Police Academy II

The Los Angeles Police Department says it has no plans to take any more land from Elysian Park for its proposed Police Academy expansion. That may or may not be. The Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park has seen a breakdown of planned building square footage (224,000 square feet) but, to date, LAPD has failed to show us how the buildings will fit on the site it currently occupies. We have seen plans that include three parking structures of two and three stories, not underground as Capt. Gregory R. Berg states (Letters, April 2), to accommodate 1,000 cars. Nowhere in any of the plans is there any mention of enclosed firing ranges.

Capt. Berg’s claim that the issue of moving the Academy out of the park was “extensively debated” in 1972 is misleading. In 1972, the city administrative officer submitted a report to the City Council that studied complete cost estimates of alternative sites for a new Police Academy.

Of the 29 sites considered, six were judged to have good potential. Two would have required no land acquisition cost. A third site of 60 acres (Ascot Reservoir) was both centrally located and would have cost only $600,000. The LAPD, however, did not wish to consider any of these alternatives. There was no debate. There were no public hearings. What ensued was a debate among City Council members whether or not to place Charter Amendment U on the ballot.

Although a majority of then-council members had long sought to oust the police department from Elysian Park land, the council, under intense pressure from LAPD, agreed 8 to 7 to place the proposed charter amendment on the ballot. This proposed to transfer jurisdiction of 21.46 acres of Elysian Park from the Department of Recreation and Parks to the Department of Public Works.

LAPD stated that a “yes” vote would save taxpayers $15 million that it would cost to relocate the Academy. Where that figure came from, we don’t know. The point to be made is that LAPD successfully used tax threats to gain a narrow margin for the passage of Proposition U, and in November, 1972, 21 acres of parkland was lost. Capt. Berg is obviously unaware of this history or he would not have “seriously doubted” that voters would allow any land to be taken away from the park in the future.

A Police Academy does not belong in a park. The training exercises and pistol firing are not compatible with park enjoyment. The traffic the officers and recruits generate add air and noise pollution. To increase the training capacity threefold is what LAPD has in mind. To think that this would not negatively impact the surrounding park is ridiculous.

We do not argue that LAPD needs better facilities to train our officers, but please, not in Elysian Park.

SALLIE W. NEUBAUER

Los Angeles Neubauer is president of Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park.