More Cops, More Equipment

The Los Angeles Police Department now tops 9,000 officers for the first time in its history because of herculean efforts by Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council. The mayor wants more police officers to patrol the city. Public opinion polls indicate that most residents also want more cops. But Riordan’s ambitious expansion should be slowed a bit until city officials can figure out how to pay for more rookies--and how to provide every officer with the radios, computers, locker rooms, squad cars and other essentials needed to protect and serve.

Neither rookie cops nor veterans should have to endure the grim and demoralizing working conditions described Sunday by Times Staff Writer Jim Newton. The equipment shortages are a legacy of the LAPD’s past fascination with sophisticated, costly new weaponry. More money should have been spent on basics. The shortage is so extreme that recruits practice their radio skills with wooden dummies at the Police Academy. They need the real thing.

Equipment shortages also require officers to hand off radios and other items at shift changes. That time could be better spent on patrol. A key consultant’s report says this time-consuming process wastes about $9 million a year.

The police buildup, which has cost more than $116 million for hiring over three years, must produce more than a head count, as City Councilman Mike Feuer rightly puts it. He serves on the new ad hoc committee on police funding, which met for the first time on Monday. As the debate over how fast to expand the LAPD continues at City Hall, Feuer wants to know the total cost of hiring, training, equipping and providing locker rooms, desks and squad cars for more cops.

Riordan’s goal is 10,000 officers. L.A. could use double that number. Unfortunately, budget constraints could limit expansion unless the special committee can identify new sources of revenue or savings from efficiencies in other city departments, or perhaps from consolidating duplicate county and city services such as the crime labs and police academies.

This challenge is the focus of the ad hoc committee, formed by Riordan and Council President John Ferraro after the council reined in the police expansion from the mayor’s proposed 710 new officers annually to 450 new officers a year. Riordan and the council can take credit for providing some new equipment and patrol cars. Funds from Proposition M financed the purchase of 6,000 new radios and another 1,000 are on the way. Funds from a bond measure paid for some renovation, and a few stations are under construction. Both ballot measures promised more than they delivered, but help is due in the form of federal block grant money.

Public safety is City Hall’s No. 1 priority. That means a reasonable expansion of the LAPD with all officers fully equipped to do their jobs.