Call for More Patrol Units Faces Hurdles

The Webster Commission is not the first outside group to suggest that the Los Angeles Police Department put more of its officers on patrol, but it is the first one that it is likely to be taken seriously.

Earlier suggestions from deployment consultants and the Christopher Commission went nowhere because then-Police Chief Daryl F. Gates was an advocate of removing officers from patrol and assigning them to specialized units.

But Chief Willie L. Williams has said he wants to take officers from desk jobs and put them on the streets.

Although the City Charter gives the chief the power to deploy officers as he sees fit, the city’s budget crisis leaves Williams with tough choices: Williams has said he needs a force of more than 9,000 officers, but he has only 7,800--down from 8,400 two years ago. And, with retirements outpacing hires, the department is likely to shrink.

Williams hopes for approval of a November ballot initiative that would raise property taxes to pay for 1,000 more police officers over five years. He has pledged to place those officers on patrol.

Meanwhile, he is reportedly considering dismantling a large portion of the LAPD’s largest specialized unit--its 370-member narcotics section--by returning many investigators to the control of station commanders.

Additional officers, he said, would be freed for patrol duties by merging selected units. But this piecemeal approach will be a difficult way to dramatically increase police visibility in neighborhoods.

The commission led by former FBI and CIA Director William H. Webster calculated that, on an average shift, the LAPD can muster only 350 officers in patrol cars to perform its most basic function, responding to radio calls.

Figures from the department’s Office of Operations paint a bleaker picture. Using these figures, The Times reported last January that the department was fielding an average of only 315 officers in radio cars per shift. By last month, the patrol force was down to 279 officers in radio cars on an average shift, The Times calculated.

Because the department operates around the clock, and has to accommodate vacations, injuries and overtime caps, department planners believe that it takes a pool of about 1,700 officers to field the 279.

That leaves about 6,100 officers assigned elsewhere in scores of functions ranging from narcotics to homicide to gang suppression to noise control.

While noting a “heavy concentration” of officers behind desks at Parker Center, Webster said he would not presume to tell Williams where to find more officers for patrol. “I don’t want to get that far down in his knickers,” he said.

Like the Christopher Commission, the Webster panel suggested that the LAPD become a “community-based” force that would work with residents to solve crime problems. Williams has long advocated the same approach.

He said in a policy statement last week that he intends to upgrade patrol from its position as “the last place where resources are invested and the first place from which they are taken.”

One way to get additional patrol officers would be to use civilians to replace some officers in desk jobs.

The Times reported last January that more than 400 officers were doing jobs that did not appear to require police skills or powers.

A still-secret internal police study of the subject has reportedly found almost 500 such jobs, and tentatively concluded that half could be filled with civilians and the rest by officers restricted to light duties.

However, Williams told The Times recently: “Because of the city’s financial crisis, civilianization is just about on hold.”

Gates’ strong commitment to specialization was apparent four years ago after an outside consultant urged an expansion of patrol and warned that “special units . . . can develop a life of their own.”

The Police Commission and City Council requested that the Police Department study ways to take officers from special units and put them on patrol. But Gates did not respond to the request.

RELATED STORIES: A30, A31