PROPS. M & N : Police Story

Los Angeles does not have enough police. It’s that simple.

And a simple way to begin to correct the problem is to pass Proposition N--on the L.A. city ballot Tuesday.

It is a very simple measure, not complicated at all: If citizens pay just a bit more money, they can have a lot more police. If Prop. N passes, Los Angeles citizens, for a small increase in their annual property taxes, can underwrite the hiring of 1,000 more officers over the next five years. And if its companion measure, Proposition M, passes, Los Angeles will get one vastly improved 911 emergency communications system.

Prop. M would cost the average taxpayer about $26 a year; Prop. N would run about $73. For less than an additional hundred bucks, some real resources can be brought to bear on the crime problem.

These resources are desperately needed. In city fiscal year 1977-78, before Proposition 13 was passed, Los Angeles’ spending on police amounted to 20.6% of the budget. By contrast, the requested amount for L.A. police this year is only 13.9% of the budget.

This means that over the last 15 years, as crime has soared in Los Angeles, the percentage of expenditures on policing has declined significantly.

Isn’t this profoundly absurd? Don’t you want to do something about this? Doesn’t new Police Chief Willie L. Williams deserve a better chance than this? On Tuesday you can do something.

Vote for Prop. M.

Vote for Prop. N.

These two measures need two-thirds approval to pass. Every single vote counts.