LOS ANGELES : Commissioners Ask City to Free $12.6 Million for LAPD

The Los Angeles Police Commission asked the city Tuesday to release $12.6 million in unappropriated police funds to help the department pay bills, hire recruits and cover overtime.

The five-member panel unanimously approved the requests in two motions at its weekly meeting. One request asks for nearly $5.8 million to cover added expenses in the department’s operating budget, and money to train and hire recruits.

Another seeks $6.8 million to “buy back” overtime hours from officers, who otherwise might trade eight extra hours of work for a day off.

Officers are allowed to accumulate up to 196 overtime hours a year--the equivalent of 22 days off, said Clifford Weiss, deputy executive director of the commission.

“In order to get those overtime hours down, so that officers are not taking a lot of days off, the department periodically offers cash to officers who want to get cash for time they have on the books,” he said. The LAPD already has spent $7 million on “buying back” those hours, Weiss said.

The allocations will come out of a $27-million fund set aside in the Los Angeles Police Department’s fiscal 1994-95 budget as “unappropriated balance.” LAPD accountants said the department usually makes up midyear funding deficits with salary savings. Those funds are entirely depleted, prompting the request for more money, officials said.