Where LAPD Officers Live

* The ACLU reports that 83% of Los Angeles Police Department members live outside of Los Angeles (March 29). It contends that this supports the theory that the LAPD is an occupying army with little or no ties to the communities it serves.

What a crock! First of all, the last time I looked, it is a constitutional right for Californians to live wherever they choose. If a person wishes to live outside the area in which he works, does it impair his ability to do his job properly and without bias? Absolutely not! Should business owners live where they operate? These people have a right, and probably an obligation, to live wherever they feel their family will benefit most.

The ACLU would have you believe it is different for police officers. They need to be a part of the community because of the nature of their work. I contend that by spending 40-plus hours a week in a given community, police officers are more closely aligned with those neighborhoods than they are with the ones in which they live.

I agree that if it is fiscally possible officers should be offered a low-mortgage or rent-free housing, as an option, not as a mandate of the job.

DAVID B. JACKSON

San Diego

* So almost all of our police officers live outside Los Angeles. Can you blame them?

It used to be that people looked to reside in a community close to their place of employment so they would spend less time driving and more (productive) time at home or work. But those days are gone, especially for police officers.

Police officers have been working without a contract for more than 21 months, they’re underpaid and have generally been maligned by the media since the Rodney King incident three years ago. Add to that the fact that homes in Los Angeles are often priced too high for many people, and that the public school system leaves something to be desired, and most parts of Los Angeles are not the place to raise a family.

RON EPSTEIN

Woodland Hills

* To those LAPD officers angered by the ACLU report, I ask this question: Would you have placed a picture of a woman being carjacked at gunpoint on a billboard in the community where your spouses work and shop, where your family and friends struggle to build a secure life, where your young children may see it going back and forth to school every day?

CHUCK CUMMINGS

Los Angeles