Recruiters for LAPD See Surge in Interest

The glamour is back--or perhaps a flicker of it.

More people took the first step toward becoming Los Angeles police officers last month than in any month in five years, and officials say the number of potential recruits this month continues to increase.

In October, 1,885 people took the LAPD test--starting the long road that could lead to a blue uniform. That’s more than three times the number who took it six months ago. LAPD officials attribute the increase to a pro-police mood after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, not to mention rising unemployment, which always gives that steady police paycheck a little extra burnish.

The Los Angeles Police Department is still running a personnel deficit: Slightly more people have left than have signed on since July. And test takers are only a rough indicator of recruiting success, because only about one in 15 eventually become officers.

Moreover, it will be months before any effect on police ranks will be felt. Despite efforts to speed up the glacial hiring process, it can still take up to a year for recruits to complete the preliminary steps for entering the Police Academy.

But LAPD officials say test taking is an indicator of public interest, and believe the numbers have increased so rapidly that the decline in the ranks may halt, or even reverse, by next year.

It helps that the rapid pace of resignations and retirements--an issue of concern inside and outside the department--appears to have slowed somewhat from the strikingly high rates of recent years.

Cmdr. Betty P. Kelepecz said that, based on year-to-date numbers, fewer people will leave the LAPD in fiscal 2002 than have left in previous years.

At the same time, a more attractive work schedule and recruiting of laid-off airline and aerospace workers appear to have paid off. Some young would-be officers are also joining for the traditional reasons.

“Why LAPD?” asks an incredulous Mark Samora, 19, as he picked up an application. “It’s the big city, that’s why. It’s where the action is. Where it all goes down.”

Many police agencies nationwide had a hard time recruiting in the heady job market of the late 1990s. But for the LAPD, the recruiting pinch has been especially severe.

An expansion of the force coincided with a tightening job market in the mid-1990s. Then came the Rampart corruption scandal, accompanied by rank-and-file discontent over discipline policies. Both factors are thought to have diminished the department’s allure for job seekers.

LAPD 1,100 Short of Budgeted Work Force

Today, there is a serious gap in the ranks. The department has 8,944 officers--about 1,100 short of the budgeted number--and they are stretched to the limit in some divisions. In Wilshire, for example, Capt. Kirk J. Albanese said his officers are so busy they often don’t have time to eat.

So, recruiters are buoyed by the recent increase in job seekers. The surge began earlier this year. In January, just 442 potential applicants took the test. By late summer, the monthly numbers had swelled to 863. But October’s numbers more than doubled that.

Other police agencies around the state are cautiously noting similar changes, said Jerry Adams, a vice president of the California Peace Officers Assn. “We are starting to see more interest. But it is a little too soon to see if the pendulum is back,” he said.

The most obvious reason is that unemployment in the Los Angeles area is creeping up, intensified by the sharp economic downturn after the terrorist attacks on the East Coast. Police recruiting numbers tend to climb when jobs in the private sector grow scarcer.

Indeed, increasing numbers of applicants to police departments traditionally serve as a kind of economic indicator. Quite simply, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., it means “. . . good jobs are hard to find.”

LAPD recruiters say they have scrambled to exploit these new conditions.

At a recent job fair at Los Angeles International Airport, recruiting Officer Robert Rothman and his partner were asked so many questions that both grew hoarse.

Most people seemed mainly interested in job stability, Rothman said. They talked of “paying the bills, paying the rent, of being tired of bouncing around from job to job,” he said.

One striking sign of the new economic climate was that in addition to flight attendants and other airport workers, several airline pilots were also among the would-be recruits, Rothman said. Times must be tough, he concluded; it’s usually rare for people from such high-paying fields to consider law enforcement.

Recruiters say there may be another force at work: a more favorable view of law enforcement since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“I feel a lot more people are looking at this as a noble profession,” said recruiting Officer Rudy Barillas. “They see there is more to it than foot pursuits and bank robberies. They see we are out there to help people.”

“We get a lot of ‘Thanks for what you do,’ ” said recruiting Sgt. Kim Kempton. “We used to get that once in a while. Now it’s all the time.”

It is hard to gauge what effect such factors may have on drawing people into the force. Military recruiters, for example, have noted that, though they received a surge of inquiries after the attacks, most people failed to follow through.

But Kelepecz is still betting that the new, somber national mood will help increase the ranks of the LAPD. The department even has a new recruiting slogan to tap public sentiment about homeland security: “Serve your country by serving your community.”

Some Show Interest in Three-Day Workweek

At a recent law enforcement job fair at Cal State Fullerton, though, students seemed more focused on the practical aspects of an LAPD position.

They quizzed Barillas and Rothman about pay and schooling requirements. Many seemed interested in the department’s new shorter work schedule, which will allow some officers to be on the job three days a week in 12-hour shifts.

The officers urged them on, touting the variety of LAPD positions and the prospects for advancement.

Many students seemed to have already made up their minds to join. They said they liked the ethnic diversity of the force, and wanted to work in a large, exciting city.

In policing circles, the LAPD is still the big time, explained student Archit Dave, 25. “There was a time that LAPD was the top law enforcement agency in the world,” he said. “I have no doubt it will be again, and I want to be part of it.”

But students said the LAPD still struggles with an image problem. Several said few of their fellow Cal State Fullerton criminal justice classmates share their enthusiasm for the force.

“People hear all this negative stuff--that there is a lot of corruption,” said Torri Tolliver, 21. “It doesn’t affect me. But there is a lot of negative talk.”

The complex emotions the LAPD inspires were embodied in Fullerton criminal justice student Laketha Williams, 21, who tossed her head in disgust the first time she passed the LAPD booth as she toured the job fair.

“I’m from South-Central, and the cops in L.A.--they all seem like bad cops,” she said, casting a wary glance at Barillas and Rothman. “You always hear about LAPD being bad, racist cops.”

But a few minutes later, Williams had circled back, as if irresistibly drawn, and began chatting shyly with Rothman.

Within an hour, she had returned twice. He responded amiably to her questions, soft-pedaling his pitch and mostly talking about his own impressions of the job.

Williams left with a test brochure in her hand.