Lack of Police Modernization Plan Criticized

City officials studying the Los Angeles Police Department’s shortage of modern crime-fighting tools criticized top police brass Monday for failing to develop a long-term plan for modernizing the department.

Police administrators acknowledged the need for a modernization plan but said they are hesitant to propose it because such efforts have always been rejected in the past for lack of funding.

At a special meeting of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, police used videotapes and charts to show how outmoded equipment and turn-of-the-century filing systems have hampered their ability to fight crime.

“On the information superhighway, we are on a dirt road,” said Sgt. Mike Moore, who testified about the need for modern radios and portable computers for beat officers.

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Halfway through the presentation, Councilman Marvin Braude, who chairs the panel, criticized police officials, saying he would fight to fund the department’s modernization plan if only police would submit the plan.

“When are we going to see what the plan is?” he asked police officials. “The problems are overwhelming. We need answers now.”

Police agreed that a comprehensive plan was needed and vowed to work on the problem.

“The simple fact of the matter is we don’t have a comprehensive plan,” said William F. Russell, commanding officer of the LAPD’s support services bureau. “We have bits and pieces of plans that have been developed over the past 15 and 20 years, but nothing has been brought forward to update all those plans, to bring them all together and to focus them as a long-term strategy.”

Councilwoman Laura Chick, a vocal supporter of the modernization effort, suggested that the city form a police task force, headed by a private consultant, to develop a modernization plan.

But Braude tabled the item for two weeks, saying he wanted to discuss the matter further with top LAPD brass.

After the meeting, police said they have not proposed a modernization plan because they fear the City Council would simply reject it for lack of funds.

Russell said a modified plan proposed about five years ago was killed because the city could not afford it and police fear the City Council will reject any other proposal.

“We haven’t made any efforts for the past five or six years,” he said. “The money has simply not been available.”

The problem, according to Danny Staggs, head of the police union, has been that the City Council does not want to be put in the politically embarrassing position of rejecting a modernization plan for lack of funds.

“No one wants to take responsibility,” he said.

But Staggs and Russell both agreed that the council is now more inclined to invest in the Police Department because of last year’s election of pro-police Mayor Richard Riordan and four new council members, including Chick.

Chick said she is also optimistic that a modernization plan will win support from the council.

“I don’t know why we never looked at it before,” she said after the meeting. “I wasn’t here before, but we are working on it now.”

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During the meeting, police listed several examples of how outdated technology has slowed the department’s crime-fighting efforts.

For example, police played a videotape that showed that almost all crime records at the LAPD’s Newton Division are kept on paper stuffed in filing cabinets, in binders and stacked up to three feet high on desks. Some desks were so cluttered that telephones ended up in waste baskets.

One homicide investigator said that he is often forced to use public pay phones at the scene of a crime to call for backup investigators because the department does not provide cellular phones.

“Have you ever tried to find a pay phone in South-Central?” asked Detective Dick Simmons.

The panel also heard from business owners who are participating in the Mayor’s Alliance for a Safer L.A., a private effort to raise $15 million to jump-start the LAPD’s modernization effort. If successful, the effort will pay for a $10-million computer system with 1,700 workstations throughout the department.