Morale Blamed for Drop in Arrests : LAPD: The police union says drunk-driving arrests and citations overall have declined because officers fear reprisals and are angered by stalled contract talks.

The number of citations and drunk-driving arrests by the Los Angeles Police Department has dropped precipitously in recent years, a decrease that union leaders say is the result of heightened reluctance by officers to place themselves in harm’s way.

“I believe that right now, police officers are totally frustrated,” Danny Staggs, the newly elected president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said at a news conference Wednesday. “Our officers are afraid” of being disciplined or prosecuted.

Staggs and other league officials said the declining number of citations and arrests reflects the LAPD’s plummeting morale, and they called on elected officials to end long-stalled contract talks and give police officers a raise. Morale problems within the department have been widely reported, and officials as high as Police Chief Willie L. Williams have acknowledged for months that many officers are unhappy in their work.

Less clear is to what extent the decline in morale has affected the number or nature of arrests. A recent memo by a ranking member of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office cited a “deplorable lack of investigative work” by LAPD detectives. But the author of that memo blamed that problem primarily on a shortage of investigators, not low morale.

Although the district attorney’s memo contained no statistical evidence, the figures released by the league and the department show dramatic drops in the number of citations and drunk-driving arrests. Both declines, union officials say, are the result of officers being afraid to confront suspects for fear of being disciplined or prosecuted.

“They’re not doing proactive police work like they used to,” Staggs said of the LAPD rank and file.

According to Police Department figures, police officers issued 735,841 citations in 1989; last year, that number dropped to 333,763 through November. Drunk-driving arrests, meanwhile, plummeted from 26,320 in 1989 to 13,375 during the first 11 months of last year. Although department officials acknowledge that the number of traffic citations and arrests for certain crimes has dropped in recent years, they attribute the decline to more than just low morale.

The department, for instance, has been depleted by attrition and a hiring freeze. According to league officials, 451 officers left the force in 1993; the LAPD says it hired only 271 replacements. As a result, the number of officers making arrests and issuing citations has declined by about 2%. Arrests for the most serious offenses have remained relatively stable during the same period.

The LAPD also used to make a large number of arrests in sweep operations, a tactic favored by former Chief Daryl F. Gates. Those sweeps have been discontinued in recent years.

Moreover, other department statistics suggest that one reason for the decline in drunk-driving arrests may be that fewer people are driving while intoxicated. Serious accidents involving drunk drivers have declined over the past few years, as have serious accidents overall.

“There are a number of issues that are affecting citations and arrests for some crimes,” said Lt. John Dunkin, a spokesman for the department. “One of those is that we are a smaller department.”

Another issue, Dunkin said, is that officers are now so overwhelmed with calls that they have little time to issue citations or to make arrests for anything less than serious crimes. “When an officer gets in the car today, he has six calls already in the queue,” Dunkin said. “He’s constantly running from call to call.”

With the league lobbying for a new contract, its leaders Wednesday expressed disappointment in Mayor Richard Riordan’s leadership. A major Riordan campaign plank was that he would improve law enforcement, and he won the backing of the Police Protective League.

But after six months of the Riordan Administration, the league has grown increasingly frustrated with the mayor, complaining that he has done little, if anything, to bring the contract talks to a conclusion. League leaders are particularly angry that Riordan has devoted millions of dollars to his campaign to hire more officers while not finding money to give current officers a pay raise. Officers are seeking a salary increase of 3% per year for each of the next three years.

“I believe that Mayor Riordan should have first settled our contract before talking about expanding this department,” Staggs said.

Annette Castro, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said Administration officials would have no comment about the contract talks.

Enforcement Trends Traffic citations and drunk-driving arrests by LAPD officers have dropped dramatically in recent years, a decline police union leaders attribute to officers hesitating to confront suspects. Department leaders acknowledge the declines, but say many other factors are at work, including the shrinking size of the force in recent years.

YEAR: 1989 TOTAL CITATIONS (IN THOUSANDS): 735.8

YEAR: 1990 TOTAL CITATIONS (IN THOUSANDS): 681.9

YEAR: 1991 TOTAL CITATIONS (IN THOUSANDS): 604.9

YEAR: 1992 TOTAL CITATIONS (IN THOUSANDS): 448.4

YEAR: 1993 TOTAL CITATIONS (IN THOUSANDS): 333.8*

YEAR: 1989 DRIVING UNDER INFLUENCE ARRESTS (IN THOUSANDS): 26.3

YEAR: 1990 DRIVING UNDER INFLUENCE ARRESTS (IN THOUSANDS): 27.0

YEAR: 1991 DRIVING UNDER INFLUENCE ARRESTS (IN THOUSANDS): 21.2

YEAR: 1992 DRIVING UNDER INFLUENCE ARRESTS (IN THOUSANDS): 16.2

YEAR: 1993 DRIVING UNDER INFLUENCE ARRESTS (IN THOUSANDS): 13.4*

* Note: 1993 statistics are for 11 months

Source: Los Angeles Police Department