Chick Calls for Revised City Plan to Boost LAPD

Criticizing Mayor Richard Riordan’s police expansion plan as too narrow, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick on Monday called for a revised public safety plan that would not only add 3,000 officers to the force but also update the crime lab, improve the 911 system, expand facilities and technology and increase salaries to stem attrition.

Chick, chairwoman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, offered a detailed medical analogy at a City Hall hearing, saying the mayor’s 1993 prescription for what Chick called a “malnourished and neglected” Los Angeles Police Department is myopic and may create negative “unintended side effects,” such as a large police force without the technology and support system to make its work effective.

“Hindsight is now showing us that a well-balanced diet is needed to restore and strengthen our department,” Chick said.

“Today I am proposing that we improve our plan of hiring 3,000 additional police officers by altering the treatment plan somewhat so that we treat the whole patient and not just the most visible symptoms.”

Members of Riordan’s administration disagreed Monday, saying that while they also want to improve the crime lab and other facilities, the No. 1 priority must remain adding officers to patrol streets, and that the Public Safety Plan passed by the City Council two years ago is fine as it is.

Mayoral spokeswoman Noelia Rodriguez noted Monday that the LAPD currently has 8,600 sworn officers, compared to 7,400 when Riordan took office in 1993.

The Public Safety Plan--which codified Riordan’s campaign promise that he would not seek reelection before expanding the LAPD by 3,000 officers--calls for the addition of 2,855 officers in four years.

While the mayor is concerned about the crime lab, technology, the 911 system and other issues Chick raises, Rodriguez said, “I think the blueprint is still solid.”

Chick’s comments, which expanded on statements she made last fall raising questions about whether the Public Safety Plan might sacrifice quality for quantity, came amid a discussion of the LAPD’s crime lab, which was the focus of intense scrutiny during the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial.

Cmdr. Bill Russell told the Public Safety Committee Monday that it is critical to get the city’s laboratory accredited by the American Society of Criminalistic Lab Directors in order to restore public confidence in the facility, and estimated that it could be done by June and cost less than $1 million.

But Russell also warned that the lab is woefully understaffed and in need of new expensive equipment.

Filling those needs also would demand a larger space, he said, noting that the department is studying sharing a new facility with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department crime lab so that costs for some items--such as administrative space and extremely high-tech equipment--could be split.

In the long term, Russell said, the price tag for improvements could reach $7 million.

Chick said reports of the problems at the crime lab, combined with recent news reports detailing failures of the 911 emergency dispatch system and problems with LAPD attrition, triggered her broader comments about the Public Safety Plan.

In her statement, she said the new plan must include providing pay comparable to other departments--a problem cited often by officers who leave the LAPD--and continuing anti-discrimination and community-based policing reforms launched by the landmark 1991 Christopher Commission report.

“A plan is a living, flexible thing. Sometimes when you come up with a plan, you learn as you go along that there are things you forgot to put in it,” Chick said.

“No more of treating the most obvious symptoms and not treating the whole patient. It’s not a wise investment and it’s not fair to the public.”

But Chick’s comments drew mixed reviews.

“The officers are the lifeblood of the department, and we can’t really do all these other things until we have the lifeblood pumping at the level it should be,” said Police Commissioner Art Mattox, adopting Chick’s medical metaphor.

“I absolutely believe [force expansion] is the right focus,” Mattox said. “That is where the rubber meets the road, where we have the black-and-white units with officers in uniforms in the streets, patrolling our neighborhoods and preventing crime. Until you get that basic building block of the department up to the numbers where it should be, then all of the crime lab improvements in the world will not make a difference.”

At Police Department headquarters, top brass found a middle ground Monday, praising Chick’s ideas as supplement to the Public Safety Plan while commending that effort as well.

“We’re certainly ecstatic about the Public Safety Plan and the officers it has allowed us to add,” LAPD Spokesman Cmdr. Tim McBride said.

“And certainly there also needs to be a long-term plan that encompasses more than personnel.”

Through a spokesman, Police Chief Willie L. Williams also lent his support to Chick’s call for expanding goals beyond hiring and into other arenas.

“I’m very supportive of the Public Safety Plan, which is primarily a hiring plan,” Williams said. “There are a variety of other issues that need city support--including a new communications system, improvements to the lab, attention to our facilities’ needs and a variety of other issues--that are currently being looked at individually. However, it would be advantageous . . . to tie them all together.”

Chick said she envisions her committee working with the Police Commission, the mayor’s office and LAPD leaders to rewrite the plan in the next six months, incorporating three independent studies of the department that are expected to be completed in February.

But her colleagues on the committee did not immediately share Chick’s enthusiasm for changing the blueprints.

“I think it should stay as it is,” Councilman Nate Holden said after the meeting.

Mike Feuer, the third council member on the committee, echoed both Chick and Riordan officials.

“The No. 1 priority for public safety right now is getting more officers on the street,” he said.

“However, to focus exclusively on the number of officers on the street and give short shrift to where they’re going to be housed and what kind of equipment they’re going to use and what their crime lab is going to be like is too narrow a focus.”