The LAPD has lost nearly 1,000 officers. Now, Mayor Karen Bass wants to rebuild the force

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Ten years ago, the Los Angeles Police Department celebrated a historic hiring milestone, announcing the city had reached a target sought by at least two mayors and multiple police chiefs: 10,000 officers.

That achievement was the culmination of an expensive seven-year campaign waged by then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, much of it during a global recession that ravaged the city’s finances.

Now, within a three-year span, those gains have been erased. The LAPD is hemorrhaging officers, with more leaving the force than are joining it. Police Chief Michel Moore reported last week that sworn staffing had fallen to 9,103, down nearly 1,000 from 2019, the year that preceded the outbreak of COVID-19.

Mayor Karen Bass is looking to confront the issue head on by ramping up hiring and lifting barriers to recruitment. Her proposed budget, which will be released Tuesday, will call for the city to restore the department to 9,500 officers — an extremely tall order, given the ongoing staff exodus.

“I know that that is ambitious, but I think it needs to happen.” she said.

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Bass will release her proposed budget, her first since taking office in December, amid a growing number of departures from the LAPD, not just by those nearing retirement age but also some of the department’s much newer officers.

In an interview, Bass said she fears the accidental release of photographs of LAPD officers, recently provided by the department in response to a public records request, could accelerate the outflow. If the city fails to fix its recruitment and retention problems, the LAPD could easily fall below 9,000 officers in the coming months, Bass said.

The call to rebuild the LAPD will almost certainly generate pushback from groups such as La Defensa, which advocates for alternatives to prisons and policing. Ivette Alé-Ferlito, the group’s executive director, said the city should take advantage of the drop in police staffing, by expanding the number of unarmed specialists who respond to residents experiencing mental health crises or other emergencies — and ensuring those workers are compensated at levels typically reserved for police.

“This is an opportunity to be able to start investments into alternatives to law enforcement responses,” Alé-Ferlito said.

news.yahoo.com/lapd-lost-nearly-1-000-120008003.html

 

AC

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