Committee Backs More Funding for Foot Patrols

A Los Angeles City Council committee voted Tuesday to support spending more money on a controversial police foot patrol program after funds originally budgeted for it run out on Dec. 1.

The council’s Budget and Finance Committee voted 3 to 0 to recommend spending an additional $250,000 for the program. The matter now goes before the full council, which earlier refused to override Mayor Tom Bradley’s veto of a $2.5-million budget for the program. Bradley called the expenditure a “premature raid on the city’s reserve fund.”

The foot patrols, which began in September, apparently are highly popular among residents in the 18 “crime hot spots” where they operate. Money for the first three months of the program was allocated from the existing Police Department budget.