Despite Policy, LAPD Is Slow to Use Civilian Workers : Personnel: Department leaders prefer to save ‘light-duty’ jobs for officers unable to do fieldwork.

The Los Angeles Police Department employs 2,600 civilians, many of them secretaries and clerks, custodians and criminalists, auto mechanics and jailers.

But critics say that the Police Department could use far more civilians in jobs now being performed by some of the department’s 8,200 sworn officers.

stating that officers should “perform only those tasks where there is an identified need for police knowledge and skills.”

The department, however, has “historically been reluctant to replace many of its sworn positions (with civilians even though) the duties do not require the skills of a sworn police officer,” the city administrative office concluded in a 1981 audit.

That audit urged the department to put civilians in 256 jobs then held by officers. The department fought many of the proposals but eventually filled 128 jobs with civilians.

James Sobject, an analyst for the city administrative office, said the financial savings from the move and a management reorganization allowed the city to deploy 173 more police officers the next year.

Sobject’s boss, City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie, said he remains convinced that the other jobs--including clerical tasks--should have been filled with civilians too.

But some department officials worry that if they heed Comrie, the City Council will be tempted to pocket the savings and reduce the authorized number of sworn officers.

Police administrators also said they prefer to keep some office work for officers out of loyalty to those who, because of age or deteriorating physical or emotional condition, can no longer cut it in the field.

“You have an organization that employs people for 20 to 30 years and guys burn out,” said Joe DeLadurantey, who until recently was the captain in charge of the Harbor Division. “If you civilianize (these kinds of jobs) what do you do? Give them their walking papers?”

But Comrie said: “They shouldn’t burn out after 15 or 20 years. They should be in their prime.” Management should keep police officers motivated, he said, because “police officers are extremely highly compensated.”

An average police officer makes $49,400 after 15 years and an officer who has passed a basic journeyman’s test earns $52,000.

Although keeping light-duty officers on staff saves pension money, it cuts down on the number of able-bodied officers available to patrol the city. The department can employ only a fixed number of officers that is set by the council.

There are about 275 long-term light-duty officers and an additional 50 to 100 who are disabled temporarily, said Capt. Timothy King, who until recently headed the personnel division.

It is not clear if they are being used as efficiently as possible.

Many jobs that require only light-duty capabilities are being done by able-bodied officers, The Times found. King said department management has formed a committee to try to find out how many.

“We anticipate we can identify 450--maybe 500--light-duty jobs,” King said. “When we do, then we’re going to try to fill them with light-duty people.”

The department’s current $1-billion budget request, which seeks 200 more civilian positions, reflects the department’s concerns that some officers are not being efficiently used.

The department, for example, is asking for four more civilian jailers to minimize use of officers “who are often taken from the field to meet jail staffing requirements.” The Police Department also is seeking two more civilian typists to replace officers who handle releases of impounded cars.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates has said that such support services need to be increased before more officers can be deployed in the field.

A persistent problem, officials said, has been the department’s inability to develop its own “career ladder” within the city’s civil service bureaucracy to enable civilians it hires as 911 operators to move into other, less stressful jobs now occupied by sworn officers, such as police station receptionists and detective aides.