Yaroslavsky Tops Bradley’s Request on Police Manpower

In a move of political one-upmanship, Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky on Monday proposed increasing the police force by 150 more officers than Mayor Tom Bradley urged last week in his $2.9-billion city spending plan.

Yaroslavsky told reporters after the council Finance Committee opened hearings on Bradley’s budget proposals, however, that cuts may be needed in other programs to pay for additional police officers.

“A budget is a statement of priorities and if fighting gang violence in this city is our highest priority, it should be reflected in our budget and it will be at the expense of virtually anything else,” said Yaroslavsky, who chairs the committee.

“And there’s a lot of ‘anything else’ in that budget that we can look at before saying ‘no’ to more police.” He did not elaborate.

Expected to challenge Bradley’s bid for a fifth term next year, Yaroslavsky signaled long ago that adding more police officers would be a key component of his campaign against the mayor. In recent years Yaroslavsky has proposed police force increases, often over Bradley’s objections or with the mayor’s grudging acceptance.

In January, Yaroslavsky won council backing to add 150 officers by the end of the current fiscal year and said that 250 more should be included in the new fiscal year beginning July 1. Bradley embraced both ideas, saying that the latter was first suggested by his own Police Commission.

If Yaroslavsky’s latest proposal is approved by Bradley and the full City Council, the LAPD’s authorized strength would climb to a record 7,900, nearly 1,000 more than just a few years ago. There is some question, however, whether Bradley would go along with the additional officers.

Bradley’s chief deputy, Mike Gage, told The Times that it is “too early to tell” how the mayor might respond to the proposed increase. Gage said the mayor is concerned that if Police Academy classes--now averaging about 75 recruits--were any larger, the quality of training would suffer.

Gage said he also is unsure how additional officers would be financed.

“We’ll have to take a look at where the money would come from and whose hide it would come out of,” Gage said.

Last week, when Bradley unveiled his budget, he was asked how he would respond if the council moved to increase the police force beyond the 400 additional officers he was proposing. The mayor said he had been told by the LAPD that the Police Academy could not accommodate more than the 400.

But since then, Chief Daryl F. Gates and his staff have done some refiguring. Gates became “firmly convinced” that the academy could handle at least 100 more trainees and possibly as many as 150, according to a letter the chief sent Yaroslavsky late last week. The first-year cost would be about $3.3 million.

Assistant Chief Jesse Brewer told the Finance Committee that the department now believes the academy can handle more than 400 because fewer officers are resigning or retiring due to higher morale and better pay. Brewer said about 300 academy slots are taken up each year just by recruits replacing former LAPD officers.

Councilman Richard Alatorre, a Bradley ally on the finance panel, said that Gates’ latest report on the academy capacity contradicted past statements. But later, Alatorre indicated that the larger police force would have little trouble winning council approval.

“This is the era of police,” Alatorre said. “If I were the chief, I’d ask for as many (officers) as I can.”