LAPD’s Plan to Upgrade Service OKd by Council

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday unanimously endorsed a Police Department plan to revamp its deployment practices so that patrol officers are capable of responding to emergencies within seven minutes, while still having 40% of their time free for patrol.

The endorsement means that council members are “committing themselves to supporting resources we need” to achieve the goals, Assistant Police Chief Robert L. Vernon said.

Vernon said the Police Department will soon be asking the council to spend nearly $1 million for a computer system that will help the department calculate how many patrol officers to put in a given area at a given time of day to meet the goals.

The council adopted a recommendation by its Police, Fire and Public Safety Committee that funds for the computer system “be appropriated as soon as possible.” It also requested that the department identify other needs. The department has already said it will need 41 more detectives and 28 more sergeants to back the 150 more patrol officers already approved by the council, and 250 more the mayor has promised to include in his 1988-89 budget. The budget, if passed, would bring the department to a record level of 7,750 officers.

The twin goals were proposed by a consultant, Public Administration Service, a private, nonprofit Virginia firm, that found Los Angeles patrol officers took too long--typically 9.2 minutes--to arrive at an emergency, and were so busy handling all calls that they did not have enough time to talk to people in the streets and deal with chronic neighborhood crime problems.

The consultant was hired as an outgrowth of protests that police protection was inadequate in minority communities. The consultant found one striking inequity--that officers in affluent areas had more free time to patrol.

But the consultant also said every neighborhood was being short-changed, because none was getting the seven-minute responses or was policed by officers who have 40% of their time free for patrol.

The consultant said the twin goals are a reasonable minimum standard of service.

Vernon said the department is committed to achieving the goals by 1989.

He told the council, “We’re committed to equality throughout the city.”

He said all sections of the city will be getting more patrol officers to meet the goals.