Valley Gets Fewer New Officers Than Hoped : LAPD: High attrition and delayed redeployment forces divisions to reassign staff to man six added cars.

An ambitious plan to assign dozens of new officers to San Fernando Valley police divisions will fall far short of its goal when the program begins Sunday.

The Los Angeles Police Commission--seeking to increase the number of officers on city streets--had approved last month adding 16 new patrol cars citywide and redrawing the boundaries of the Los Angeles Police Department’s 18 divisions.

But only four of the 48 officers needed to staff the six new cars promised to the Valley will begin work on Sunday, forcing local police divisions to reassign its officers from other duties to man the cars, police officials said.

The Valley’s shortfall is caused by a higher-than-forecasted attrition rate and because the department has yet to redeploy officers from other parts of the city.

“What they’re doing is robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said one Police Department source.

In fact, the Foothill and West Valley divisions will have fewer officers when the new deployment plan goes into effect this weekend, according to interviews with police at four of the five Valley divisions. The North Hollywood Division will gain all four of the new officers.

Officials estimate about nine officers are needed to staff each patrol car in most divisions.

“We kind of expected we’d have them (the new officers) on the transfer list last week, but they weren’t there,” said LAPD Capt. Ronald Bergmann, the commanding officer of the Foothill Division.

Bergmann said the new patrol car assigned to his division will begin work in Sylmar on Sunday, but he will be forced to use officers now on loan to detectives, special surveillance teams and other details.

Police Capt. Val Paniccia, the commanding officer of the West Valley Division, said he will try to staff his new patrol car--assigned to Reseda--by shuffling existing personnel and paying officers overtime.

“My dream is that six months down the line we’ll be able to run that car full time,” Paniccia said. “But it can’t happen overnight.”

The Van Nuys Division--which was promised the most help--will be hardest hit by the new deployment plan. That division will get three new patrol cars for its northern end, which is among the regions receiving the most calls for help in the city.

“We have to fill those cars and we don’t have any officers,” said Sgt. Paul McMillin of the Van Nuys Division. Police there will also assign existing officers to staff the new cars.

Each of the other Valley divisions will receive one additional car, except for the Devonshire Division, which was not promised any new officers.

Lt. John Dunkin, an LAPD spokesman, said the Valley will get new officers as soon as more are graduated from the police academy.

About 40 officers graduate from each six-month academy class. But that number is expected to double in the next five to six months because of larger classes, Dunkin said.

In the meantime, civilian employees will be hired to handle some reports typically written by police officers, allowing sworn personnel to return to patrol duty, Dunkin said. Money to pay for overtime duty, included in the current police budget, will help fill the gaps.

“We’re looking at as many options to get as many people out on the street as we can,” Dunkin said. “But it’s going to take time.” One option will be to reduce the department’s specialized units through attrition. As a result, some officers will remain in patrol cars who may have otherwise been promoted or transferred to special details.

To curb the department’s overall attrition rate--about 400 officers a year--officials are considering a plan that would force officers to repay training costs of $100,000 if they leave the department within five years of graduation. Each year, about 120 of the officers leave to take jobs at other police departments.

Dunkin said the department will probably have only about 530 instead of 730 new officers sworn in by June 30.

City Council members from other parts of the city had expressed concern because the Valley was promised more new cars and officers than any other region of the city. LAPD officials defended their decision, saying it reflects the area’s extraordinary growth in both population and crime during the last two decades.

The realignment plan also paves the way for the eventual addition of two new police stations, including one in the Valley. City Councilman Richard Alarcon in October proposed the creation of a Mid-Valley East Division to patrol parts of North Hills, Mission Hills, Arleta and Panorama City.