Chick Calls for LAPD Quality With Quantity : Police: Saying earlier remarks were misinterpreted, councilwoman backs mayor’s plan to rapidly expand the department. But she cites a need for close monitoring.

Saying that her recent questions about the breakneck pace of Los Angeles Police Department expansion were misinterpreted, Councilwoman Laura Chick on Wednesday said she believes the city can add large numbers of officers without sacrificing quality.

“I believe we can have both quantity and quality; it was never an either-or question,” Chick said after heading a special committee hearing on department recruiting, training and supervision.

Chick took a political drubbing of sorts when, two weeks ago, she voiced concerns about whether the LAPD could achieve reforms while adding almost 100 recruits to the force each month. She drew criticism not only from Mayor Richard Riordan--whose campaign promise to add about 3,000 officers within four years is a key goal of his Administration--but also from other elected officials and constituents.

A strong police supporter who heads the council’s Public Safety Committee, Chick said earlier this month that department brass and officers privately told her of problems arising from the rapid expansion but publicly said concerns were minimal and should not be allowed to slow the pace.

Chick used Wednesday’s joint hearing of the Public Safety and Personnel committees to air the concerns, especially those centering on whether recent Police Academy graduates are getting adequate supervision and on-the-job training once they are assigned to patrol duties. While Deputy Chief David Gascon downplayed their concerns, committee members made it clear they want close monitoring of the number of field training officers assigned to rookies and the trainers’ level of experience.

“At any given time, you can have 10 to 12 new officers at a roll-call and only three field training officers,” Councilman Mike Feuer noted.

“This is a very, very critical issue,” said Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg in asking the department for written answers to questions about field training operations.

Chick said she wanted to “clarify the record” by stating her full support for the expansion plan, but added “we have the responsibility [to conduct] a regular, ongoing monitoring” of the expansion plan and the comprehensive reform program launched after the 1991 police beating of black motorist Rodney G. King.

With a dig at “some of my colleagues” who charged that she was abandoning her support for the expansion plan, Chick said her questions represented “a new mode of doing business. We are going to be proactive for once, and not wait until we learn about a problem through the media before we do anything.”

Chick’s statements came the same day as City Council actions on a smorgasbord of police- and crime-related issues. They included:

* Levying a new tax on firearms and ammunition sales, amounting to about $106 a year on businesses selling up to $18,000 a year in guns and ammunition. The measure, proposed by Councilwoman Rita Walters as a way to help limit street violence, passed 10 to 3.

If signed by the mayor, it will take effect Jan. 1. The mayor’s office said Riordan will not take a stand on the measure until he has a chance to review it.

* Taking steps to hire a citywide “gang czar” and create a special committee to oversee efforts to fight street crime. Feuer, who offered the “czar” idea, said he would be amenable to having the post expanded countywide, as called for by Riordan last week in the wake of a Cypress Park gang shooting in which a 3-year-old girl was killed. Riordan’s office said the mayor will not name a countywide coordinator or reconvene the anti-gang task force he assembled until after he returns from a two-week Asian trade mission Oct. 12.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas called for an eight-member ad-hoc committee on gangs and juvenile justice, to consist of four City Council members and four experts specializing in working with gang members and youths at risk of becoming gang members. Both councilmen’s motions were unanimously approved.