Officials Brace for Rush of Police Retirements by June 30 : Law enforcement: Low morale, poor prospects for pay hike and end of contract are cited as reasons.

Los Angeles officials are bracing for an increase in police retirements fueled by factors including the Rodney G. King beating, sagging officer morale and little likelihood of pay raises.

An analyst for the city administrative officer said this week that about 400 retirements are projected by June 30, the end of the fiscal year 1991-1992. That represents a 33% increase over the 300 officers who usually leave each year. Retirement applications have been abnormally high throughout the last 10 months, said principal administrative analyst Peter di Carlo.

“With (Police Chief Daryl F. Gates) retiring, I think a lot of people have decided to retire now,” Di Carlo said. “The aftermath of the Rodney King thing has inspired some retirements. I suspect the civil disturbance might trigger a lot more retirements than might happen otherwise.”

In addition, police officers’ four-year contract expires June 30 and pay raises next year seem unlikely because of the city’s financial problems, Di Carlo and others said. Consequently, many officers with 25 or more years on the force plan to retire before June 30 to take advantage of a 3.6% cost-of-living increase that will boost their pensions under the current contract.

James McGuigan, the city Pension Department’s assistant general manager in charge of benefits, said requests for pension applications have been particularly heavy this month, although he noted that the end of the fiscal year is always the busiest time for retirements.

Like Di Carlo, McGuigan also projected about 100 more retirements this year than last and cited as factors the King case and management changes within the department as well as the expiring contract.

Sgt. Thornton Henderson, the Police Department’s retirement counselor, agreed that retirements are up this year but he attributed the trend entirely to the end of the contract and officers’ eagerness to take advantage of the existing cost-of-living increase.

Henderson dismissed such factors as morale and departmental politics, saying, “When all that’s peeled away, most people are thinking of their own financial situation.

“If the city would come out and say, ‘We’ll give you a cost-of-living increase,’ you’d see 50% of those officers say they’ll come back,” Henderson said.

Henderson said Wednesday he expects about 150 retirements between May 1 and June 30--about double last year’s number.

But he and a department spokesman, Lt. John Dunkin, said it is not unusual to see a spurt of retirements at the conclusion of the fiscal year, particularly when a contract period is ending.

Henderson recently compiled a report on retirements because of widespread rumors within the department of an exodus, Dunkin said.

“This is a special report to the chief so he could evaluate rumors being circulated that there were a larger-than-normal number of retirements,” Dunkin said.

The department would not release a copy of the report or any numbers comparing Henderson’s projection to prior years.

The police union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, is also conducting a retirement survey but a spokesman described it as routine research. League officials would have no comment until the research is complete, said Geoffrey Garfield, a consultant hired for the union’s campaign against Charter Amendment F, the police reform measure on the June 2 ballot.

One police lieutenant who is seriously considering leaving but has yet to submit his resignation said, “The only thing that would keep me from retiring would be, minimum, a cost-of-living increase. Because right now I’m losing money if I don’t retire.”

But the 29-year LAPD veteran, who asked not to be named in case he does not retire, also said he had grown disillusioned with the department over the last year.

“I’m really disappointed in the command staff of this organization because of all the bickering,” he said. “I mean, you’ve got the chief and deputy chiefs and assistant chiefs not talking to each other. The LAPD’s been a proud organization and some of the stuff that’s happening in the last year, post-Rodney King, has decimated this department.”

Los Angeles already has fewer officers per capita than any other major city in the country, according to the Police Foundation, a Washington-based law enforcement think tank.

A survey conducted in 1990, the most recent figures available, showed that the LAPD had 8,456 sworn personnel, or about 2.4 officers per 1,000 inhabitants, a foundation spokesman said. That same year, New York had 26,550 sworn personnel, or 3.6 officers per 1,000 residents; Chicago had 12,028 sworn personnel, or 4.3 officers per 1,000 residents, and Houston had 4,092 sworn personnel, or 2.5 officers per 1,000 residents.

Philadelphia--whose police commissioner, Willie L. Williams, has been appointed Gates’ successor--had 6,580 sworn personnel, or 4.1 officers per 1,000 residents, when the foundation conducted its 1990 survey.

Since then, Los Angeles’ police force has dropped to about 8,000 sworn officers, a department spokesman said.

Concern about the Police Department’s attrition rate amid a city hiring freeze prompted the City Council to restore nearly $46 million in funds for police and fire services to the city’s proposed 1992-93 budget. That included $7.5 million to recruit nearly 250 new officers to maintain an employment level of 7,900 sworn personnel through next year.