Plan to Merge Police Agencies Falters

A 10-year plan to have the Los Angeles Police Department take over a host of smaller agencies that handle law enforcement in pockets of the city stalled Monday when the head of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee said she was unsure whether such a consolidation is necessary.

Councilwoman Laura Chick also expressed doubts about a separate plan set to be voted on later this month under which the Metropolitan Transportation Authority would contract for police services with the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“It’s like taking a very dysfunctional man and woman, a couple, and saying, ‘You should get married now,’ ” Chick said of the LAPD-MTA merger proposal.

Regarding the broader plan, she said: “It’s a terrible time to be charging down the road toward this.”

Instead of launching a series of takeovers--beginning with the MTA police and moving on to agencies that patrol the harbor, Los Angeles International Airport and the city’s schools, parks and housing projects--Chick suggested that the LAPD initiate talks with the other departments in an effort to improve communication and cooperation.

But LAPD Assistant Chief Bayan Lewis differed sharply with Chick, saying one mega-department is the best way to ensure accountability for police services in the vast city.

“The issue is . . . who’s responsible for policing in the city of Los Angeles,” Lewis said at a City Hall hearing. “We now have a bunch of full service agencies that are competing on the same turf. That’s not good for the city. It’s not good for the citizens.

“These entities have continued to gain ground or take ground. What we’re seeing is a decaying of the Los Angeles Police Department’s responsibility to investigate crime.”

Lewis said the city is better served through the consolidation of the other agencies into the LAPD “so that there’s one standard, one policy for all of the city of Los Angeles.”

The city’s civilian Police Commission also expressed hesitation last week when it reviewed the 22-page report, saying the plan--which would add more than 1,000 officers to LAPD ranks--was too broad and vague.

The “one-city, one-department” report responds to a request made by the City Council last year during discussions about the proposed merger with the MTA police.

Chick repeatedly said she felt uncomfortable voting on a takeover of transit policing without the broader policy discussion on whether the LAPD should absorb all the smaller, specialized police agencies. But on Monday, Chick said she saw no need to go into the long-term plan before reconsidering the MTA merger, scheduled for discussion by a committee next week and by the full council on March 18.

“What you’re saying is the only way to improve [working relationships] is to become one big police agency,” she said. “Why can’t there be another way of getting at this? It might be a concept that is so far down the line that there’s no reason to start it.”

Chick instructed Lewis to have meetings with the police chiefs and department heads handling the harbor, the airport, parks and security details in city buildings and report back in four to six weeks.

Although they allowed the report to be tabled, the other two council members on the Public Safety Committee also differed with Chick.

Committee Vice Chairman Mike Feuer said the council should approve the concept of “one city, one department” even if specific mergers are far in the future. He did caution, however, against having the LAPD take on huge new endeavors in the midst of the largest expansion in the department’s history.

“I don’t know why at this moment this one-city, one-police thing is more important than it’s been at any other time,” Feuer said. “There’s value to this approach. Is this the right moment to be embarking on this big deal?”

The third member of the panel, Councilman Nate Holden, expressed reservations about any consolidations, referring to officers of the MTA police and other city agencies as “LAPD rejects.”

“Leave it alone,” Holden said. “Don’t put handcuffs on the department. Don’t bring in these misfits.”