Yaroslavsky Has a Plan to Boost LAPD to 8,000

Los Angeles mayoral aspirant Zev Yaroslavsky unveiled a plan Friday to beef up the city’s police force to an all-time high of 8,000 officers by 1991.

Joined by Chief Daryl F. Gates at the Police Academy, where 67 cadets were about to graduate, Yaroslavsky said that 250 officers should be hired in the coming fiscal year and 200 more should be hired in both 1989 and 1990. The $40-million price tag for the 650 new officers could be borne through existing city revenues and cuts in “non-essential” city services, he said.

No new taxes would be needed for the new officers, Yaroslavsky said. The Westside councilman, who is expected to challenge Mayor Tom Bradley in next year’s election, also predicted that the mayor would back the staffing boosts.

“I think the mayor will support it and I can’t imagine that he wouldn’t,” Yaroslavsky said. “I think the mayor’s budget will probably increase the Police Department; I hope it’s as high as this and hope it’s even higher.”

First-Year Goal Is Same

But Bradley said hours later that he has not decided if he will propose any staffing increases beyond the currently authorized 7,350-officer force when he submits his 1988-89 budget to the City Council in April. Noting that Yaroslavsky’s first-year hiring goal of 250 new officers is identical to a plan adopted by the Los Angeles Police Commission on Dec. 15, Bradley said:

“I carefully, always, look at any recommendations that my commissions make and if I can find a means by which it can be done, we do it. The police budget has always been, for 14 years, a top priority of my administration.”

In the past, Bradley has approached police staffing increase proposals in a number of ways. In 1986, he proposed hiring 100 more officers, while last year he agreed to boost the force by 250 officers after Yaroslavsky pushed the idea through the council. In 1985, Bradley vetoed a council move to hire 100 new officers.

During lean economic times, the mayor said the police force could grow only with the imposition of new taxes. But two Bradley-backed tax measures seeking money for police officers were roundly defeated by voters this decade.

If Yaroslavsky’s three-year plan is implemented, the 8,000-officer department would be the largest sworn staff ever authorized. City officials said that the previous high was 7,459 officers in 1973; a number that dipped well below 7,000 in the late 1970s after passage of the property tax-slashing Proposition 13. The size of the sworn force also dipped after hundreds of uniformed positions were reassigned to civilians.

Only in the last year has the number of sworn officers climbed over the 7,000 mark again, officials said. With Friday’s graduation, the department has reached a level of 7,200 officers and will climb to full strength by June 30, Cmdr. William Booth said.

“It’s clear to us that the future of the Los Angeles Police Department has to be a future of growth,” Yaroslavsky said at the Police Academy news conference. “It can be done in the same manner that it was done this year; prudent management of our monies, cuts in non-essential city services and pooling of the resources available for law enforcement.”

Among cuts suggested by Yaroslavsky was the elimination of the salaried Board of Public Works, an idea that he has unsuccessfully pushed in the past. He added that minor cuts could be made in the budgets of other city departments as well.

Chief Gates said he was “delighted” at Yaroslavsky’s proposal, but added that he could use even more officers.

“Eight-thousand police officers is not, in my judgment, quite enough,” Gates said. “But it will give us policing that I think will really give the people of this city a sense of security, a sense of safety, a feeling that they can enjoy a better quality of life in this city.”

Gates attributed a 7.2% decline in major crimes last year compared to 1986 to the steady increase in the numbers of officers authorized over the last few years.