Hahn Plans to Bolster LAPD With Reservists

In a bid to beef up the Los Angeles Police Department as the city struggles to find money for more officers, officials are planning a recruitment drive to attract more reserve cops, Mayor James K. Hahn announced Friday.

Hahn was joined by City Council members and reserve officers as he outlined plans to more than double the size of the reserve force over the next five years, a project that could save the city tens of millions of dollars.

City officials estimate that the current force of about 650 reserve officers provides the city with $5 million worth of services each year, the equivalent of 100 full-time officers.

City leaders have been fighting for years over ways to increase the size of the police force, which has about 9,200 officers. Because of the city’s tight budget, Hahn is proposing to add just 30 officers in the coming year.

Reservists attend the same Police Academy and perform many of the same jobs as LAPD officers. They wear the same scratchy blue uniforms and, in many cases, carry guns. But they do not receive a salary.

In the decades since the force was created during World War II, the city has relied on reservists to do everything from answer telephones to serve warrants on violent felons. Reserve officers have even been involved in at least 10 shootings, two of them fatal.

“They are a key component of what we need to do to keep this city safe,” Hahn said as he unveiled a six-point plan to add 150 reserve officers a year over the next five years.

But in recent years, the force has dwindled from a modern-day high of about 1,500 officers a decade ago.

And several reservists, including two councilmen who serve in the reserve ranks, said they worried about the force’s future as they saw morale fall. “It really was dying on the vine,” said Councilman Greig Smith, adding that he had considered resigning.

But Smith and Councilman Dennis Zine, a retired officer and current reservist, said Chief William J. Bratton’s department has been working for months on ways to re-energize the reserve corps.

Under the plan the mayor outlined Friday, the city would make it easier for reserve officers from other agencies to transfer to the LAPD reserve force.

Hahn said the city would also make it easier for reserve officers to become full-time cops should they choose.

And the city would offer current and retired city employees $500 to successfully recruit a reserve officer.

“It’s advertising, getting the message out,” said Zine, who joined the mayor and other reservists to promote the work of reserve officers. Zine said the city would seek to make reserve work more appealing for Angelenos.

The LAPD’s reserve program began during World War II, when the police force was depleted by the departure of hundreds of officers who were fighting overseas.

By the 1960s, after new policies limited the reserves to humdrum chores such as directing traffic and helping out at parades, numbers dwindled.

In the last 20 years, however, policies changed again to allow reserve officers who complete training at the Police Academy to perform many of the same duties as full-time officers.

Though many police departments, particularly in small towns, have reserve programs, Los Angeles is among the few large police forces in the country with such a large reserve program.

The program requires reservists to complete more than 1,000 hours of training. To keep their status, reservists must work at least 16 hours a month, for which they receive a stipend of $50.

The recruitment plan is scheduled to be considered first by the Police Commission and later by the City Council, where Smith and Zine predicted it would have little trouble attracting support.