Pay Often Cited by Ex-Officers as Reason for Leaving LAPD : Police: Department exit interviews show that many depart for agencies that offer higher salaries. Mayor’s plan to increase size of the force without promising raises may not persuade many to stay, some say.

Recent exit interviews with departing Los Angeles police officers suggest that frustration over salaries is costing the city experienced officers and also indicate that Mayor Richard Riordan’s plan to pay them for working overtime and days off may not persuade many to stay.

According to the exit interviews, conducted by the LAPD every time an officer leaves the force, many officers left to go to work for departments that would offer them a better overall contract--not merely overtime pay or pension benefits. Others say they left to find safer places to live. Only one cited “cash for overtime” as a reason for joining another police department, and that officer joined the San Leandro police force, which also gave him a $500-a-month raise.

Summaries of all 14 interview reports from August were obtained Wednesday by The Times. They cover more than one-quarter of the 48 officers who have resigned this year. Police union leaders, rank-and-file officers and some high-ranking police officials say the views expressed in the exit interviews are widely echoed throughout the department. If so, they could raise problems for Riordan’s effort to expand the LAPD by 2,855 officers within the next five years.

The mayor’s plan depends upon stemming attrition but does not promise a pay raise. And unless attrition can be thwarted, the department will continue to lose hundreds of officers a year to resignation and retirement, undercutting the progress made by new hires.

In a speech earlier this month, the mayor called the effort to hold on to experienced officers a top priority, and said rank-and-file officers supported his buildup plan. He described attrition as “that insidious force which we must destroy or suffer its devastating consequences.”

Riordan did not address raising salaries as a way of keeping police officers. Instead, he focused on thwarting attrition by paying for work on holidays and overtime, as well as improving pension benefits, allowing a modified work schedule and providing better equipment.

Riordan also called for a study of salary and benefit packages offered by other Southern California police agencies, but he has declined to discuss the prospects of a raise for police, saying he does not want to discuss negotiations in public.

Although the mayor has avoided calling for salary increases, a public safety plan prepared by Police Chief Willie L. Williams and his senior staff echoes the August exit interviews and makes it clear that salary is much on the minds of the officers who leave the LAPD.

In the report, Williams and his senior staff listed seven reasons that officers leave the LAPD for other departments. Salaries are prominently cited.

Leaders of the union representing Los Angeles police officers say that salary issues are the largest source of complaints by LAPD officers, who have gone for two years without a raise.

Asked about the exit interview results Wednesday, union leaders said they confirm their arguments that unless Riordan embraces a pay increase for the rank-and-file officers, his plan will not keep LAPD officers from leaving.

“Cash for overtime and having officers sell back their days off won’t work,” said David Zeigler, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League. “Officers want a contract. Cash overtime is fine, but it’s not security. It’s not a contract.”

Annette Castro, the mayor’s press secretary, said Administration officials would have no comment on the results of the exit interviews because they raise the issue of labor negotiations between the union and the city. “We don’t want to get into it,” she said.

The exit interviews with officers who left in August revealed strong similarities. Almost all mentioned the search for better pay or a safer place to live.

Among them:

* A West San Fernando Valley traffic officer with more than five years at the LAPD left to accept a job with the Glendale Police Department. “He wanted a better overall benefit package,” the exit interview says.

* A Harbor-area officer with five years experience left to become a sergeant with the San Francisco State University Police Department. “(He) said he will receive an increase in salary and paid benefits. He also wanted to live in a better area than Los Angeles.”

* A Devonshire Division police officer with almost four years at the LAPD took a job with the Santa Rosa Police Department: “She wanted to raise her children in a better area than Los Angeles. She will also receive an increase in salary, better benefits and improved equipment.”

All told, six of the 12 officers who told LAPD officials they were leaving to join other departments said they would be getting better salary and benefits from their new employer. In follow-up interviews with The Times, several others said their new agencies offer better deals than the LAPD.

Some officers who are still with the department say Riordan’s promises are not enough to keep them.

Officer Nick Giampaolo, an eight-year veteran working in the West Valley, took a job with the North Las Vegas Police Department and plans to end his LAPD career next week.

“Other departments offer more,” he said. “I have to take care of my family. That’s why I’m leaving. That’s why everyone’s leaving.”

Figuring out how to stem the tide of attrition is a vital one for the Riordan Administration. Attrition costs the LAPD nearly 400 officers a year, most of them through retirement.

Retirements have increased markedly during the last few years, jumping from 251 in 1992 to 334 last year. This year, retirements already have topped 213, causing some officials to worry that they could top 400 for the first time in recent years.

The loss of so many senior officers troubles police commanders, but retirements are a natural part of any organization.

The more troubling loss of officers is among those with five to 15 years experience. It costs about $100,000 to recruit and train a Los Angeles police officer, and that figure jumps to $240,000 when the cost of field training is included.

As a result, every officer the LAPD loses to another police department costs the city of Los Angeles and, in effect, subsidizes the department that gets the LAPD-trained officer.

In recent years the LAPD has become a target for recruiting efforts by other police departments. The report describes a successful recruiting job by the Stockton Police Department.

According to the report, that department courted a 10-year LAPD veteran, paying for her to travel to Northern California for interviews and tests and picking up most of her moving expenses.

“Considering that it costs over $100,000 to recruit and train an officer . . . Stockton got quite a bargain,” the LAPD document concludes. “For about $2,000, they got one of the best-trained police officers in the world.”