Commentary : PERSPECTIVES ON POLICING : Give Us Peace Officers, Not Bands of Vigilantes : A free society certainly needs the feeling of security, but that can’t be won through abuses of power.

Despite the fact that the Los Angeles Police Department may be facing its most difficult crisis ever, the issue it is addressing--using undue and illegal force to get the “bad guys”--is the crux of the policing dilemma in our society.

Racism is not the immediate issue in the current story, since the victims and the officers are Latino, but it is usually a factor. The bottom line is this: The job of the police is to protect established society from those who would threaten it. And who are the dis-established? The young, the poor and, almost always, people of color. Every community--even wealthy suburbs--have their “troublemakers,” but when the police feel threatened, normal constraints can fly out the window.

The differences in experience with the police were clearly drawn during and after the O.J. Simpson trial. African Americans and Latinos had no difficulty believing the police lied and framed Simpson. Whites did not believe it. The differences in experience between the communities became a story in itself. Today’s headlines make the case of those who saw the worst side then. But even at the time, a number of people close to law enforcement of every color had no difficulty acknowledging the fact of lying and the framing of evidence.

Why it happens is easy to understand. What can be done about it is another story. From the perspective of police, prosecutors, judges and from time to time the FBI, it comes down to getting the bad guys. If they have trouble finding the right evidence to prove how bad their suspects really are, that’s just bad luck. So, they make it up. In the long run, they know their job is to make the established community secure by keeping troublemakers off the streets.

That these attitudes encourage racism is only a byproduct of the process. That the process itself may attract racists is another problem. The current scandal in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division is the result of an encounter between the police and gang members, and we should bear in mind that there is still considerable support in the community for their efforts.

The legal system itself encourages dishonesty by permitting police officers to lie to defendants while questioning them in custody. We see it all the time on television cop shows: “You know, your friend in the next room just confessed . . .” If our legal system condones that lying, is planting evidence or changing the story that different?

Another factor that comes with the job is the uncertainty of violence. We don’t put armies on the front line for 20 years. They serve a few months or weeks and are withdrawn to rest. Yet the police stay in the same job for years, perhaps moving from one part of the city to another. Their greatest danger comes from intervening in domestic violence, which could happen anywhere, even if the possibility of duking it out with guns is greater in some areas more than others.

The effort to make good triumph over evil and the danger of uncertain violence can encourage the worst-case scenario: small groups within the police department behaving like vigilantes instead of peace officers. It is not uncommon, but it is also not the norm. At least, we hope it isn’t.

The current efforts to root it out--and all the support they get from those who have been there and have moved higher up the police hierarchy--may help the LAPD, the city and every other police force and community in the nation come to terms with the reality of maintaining order under the law. Most of us are taught to look to the police as protectors from infancy. Too many of us learn to fear them. A free society requires security, but it cannot tolerate abuse of power or be sustained on fear.

The task before the LAPD is the most difficult task it has ever faced. Police officials must find a way to ensure sanity, restraint and an abiding adherence to the law by individuals who usually find themselves facing danger alone or in very small groups. They need to identify and weed out any semblance of organized racism. And they need to encourage and rebuild confidence in the department, both in the public and among officers. It is the root problem of today’s policing in a pluralist society with too many guns and drugs floating about. Facing up to the problem is the first step.