U.S. Lifts Grant Limits to Speed Up LAPD Hiring

The U.S. Department of Justice agreed Thursday to drop restrictions placed on a $133-million federal grant to hire additional police officers, allowing Los Angeles to put some of the money to use immediately for reform of the troubled LAPD.

“Between this year and next we’ll hire between 500 and 600 officers,” said Jennifer Roth, deputy mayor for budget and policy, adding that the grant would pay for 90% of the new hires’ salaries and benefits for three years.

Money that would have otherwise come from the city’s own coffers for hiring and maintaining city services will now be freed up to pay for reforms in the Los Angeles Police Department. Those reforms are mandated by a consent decree between the city and federal government that spells out a series of changes that the city must adopt over the next five years.

Implementing the sweeping changes under that decree will cost an estimated $30 million in the next 18 months, officials say.

The Los Angeles City Council approved the decree in November under the threat of a lawsuit from the Justice Department against the city accusing the LAPD of practicing a pattern of civil rights violations.

Although precise numbers are difficult to estimate, city officials say implementing the consent decree could require scores of police officers and others.

Mayor Richard Riordan, who came to office on a promise to boost the size of the LAPD and drive down crime, has vowed that he will not let the consent decree requirements detract from providing police services. On Thursday, he reiterated that pledge and said the latest federal action will make that easier.

“The No. 1 goal of the Police Department is the safety of our city.” Riordan said. “I’m going to put my foot down. We cannot take needed officers off the streets to comply with the consent decree.”

Doubts From the Police Union

The $133-million grant was given to the city in 1998, but in its original form it could be used for hiring only after the department had 9,700 officers deployed. Attrition has taken a toll on the LAPD in recent years, however, and the department today fields 9,100 officers. That technically makes the federal money unavailable to the city, a requirement waived by Thursday’s action.

“Now we can use it for any new officer, basically without regard to the number of officers on the force,” Roth said.

The police union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, welcomed the money, but said it is not convinced that it will lead to the hiring of hundreds of officers.

“The basic problem we have is we can’t attract people to our department for a variety of reasons,” said Mitzi Grasso, union president. “Historically, our best recruiting tool has been our own officers.”

Grasso and others say that recruiting has been hampered by plummeting police morale. According to Grasso, the department has already cast a wide net for new officers, reaching to areas across the nation with paltry results.

Expanding the Police Department by 3,000 officers was Riordan’s main public policy mission when he was elected in 1993. For several years, the department grew steadily, but those gains have reversed over the past year or two. City officials blame the healthy economy, with its abundant other job opportunities, in part for the reversal. Others cite the effects of the Rampart police scandal, among other things.

In response to this, Riordan laid out a strategy to increase hiring and retention in the department during a speech he gave at the Police Academy graduation in November. The main points were recruitment, improving morale and community policing.

Shortly after that speech, Riordan sent several aides to Washington, D.C., to meet with officials in the Department of Justice to request more flexible grant guidelines.

Additionally, Riordan’s staff asked the department to redirect $8 million in previously awarded grants to fund a portion of the technology projects required under the consent decree.

Senior officials with the Justice Department are still considering that request.