L.A. Mustn’t Lose Money for Cops

There is no politician in Los Angeles who would say crime is not a top concern and that more police officers are not needed. So the issue in the city’s budget debate was never, as some in City Hall falsely put it, “pro-police” versus “anti-police.”

Mayor Richard Riordan wanted 710 new officers next year; the City Council funded 450. It’s important to acknowledge the shift that has occurred. Riordan, acting in response to public worry about crime, as well as his own worry about his risky campaign promise, has pushed so hard for new police officers that the issue has become not whether the city will get more cops, only how quickly.

The council, in an odd role reversal with the business-oriented mayor, exercised its proper function by questioning whether the Riordan plan was fiscally prudent, since it was unclear how the officers would be paid for over the long term. But by funding only 450 recruits, the council is risking the loss of $19.5 million in federal crime-fighting matching funds, and there’s the rub.

A special ad hoc committee, to be appointed by Council President John Ferraro and Riordan, will try to come up with the matching funds needed by the city to keep all of the Clinton administration’s grant. To do that, the committee needs to identify public and maybe even private funds. It also needs to ferret out “efficiencies” that would allow spending cuts that could free up revenue.

This tough job is made even more difficult by a deadline only about six weeks away. By mid-July, the council must apply for the federal crime bill money.

Also by mid-July the council will have to decide whether to put a police tax on the ballot and ask voters to dig into their pockets to pay for what they feel they are already paying for through current taxes.

The natural aversion to more taxes is precisely why Los Angeles needs to take full advantage of funds currently offered by Washington. And that’s why the finger-pointing about who wants cops more has to end and the real work must begin.