Councilwoman Urges L.A. to Lift Hiring Freeze : Budget: Laura Chick says her plan is designed to quickly put 50 police officers on the streets. Reservists and retirees would be hired.

In a bid to put 50 more police officers on the job as soon as possible, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick on Wednesday proposed that a city hiring freeze be lifted to let the Police Department hire reserve officers full time and put retired officers back to work.

Her plan would quickly and inexpensively put 50 new officers on the streets by tapping into that “reservoir of individuals right at the city’s fingertips” already trained as officers, Chick said.

A City Council vote on the Chick plan, which also would consider hiring officers who have left other police jurisdictions, is scheduled for next Wednesday.

Money to hire the officers is already in the budget, Chick said. The city budget includes funding for 7,900 officers but, in fact, only about 7,500 are on the force. A hiring freeze, however, allows only the hiring of new Police Department recruits, Chick said.

Chick, who took office July 1, said the idea for her plan came from talking to a reserve officer who wanted to work full time and to a 10-year department veteran who retired and now wants to return to work.

William C. Violante, Mayor Richard Riordan’s chief police adviser, welcomed Chick’s plan, observing that the mayor’s office has been privately pursuing an identical plan and had asked the city attorney for an opinion.

One question is how the plan would be affected by a consent decree requiring the city to give preference in hiring to women, particularly if many of the eligible pool of reservists and retirees are men, Violante said.

“We are delighted with this effort to increase the force,” said Cmdr. David Gascon, a department spokesman. “We’ll take 50 more officers in any way we can get them.”

The plan also was quickly endorsed by the Police Protective League, the police officers union.

“This plan will result not only in tremendous savings to the taxpayers in training costs, but is a tangible step forward in improving the public safety services that the residents of this city have so clearly demanded,” said PPL President David Zeigler.

Retired officers and reservists would cost less to hire than fresh recruits because they are already trained. According to figures used by Chick and endorsed as accurate by the Police Department, recruiting and training a new officer at the Police Academy cost about $98,000.

Chick has made beefing up the department one of her top priorities.

Upon taking office, she transferred $70,000 in cash from her council office budget to the department to pay overtime so more officers could patrol her own district, and turned over three of her City Hall staff cars to the Police Department for use in undercover operations.