Funds to Hire More Police

I want to take issue with Joel Fox’s criticism of the federal “cops on the beat” program (Column Right, Oct. 13). In 1993, a year before Congress passed the crime bill, L.A. had one police officer for every 464 residents, which made ours the most underpoliced urban area in the U.S. At the same time, Mayor Riordan was elected on a platform that called for a huge increase in the number of officers. I worked closely with the mayor, City Council and the administration to procure the federal dollars to hire more officers for L.A. The three-year federal grants gave us the resources to hire additional officers, purchase new technology to increase efficiency and hire civilians to enable officers to spend more time on the streets.

These efforts increased the size of the force from 7,062 officers in July 1993 to the current figure of 9,730. The latest grant will enable the LAPD to eventually surpass 10,000 officers for the first time.

Last year, the city had 569 homicides, 500 fewer than in 1993. While this shows that more officers make a difference, that rate of violent crime is still too high.

Fox is worried that local government will have to make hard budget choices to cover the costs later. Isn’t that what our elected officials are supposed to do? Here is a program that’s trying to make L.A. a reasonably safe, livable city. Fox should admit that sometimes government gets it right.

REP. HOWARD L. BERMAN

D-Mission Hills