Reimbursement for World Cup Security Urged
Members of the Los Angeles Police Commission expressed concern Tuesday over the cost of providing security during the upcoming World Cup soccer games and urged Police Chief Willie L. Williams to seek reimbursement from the World Cup organization.
“This is a profit-generating organization,” Commissioner Enrique Hernandez said of the World Cup organizers. “And yet, it’s coming upon our taxpayers” to foot the bill for security costs.
Department officials estimate that the Police Department could spend more than $1 million on World Cup security even though none of the games are scheduled to take place inside the city limits. The security costs will come in protecting the influx of an estimated 280,000 tourists, as well as in providing protection for visiting dignitaries and in other crime-suppression efforts related to the games.
Hernandez recommended that the city strike a hard bargain with the World Cup organizers, and he suggested that the LAPD might decline to participate in any security efforts outside the city limits unless Los Angeles receives reimbursement for its expenditures. Other commissioners joined him in asking that Williams convey their views to World Cup officials.
Williams promised he would but warned that those officials so far have not been receptive to the city’s requests for reimbursement.
“The basic position of World Cup is that you should be thrilled that you’re in their town,” Williams said. “The profits and the dissemination of the profits by World Cup are being held very, very close to the vest.”
In other business Tuesday, LAPD leaders continued their public release of edited crime reports that identify the city’s most violent areas, with the latest batch of updates covering the city’s most crime-ridden communities, those in the South Bureau. The reports are being edited to remove passages that LAPD officials believe might endanger officers or jeopardize public safety efforts, but details from the unedited copies of those reports were reported by The Times last week.
The reports have caused a minor furor in and around the department. Some officials have complained about the department’s initial unwillingness to release the documents and others have expressed concern that the LAPD was targeting African Americans and Latinos for unfair treatment under its plans for combatting violent crime.
None of the 18 reports reviewed last week suggests treating suspects, witnesses or victims differently based on ethnicity. On Tuesday, department leaders took pains to emphasize that any such disparate treatment would violate department policy.
Two of the department’s top leaders--Williams and Assistant Chief Bernard C. Parks, both of whom are black--noted that the LAPD does keep track of the ethnicity and other identifying characteristics of people whom officers contact during the course of their duties. They emphasized, however, that such “field interview” data is an investigative tool, not the basis for a quota system to determine whom police should stop and question.
After some initial reports raised questions about the LAPD’s use of the violent crime statistics, a number of council members asked for an explanation as to why the department was not releasing more information. At the request of Councilwoman Laura Chick, Williams is scheduled to appear today before the Public Safety Committee to explain the department’s position and answer questions.
