L.A. WATCHDOG — At the Tuesday morning meeting of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, Police Chief Charlie Beck told Mitch Englander and his fellow committee members that our Police Dept. needed to beef up its ranks to 12,500 officers by 2020 to “most effectively protect the city and keep crime down.”
There was no discussion about the cost of adding 2,500 officers, not an insignificant issue since the city is anticipating years of red ink as a result of the budget-busting contract with the city’s civilian workers.
Over the next four years, the city is expected to have a cumulative deficit of over $400 million. This does not include any additional revenue to fund the proposed homeless initiative, the hiring of 5,000 new civilian workers as outlined in the new labor contract with the civilian workers (some of whom will replace retiring employees), or the repair and maintenance of our lunar cratered streets.
Assuming that the LAPD could increase the size of the department to 12,500 officers and an all-in cost (including pension contributions and healthcare benefits) of $100,000 a year for the new hires, the four-year budget deficit would increase by $600 million, resulting in a $1 billion shortfall over the next four years.
However, it is highly unlikely that the LAPD will be able to hit the 12,500 officer target by 2020 because many experienced veterans will be retiring. This is compounded by the LAPD’s difficulty in attracting qualified recruits given its poor reputation relative to other law enforcement agencies.
Numerous Thorny Problems
The LAPD has the difficult mission of maintaining public safety. It has to report to the Police Commission and the City Council who often second-guess the department, relying on their 20-20 hindsight, especially now that the crime rate has spiked and there have been some unfortunate killings of civilians.
The Police Dept. is a large, complex organization with almost 14,000 sworn and civilian employees and a budget, including all related costs, of almost $2.6 billion, an amount that may be understated because of all the recent liability claims that have contributed to this year’s budget deficit of almost $100 million. The department needs almost $300 million over the next five years to replace old equipment. As with any large, complex organization, the most important factor is management and its ability to develop and implement a strategy and communicate with its constituency. But that seems to be lacking at our Police Dept. Chief Beck is under fire by the department’s union and many members of the minority communities.
That includes many voters who remember his threat that a “minimum of 500 officers that patrol our neighborhoods will be laid off and our historically low crime rates may be in danger” unless the voters approved Prop. A, the proposed permanent half cent increase in our sales tax. Of course, shortly after Prop. A was rejected by 55 percent of the voters in March 2013, Mayor Villaraigosa announced there would be no layoffs.
The Police Dept. cannot afford to increase the size of the police force to 12,500 officers unless there is a sizeable tax increase that likely will be in the range of $500 million. This equates to a 10 percent increase in our real estate taxes or a 1 percent increase in our sales tax. But Chief Beck does not have the necessarily credibility with the voters, which would result in another failed ballot measure.
Maybe it is time for Chief Beck to retire.
(Mr. Humphreville writes L.A. Watchdog for CityWatchla.com. He is the President of the DWP Advocacy Committee and a member of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council. Mr. Humphreville is the publisher of the Recycler Classifieds — www.recycler.com. He may be reached at: lajack@gmail.com)
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