LA City Council approves $1 million funding proposal to hire more LAPD officers
The Los Angeles City Council approved a $1 million funding proposal to hire more police officers, falling short of Mayor Karen Bass' request for $4.4 million.
In a 9-6 vote, council members advanced Councilwomen Katy Yaroslavsky and Ysabel Jurado's budget increase to cover the additional hiring for the next two months. Council members Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Heather Hutt, John Lee, Traci Park and Imelda Padilla voted against the proposal, opting for a motion introduced by Councilman John Lee, which aligned with Bass' $4.4 million request.
Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said on Thursday that if the funds were not approved, staffing levels at the department could drop to levels not seen since the mid-1990s.
"We're currently down 1,400 officers from our high in 2019," McDonnell said on Thursday. "Our officers are doing an awful lot with less every day."
The City Council approved a motion to hire 240 more officers in the budget approved earlier this year. In her letter to the council, Bass said the $4.4 million request would go to hire 410 more officers.
"Additional hiring adds roughly $24 million to the city's structural deficit. On an annual basis, the full cost would be reflected in the mayor's proposed budget, and it cannot be paid for by laying off city workers or reducing essential city services," said Yaroslavsky, who chairs the Budget and Finance Committee.
In June, city leaders went through grueling budget negotiations to close the city's nearly $1 billion deficit. Earlier this year, City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo attributed the fiscal crisis to the tax revenue missing its projections by $315 million, firefighter and police pension payments increasing to $100 million, $80 million in solid waste fees, more than $100 million in legal payouts and the $275 million needed to replenish the city's reserve fund.
"Public safety is about more than police," Yaroslavsky said. "It's about fixing street lights so they actually work. It's about repairing sidewalks before they cost us millions in liability payouts, and it's about having enough money to paint our own damn crosswalks and not having rogue volunteers doing it for us, and then getting arrested on the news."
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents LAPD officers, said the funding is essential for the high-profile events coming to the city. The union's board of directors called the $1 million funding increase "confusing" to new LAPD recruits.
"For a council majority in one breath to say they want to hire more police officers but in the very next breath say, but only for the next two months, sends a confusing and mixed message to those wanting to join the LAPD," the board wrote. "Defunding the police is a recipe for disaster."
