LAPD Cannot Meet Riordan’s Goal, Chief Says

The Los Angeles Police Department cannot hire and train officers fast enough to meet Mayor Richard Riordan’s goal of a 10,500-officer force in four years, Chief Willie L. Williams said Tuesday.

Williams said in an interview that the LAPD does not have the resources to fulfill one of Riordan’s campaign promises: adding 3,000 officers to the department’s ranks by the end of his term. The LAPD has about 7,600 officers, and Riordan has pledged to increase that to about 10,500.

Bluntly dismissing the possibility of reaching that goal by the end of the mayor’s four-year term, Williams said: “We cannot hire, train and put on the street a net increase of 3,000 in the next four years. We don’t have the capacity.”

City Councilman Marvin Braude, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee, echoed Williams’ comments. Asked whether the LAPD could have a 10,500-officer force within four years, Braude said: “I think the probability of that approaches zero.”

Williams and Braude are considered key players in the effort to develop a plan for boosting the size and effectiveness of the department. They have pledged to work with Riordan, but their comments suggest that the new mayor may have difficulty carrying out some of the law enforcement pledges that carried him to victory.

Williams said the department could be capable of training 600 to 650 new officers a year. At that rate, the department could hire and train about 2,300 officers in four years. But since the department loses about 300 officers a year to attrition, that pace would result in a force of about 8,800 by the end of Riordan’s term.

Still, the chief said it may be possible--through transfers, overtime and some hires--to devote 2,000 to 3,000 more officers to street patrols over four years. Many of those officers would be drawn from the existing ranks and thus would not represent an increase in the size of the force, although they would increase the number of police responding to emergency calls.

Williams is in charge of a 60-day study examining how to bolster LAPD ranks--an undertaking that Riordan requested as one of his first acts as mayor. Although that report is just getting under way, Williams said it is already apparent that the department will not meet Riordan’s 10,500-officer objective.

“I know that we’re going to move somewhere from the initial mission, but I think as mayor he understands that,” Williams said. “You have certain goals, and as you move along, those goals change. Just like I do here.”

The chief said he has discussed the issue generally with Riordan and expects to go into it in detail in coming weeks.

Neither Riordan nor his aides was available for comment, but City Council sources said the chief has warned some council members about the LAPD’s limited training capacity.

Although Williams is preparing the long-term plan for boosting the department’s size, he also has identified short-range measures that could dramatically increase the number of officers patrolling city streets. If the LAPD’s overtime budget were fully funded and if the department could fill 300 civilian positions, Williams said he could put an additional 500 police officers on patrol in a short time.

Williams estimated, however, that fully funding the overtime budget and filling all the civilian positions would cost more than $31 million. The chief conceded that so far no one has indicated that he can count on that money.

In a television interview Monday, Riordan said he wants to put an additional 100 police officers on the streets within six months. As he has on previous occasions, the mayor proposed adding officers quickly by paying more overtime and hiring civilians to fill some LAPD vacancies.

But that would satisfy only a fraction of the mayor’s overall program. At a news conference less than two weeks ago, Riordan stated that “10,500 police officers is the absolute minimum that you need in this city to run the Police Department well. That’s got to be a goal that we reach as soon as possible.”

During the campaign, Riordan promised repeatedly that he would hire thousands of police officers. “I promise that I will add 3,000 police officers over four years,” he said during one of the mayoral debates, adding that if he failed to live up to that promise, “I guarantee you I won’t run again.”

Although Williams and Braude endorsed Riordan’s efforts to increase the size of the Police Department, they also warned against taking shortcuts in officer training to achieve that goal.

In its analysis of the LAPD two years ago, the Christopher Commission urged improved officer training and warned against increasing the size of training classes--two recommendations that Williams has publicly and privately pledged to uphold.

Braude warned that poorly trained officers could be of greater risk to themselves and to the community. He added that any plan to create much larger academy classes or to rush academy training would not be wise.

For his part, Williams insisted that he will not condone any plan that dilutes the effectiveness of officer training or lowers screening requirements for candidates accepted at the police academy.

Williams said he would not “ever dump a partially trained officer on the streets.”

“I’ve spent 30 years in policing,” he said. “I’m in my sixth year as a chief. I’m the father of a police officer. My ethics won’t allow me to ever do that.”