Williams Backs Merger of All Police Agencies in City

Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams on Monday laid out a broad plan to take control of all the city’s independent police agencies, from school police to public transit officers, but said the transition could take as long as 10 years to complete.

The proposal would add at least 1,070 sworn officers to the LAPD, which eventually would be responsible for policing city schools, housing projects, airports, the port, parks, buses and trains in addition to city streets. Although the plan would reassign current law enforcement officers under one mega-agency, it would not increase the total number of sworn officers in the city.

Responding to a request from a City Council committee to study a possible law enforcement consolidation, Williams’ 22-page report strongly supports a “one city, one police department” vision. The Police Commission is expected today to discuss the issue, which is likely to face a lengthy battle as officials work out financial, personnel and deployment details. Though the proposal was generally well-received by city officials, some said they want to see further study of its feasibility.

City “policy makers” must ask themselves whether it is financially beneficial to absorb all the police agencies and whether one large police force would enhance public safety, according to Williams’ report.

“The answer to both questions is a resounding yes,” concludes the report, drafted by LAPD staffers at Williams’ request.

The report comes as city officials try to iron out details in the city’s first police consolidation effort: merging the LAPD and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority police, who patrol the city’s public buses and trains. That proposal, included in Williams’ plan, has been stalled as negotiators struggle over issues of staffing levels, pay and benefits.

The report also comes as Williams wages a public campaign to persuade police commissioners to reappoint him to a second five-year term as police chief. Williams made no attempt to link the plan with his job quest, releasing it with little fanfare.

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Mayor Richard Riordan, one of the moving forces behind the MTA and LAPD merger, said he supports the massive law enforcement consolidation in concept but wants to see the specifics of the plan.

“Like all things, they say the devil is in the details and I’ll want to see the details on this,” said Riordan, who had not yet reviewed the chief’s report.

Members of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, which requested the report, said Monday they also had not studied it, but were glad that the chief was developing a strategic plan that went beyond the MTA merger.

“This, to me, makes sense, to have a policy discussion about where are we headed,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, the panel’s chair, noting that the committee would be discussing the chief’s report next Monday. “I’ve always seen the potential positives of having one administration of law enforcement in this city, but first we need a discussion. That’s what this is.”

While many city leaders support the idea of joining all the city’s law enforcement agencies, some question whether the LAPD would be biting off more than it could chew. “One question is, can a department that is already pressed to satisfy so many competing goals handle yet another infusion of goals?” asked Councilman Mike Feuer, who also sits on the Public Safety Committee.

Other concerns have been raised as to whether it is logistically possible, given the different qualifications among officers in more specialized law enforcement capacities and the lack of compatibility among the various agencies’ computer and communication systems.

According to the report, which police officials stressed was only a “preliminary” evaluation, the consolidation would not pose much of a financial burden to the city.

“We’re going to be able to make this a break-even situation and maybe even find some cost savings,” said LAPD Cmdr. Art Lopez, who is heading the department analysis of the consolidation.

While the department would achieve savings by placing civilians in some jobs currently performed by sworn officers and eliminating duplicative administrative functions, it would have to pay for some “start-up and salary expenses” incurred by the merger, the report states.

If the proposal wins support, public safety and police services in the city would improve, Lopez said in an interview.

As envisioned, a larger, unified police force would be able to respond to calls for service quicker because officers would all be connected to the same communication network. Currently, various police agencies within the city’s borders cannot communicate directly with one another, creating situations in which the closest officer to a crime does not necessary go to the scene.

Lopez said the consolidation would create a greater police presence in the city, make it easier to compile crime statistics and centralize operations so there is only one police agency interacting with the community and government leaders.

The consolidation, however, is not an easy or quick proposition and does have downsides, police officials concede.

One of the key concerns is whether officers who patrol parks, schools, buses and airports are qualified to patrol the toughest streets of Los Angeles. LAPD officers are subject to more thorough background checks than many of their counterparts in other agencies, and some officials say the officers in those agencies are not qualified to be part of the LAPD.

For example, a couple of current MTA officers were forced to leave other police agencies after running into discipline problems. Because of the different qualifications for non-LAPD officers, “the department must anticipate skepticism from current LAPD officers,” the report states.

Under the plan, newly hired officers would be able to perform a wide range of police duties, but those currently working for outside agencies would remain in their current assignments unless they received additional training.

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The report says the entire consolidation plan would take between five and 10 years to implement. Under the plan, the agencies would be “assimilated” by the LAPD one at a time. The priority, the report states, would be to acquire MTA police, followed by park rangers, airport police, Los Angeles port police, Housing Authority police, Los Angeles Unified School District police and Department of General Services security. It would take up to two years to fully merge an agency into the LAPD, the report said.

Even if the LAPD acquired all of the other departments and the ranks swelled to 10,350 officers, it would remain the nation’s third-largest metropolitan police force, behind New York, with 37,450 officers, and Chicago, with 13,344. Furthermore, the LAPD would still lag in the number of officers per capita.

According to 1994 population statistics, Los Angeles has one officer for every 372 residents. New York has one officer for every 196 residents and Chicago has one officer for every 204 residents. New York includes all its transit and housing police as part of the force.

Chick, however, said it was important to focus on results rather than numbers.

“This business of adding police--I object to even the term,” she said. “There’s the potential for it both being cost-saving and beneficial. How doable it is, I don’t know.”

Times staff writers Jodi Wilgoren and Jim Newton contributed to this story.