Council Panel Backs Mayor’s Patrol Plan
Despite criticism from outraged residents of Los Angeles’ crime-ridden neighborhoods, a City Council panel has voted to back Mayor Tom Bradley’s move to scale back a police foot-patrol program.
Bradley used a rare veto Friday to halt the council’s plans to spend $2.5 million over the next 10 months to allow the Police Department to use about 60 officers on overtime at 18 crime “hot spots” around the city. The mayor said the appropriation was a “raid on the city’s reserve fund” and urged the council to support a $750,000 three-month pilot program instead.
This week the council’s Budget and Finance Committee voted to sustain the mayor’s veto and approved the pilot program, recommending that the funds come from the department’s $1.3-million surplus from positions that were budgeted but not filled.
Assistant Police Chief Jesse Brewer said the department supported the committee’s action but would have preferred that salary savings not be used.
The measure will go to the full City Council for a vote. The date of the vote has not been scheduled.
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