LAPD Feels First Effects of Police Sickout

Acting in apparent response to their union’s strategy for pressuring the city into a pay raise, small but higher than usual numbers of Los Angeles police officers began calling in sick late Monday night, kicking off a two-day “blue flu.”

In anticipation of the sickout, the Police Department’s top command called a modified tactical alert, keeping Monday night-shift officers on duty at the end of their shifts until further notice.

The department also activated its Emergency Operations Center in the Civic Center, which is usually employed in disasters.

“We will see to it that the average citizen calling in for police assistance will not be affected,” said Cmdr. Dave Gascon.

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office said it will seek a court injunction, probably this morning, to block the labor action.

Scattered numbers of officers called in sick before the Tuesday “a.m. watch” shift, which began at 11 p.m. Monday. The union had instructed officers to call in sick on alternating shifts through Wednesday, a technique that would allow the LAPD to maintain staffing by paying large amounts of overtime.

Leaders of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents 7,500 rank-and-file officers, had predicted that more than half their members would participate in the sickout. However, an early check of stations indicated support only in a few corners. The West Los Angeles station reported a substantial number of officers calling in absent. Two of the San Fernando Valley’s five stations also reported an unusual number of officers not coming in.

Earlier Monday, leaders of the union and LAPD commanders faced off in a tense game of brinkmanship, with the department laying plans to punish officers who participated in the job action and union leaders pledging to proceed anyway.

“Our officers are fed up and they’re frustrated,” said police union President David Zeigler. “This is why we’re doing what we are doing. We’ve been forced into it by the city.”

Sources within the LAPD said supervisors were personally warning officers that anyone who calls in sick as part of the blue flu could be subjected to an internal affairs investigation.

Some supervisors warned that those found guilty of faking an illness could be fired or denied promotions, according to officers who say they were pulled aside Friday or during the weekend. In addition to paying officers overtime to fill some absences, the LAPD also plans to ask reserves to report for duty, a move that many reserves have vowed to resist.

The city’s aggressive response to the threatened job action angered leaders of the police union, who vowed to press ahead with their plans and pledged to provide full legal assistance to any officer who is disciplined for calling in sick. League leaders sharply disputed contentions that the blue flu will endanger public safety or violate any labor laws.

Threats of retaliation have “made officers angry,” Zeigler said, predicting that 70% of all police officers will call in sick this week. “Our officers know what their rights are.”

The blue flu, which league officials called after a survey of the rank and file revealed strong support for the tactic, represents the league’s most confrontational move in its escalating attempt to force city leaders to grant police officers a pay raise.

Despite promises from the league that public safety will not be put at risk, plans for sickout drew fire from Police Chief Willie L. Williams, Police Commission President Gary Greenebaum, City Council members and other city leaders.

Captains from each of the LAPD’s geographic areas gathered at Parker Center on Monday afternoon to discuss the department’s response, while city officials at all levels braced for the possible fallout.

Mayor Richard Riordan said he would try to include a pay hike for police officers, who have not received a raise in more than two years, in the budget that takes effect in July.

Although Riordan said he sympathized with police officers, he called the blue flu an illegal job action.

“This is coming out of frustration,” Riordan said in his first public comments about the labor negotiations. “I think it’s very important that we all get together soon, sit down and work out a contract. We will meet with them this week, next week, and I’m confident we will have a contract soon.”

Beginning patrol officers in Los Angeles make $33,157--more than officers in some of the nation’s larger police departments. But they have slipped to eighth in pay among the 10 largest police departments in California, where some starting officers make up to $10,000 more annually than Los Angeles police.

Riordan’s comments were echoed by Williams, who has supported officers’ requests for a raise but who strongly opposes the job action.

“It is not legal,” Williams said. “The union is telling officers who are perfectly healthy to, one, call up and pretend you’re (sick) and then to exacerbate it further by going and getting a doctor’s slip that says you were off sick when you should have been at work. That’s not legal.”

Although most officials publicly condemned the league’s strategy, some privately expressed concern about the actions of the LAPD brass.

City Council members prepared to call an emergency closed session today to discuss the job action and the city’s response. Some members were frustrated Monday that LAPD leaders had not shared their contingency plans with the council. Some were also worried that firing officers for calling in sick would be an overreaction that could cost the city money to hire and train replacements.

But Councilman Marvin Braude, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee, said he supported the department’s strong response.

“It definitely is appropriate and necessary and proper to protect the public safety,” Braude said. “The city simply cannot allow these employees to go on strike.”

The LAPD manual bars officers from refusing to work. “Police officers do not have the right to strike or to engage in any work stoppage or slowdown,” according to Section 210.40 of the manual’s guidelines on personal conduct. “It is the policy of this department to seek the removal from office of any officer or civilian employee who plans or engages in any such strike, work stoppage or slowdown.”

League leaders counter that officers are allowed to call in sick, and they urged any officer who did so to visit a doctor and present a note verifying that visit.

Although the threat of discipline was much on the minds of police officers, union leaders were also extraordinarily sensitive to the charge that their action might put the public at risk. Zeigler stressed repeatedly Monday that the action outlined by the union would not result in any fewer officers patrolling the streets.

“This is not something that we just threw together,” he said in a meeting with editors and reporters from The Times. “This is something we developed very carefully so that we would not do anything to jeopardize the public.”

Under the plan envisioned by the league, officers who worked the night shift Monday were asked to report to work as usual, while morning shift officers--who work from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.--were asked to call in sick. That alternating shift schedule would force the department to hold over its preceding watch, paying the officers overtime, to cover the absences on the next shift, league leaders said.

Because less than 100% participation is expected in the job action, there could be more than the usual number of officers on duty, though many would be working 16-hour days.

League officials are not asking probationary officers--those who are in their first year on the job--to call in sick because it is far easier for the LAPD to fire a probationary officer than to fire a full police officer.

Whether reserve officers would agree to work shifts vacated by regular officers is at issue. At a statewide meeting in September, the California Reserve Peace Officers’ Assn. approved a resolution stating that it would support law enforcement officers in any legal job action.

The resolution might not apply in this case because some observers believe that the job action is illegal. Nevertheless, reserve officers are for the most part sympathetic to the plight of the regular officers, said Jim Lombardi, president of the statewide reserve association.

“The feeling is that we support them,” Lombardi said. “The city is not being fair with them.”

As both sides braced for a showdown in the job action, union leaders and city officials blamed each other for the impasse that has dragged out contract talks for months. City leaders said the budget does not allow for officers to receive a raise, while league officials countered that the city has managed to find funds for other projects while ignoring the pleas of police officers.

League leaders expressed particular frustration with Riordan, whose mayoral candidacy the labor organization supported. The league called off an unspecified job action last summer after Riordan, who had just been elected, urged them to hold off until after he took office.

Since then there has been little progress in the contract talks, and Zeigler said officers have grown increasingly frustrated. “Our officers just can’t hold off any longer,” he said.

The league has been more supportive of Williams, who has lobbied for a pay increase of at least as large as Department of Water and Power employees received--3% a year for three years. But Williams nevertheless appealed to officers to report for work in defiance of their league.

“I say to the officers who are thinking about doing this to remember why they put the badge on: They are police officers,” Williams said. “They are the only thin blue line between civility and anarchy on our streets.”

Also contributing to this story was Times staff writer Marc Lacey.