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ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Commission called on the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday to drop its ban on gays, indicating it may fold the Police Department’s Explorer Scout program if it doesn’t. 

The organization was asked to take up the issue at its national governing board meeting in February. If the commission isn’t satisfied with the outcome, commissioners said they would consider replacing the Explorer Scout program with something else. 

“It is regrettable that the Boy Scouts of America, which had been such a significant, positive force in our society, has chosen recently to take such discriminatory positions toward gays and lesbians,” Commissioner Dean Hansell, a former Eagle Scout, wrote in his motion calling for the Scouts to reconsider. 

Police Chief Bernard Parks also expressed concern, saying, “We have officers who are openly gay on the department,” who could not serve as Scout leaders. 

But another former Scout, Commissioner Bert Boeckmann, defended the organization, saying “it embraces everything we want in young people.” 

The Explorer program, which serves mainly minority youths between 14 and 21, operates in 18 Los Angeles police stations. 

Scouting officials pointed out that it is administered by a separate organization called Learning for Life, which has no policy against gays. But they also acknowledged that Learning for Life is closely affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America and some of the people who run the organization are also Scouting employees. 

Several school districts and cities around the country have prohibited Scout troops from meeting in their facilities since the Supreme Court upheld the organization’s ban in June. Some police departments, including San Diego’s, have severed their ties with the Explorer program. 

The City Council has asked all the city’s departments to review their affiliations with the Scouts, and the city attorney’s office has said anti-discrimination laws could invalidate any contracts the Scouts have with those departments.