Savings From LAPD Use of Civilians Cited

Los Angeles’ financially strapped city government could save more than $11 million a year if 463 Police Department jobs were filled by civilians rather than by uniformed officers, according to a new report.

Filling the jobs with civilians would cost an estimated $22.6 million a year, resulting in a savings of $11.1 million, City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie said in the report to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. The estimated shortfall in the city budget for fiscal 1992-93 is $190 million, Comrie said.

“I am very gratified by the CAO report,” Councilman Mike Woo said Thursday. “What it tells us is that indeed there are some 400 officers who can be replaced by civilians.”

Woo introduced the City Council motion instructing the Police Department to develop a plan to replace officers with civilians. The Police Department is expected to deliver its report on the transfers next month.

“I don’t know anybody in this city who feels safe,” Woo said. “We’ve got to do more to get more officers out on the street.”

Before any officers could be replaced, there must be additional study to determine the civilians’ duties, the number of jobs needed to meet those duties and appropriate Civil Service classifications, Comrie said.

Also, city personnel officials would have to establish policies for dealing with laying off officers who could not be reassigned, determine the effect civilian replacement would have on officers assigned to light or limited duty, and determine the money needed to finance the changes.

City officials refer to replacing officers with civilians as “civilianization,” and the report proposes putting civilians into essentially clerical positions such as bail auditors, subpoena-control officers, front desk officers and field incident report coordinators.

Bail auditors verify all bail accepted for the release of prisoners. Subpoena-control officers are responsible for preparing subpoenas and court notices, and front desk officers serve as receptionists for visitors to stations, the report said.

The jobs identified for civilian replacement were listed in an LAPD internal staff report, and in many instances are the same positions discussed in an 11-year-old LAPD management audit, Comrie’s report said.