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While he's not afraid to use force, Williams has a greater passion for community-based policing, which he hopes will generate goodwill between citizens and cops. For months, Williams has initiated hundreds of meetings with church, business and ethnic groups to explain his policies and garner support. At the same time, Williams has begun shifting 100 officers from desk jobs to street patrol.
So far, such tactics seem to be paying off. A Los Angeles Times poll last fall found that 52% of the residents in the survey approved of the way Williams was handling his job. Among black respondents, 6 out of 10 said they approved of the new chief and expected the department to become better and more effective during the next six months.
Not everyone is impressed. "They haven't really changed a lot," declares Enrique Lopez, 23, who is suing the police following an incident last Christmas in which, he says, officers grabbed him and smashed his face with a flashlight while checking out reports of gunshots in the neighborhood. Williams' own officers acknowledge the obstacles he is up against. "He is a very nice person and easy to talk to," says William Violante, president of the league representing rank-and-file officers. "But I don't think he is able to accomplish anything because there is no money for him to do what is necessary."
For the time being, however, the prospects for racial peace in Los Angeles appear to rest more heavily on Williams than on anyone else. On the days of the verdicts, Williams will have police on every corner in troubled neighborhoods, along with street patrols. "We will have a high uniform presence to say, 'Hey, if you are thinking about doing something, this is not & the town to do it in,' " Williams says. On the eve of the new trials, a calm and forceful police presence is the best insurance that L.A. can avoid another explosion.