‘Blue Flu’: Expensive Epidemic

Against the advice of even their staunchest supporters, including Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams, more than 200 LAPD officers called in sick on Monday and again on Tuesday rather than report to work. The epidemic of “blue flu” allowed rank-and-file cops to vent their understandable frustration over the lack of a police labor contract with the city--but at what cost? Possibly more than even the most generous labor contract could compensate for: public confidence.

The protest was the low point so far in the long and acrimonious labor negotiations. The police have been working without a contract or pay raise since 1991. That is clearly unacceptable, and not just to the average cop. The average city resident wants police officers to be paid adequately for the important and often dangerous work they do. In the best of times, that kind of consensus would make for an easy settlement.

However, the last three years have not been the best of times for Los Angeles, or the LAPD. The furor that followed the Rodney King beating and the resulting turmoil still reverberates.

Meanwhile, like local governments all over recession-bound California, Los Angeles is short of cash. City employees have had to defer pay hikes as a result.

The one noteworthy exception is the Department of Water and Power work force, which reached a much-criticized contract with the city after a strike. That set the unfortunate precedent the Police Protective League seized on.

But being a police officer is different from being a utility worker. Being a member of the LAPD used to be seen as something special--a calling more than just a job.

It surely doesn’t look that way now. It appears, sadly, that even the Police Department has been undermined by the what’s-in-it-for-me mentality that is so commonplace in society now. Why else would men and women who swear to uphold the law--with their very lives, if need be--break the law through an illegal job action like this week’s “blue flu”?

Though most Angelenos support higher pay for police, they will not support the “anything goes” attitude of some officers, who probably justify their stand as a legitimate means to an end. Not all officers of the department embrace such hardball tactics. Will their voices be heard over the din of rhetoric?