have the money to make this happen.

As Compton last year prepared to face the financial cuts dictated by Proposition 13, Rouzan went before the City Council, requesting a police budget of $7.1 million. Ultimately, after months of playing with numbers, the city allocated $4.7 million for police services during the 1978-79 fiscal year. Compton's crop of 10 rookie officers was let go in the financial crunch, although most later were reinstated. The department's patrol structure was reorganized, then reorganized again. At the end of July it will revert to the structure it had a year ago, before any changes were made.

It is apparent that the department is gaged in an ongoing experiment as to the best means of policing Compton. Within the department, there are conflicting views as to the effectiveness of the changes made thus far. Also as economy moves last year, the department disbanded its narcotics and vice unit and shuttered police headquarters at night. The police building is closed nightly at 7 p.m. People wanting police services must telephone for them after that hour.

Commenting on the closure of the station, Parker said, "We had no choice. Mine, and Rouzan's, concern is to keep those cars out there, but that does mean that other areas of service are suffering." The police budget for fiscal 1979-80 will be some $5.5 million, which will include seven new sworn positions. Rouzan said that the narcotics and vice unit will be reactivated. A little over a month ago, two 8-year-old Compton children on the way to a neighborhood market were accosted and forced into an abandoned storefront, where they were stabbed and beaten. The little girl was raped.

The girl's face was swollen and her body was covered with strips of bandage covering the cuts she had suffered. Baker said to her in a quiet voice, "We'll take you to an attorney. Do you know what an attorney is? Remember seeing Perry Mason? He dresses in a suit and stands up in front of a judge. When he asks you questions, don't be afraid. He's on our side." Baker was referring to the deputy district attorney who later filed the case.

At the little boy's home, the youngster was being photographed by police, standing straight, almost Boy Scout fashion. He seemed excited by the attention. The Compton Police Department had a period of racial strife, internal crises, and bitter clashes between the city and the police association over a labor contract. They used to call the department Troop, after that old television series about a cavalry outfit that couldn't do anything right. Rouzan said he bristles when someone calls his people Troop today, because it isn't true anymore.

"They're good officers," he said, "they're conscientious. The one deficiency as I see it is that they haven't sufficient training in many areas, and we're working hard on the training aspect, to make up for those years of no formal training." The chief said that 80 to 85 of the officers now on duty could work in any police department. The other side of the coin, he said, is that some of the men are lax and do as little as possible. Rouzan said he is suspicious of the true condition of some of those 14 on the sick and disabled list: "Maybe half of them are legitimately ill. The rest are making a living without working." Association leader Soisson said that the Compton officer is probably a better policeman than most because of the number of things he's exposed to.

Police education in the streets of Compton comes hard and quick, officers say. In a matter of weeks, they've seen everything. "When I hired on, I laughed at the Compton Police Department," said Sgt. R.E. Allen, the chiefs adjutant who joined the department 10 years ago.

"It was a joke. But I learned more in Compton than I would have elsewhere. I thought Compton was an inept organization. Now, I see professionalism increasing so markedly, I'm proud to say I'm from Compton." In his decade with the city, Allen has been a patrol officer working a police car, drug-abuse counselor, undercover narcotics investigator, and crime scene, burglary and homi- Bedley dons uniform prior to shift! Timet photo READY FOR DUTY Sgt. Michael cide investigator.

"I could have left Compton six years ago," he explained, "but I felt I owed the city something because they took me when two other agencies wouldn't." Allen was turned down both by LAPD and the county Sheriff Department' Petty, the Deputy DA who deals with several police agencies, said the Compton police are better than they think they are. "They suffer from a self-inflicted inferior Authorities subsequently charged Ne-hemiah Williams 18, with the crime in an eight-count complaint, and he goes to trial Sept. 12 in Compton Superior Court The brutal events traumatized two Compton families, and they also brought the quality of the Police Department into question. Angered by what they believed was the slow and insensitive handling of the case by patrol officers, the parents of the children went to the City Council, charging that the city isn't doing enough to respond to such cases and protect the citizenry. The father of the little girl said Compton "has one of the poorest police forces there is." A police investigation of the matter ensued.

Rouzan later issued a statement, calling the charge "an emotional response from a parent who has experienced a terrible incident against his child." He said that the charge, while understandable, was not supported by fact. Police records, Rouzan said, showed that officers responded within four minutes. While he backs the performance of his men in the field, Rouzan said a better job of preliminary investigation could have been done. He also said that when the incident occurred, he and Commander Gilbert A. Sandoval, who heads the special investigations bureau, should have been notified.

They were not. Both matters now are under internal affairs investigation, the chief said. If there was criticism of the initial police handling of the case of the two children, nothing but praise was heard for the fol-lowup investigation conducted by special investigations bureau Investigator J. R. (Rick) Baker.

The case came along at a Monday morning briefing, along with a rape, a murder, three assaults, and a car theft. The murder was a landlord-tenant dispute that probably would come down to self-defense. The rapist was a man, probably under the influence of PCP, who chased a girl across the lawn of a junior high school. Both were nude. Baker ran with the children's case, interviewing the parents who had come to the station to press the issue, and the suspect, who had been taken into custody the day after the incident.

He drove to Dominguez Valley Hospital, where the children had been taken, only to find that they'd been released to their parents. So, he got back in his unmarked car and drove to the homes of the children, which are on the same block on a modest residential street off Compton Blvd. In the home of the little girl, the living room was closed and darkened by heavy drapes. It was a hot day and an air-conditioner was loudly at work. to 20 country formal or informal formal or informal reg.

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