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Yet, with all the vaunted efficiency of L.A.P.D., Watts would never have been subdued without the aid of 13,900 National Guardsmen. Like most other cities at the time, L.A. had no contingency plan for a major uprising. "We were so anxious not to cause a riot that we backed off at first and let a riot develop," admits Reddin, who was then a deputy chief. "Using accepted practice on the second day, we isolated the area, reasoning that the rioters would riot themselves out and go home. So what happened? Other riots broke out in other areas." In the end, the insurrection encompassed a region roughly the size of San Francisco. There was little liaison with other agencies, particularly the National Guard, and commanders often could not communicate with patrol cars because their radios operated on different frequencies.
Like any other lost battle, Watts yielded its lessons, and Los Angeles' riot plan is now geared for all contingencies. Police response is carefully adjusted, like a Herman Kahn scenario, to the size of the disturbance—enough force to smother trouble quickly, but not enough to provoke greater resentment. In each division, half the patrol cars are always tagged for response to special riot alert; if the cars of one division should prove inadequate to halt a disturbance, half the cars in the city can be on the move within minutes. If half the department still cannot keep control, nearly the entire uniformed force of 4,000 can be mobilized for duty. Los Angeles' basic formula of speed and superior force is being copied by 100 other cities.
Supervision has been greatly tightened and improved. At a demonstration against Vice President Humphrey at the Los Angeles Palladium last week (Humphrey, ill at home, was a no-show), supervisors made sure that police were restrained and effective. The protesters went home quietly. A year ago, when President Johnson appeared at Century City, the cops not only violated an elementary rule of crowd control by leaving the demonstrators no avenue for exit, but inflamed feelings with gross misuse of force, helping to turn a demonstration into a riot.