LAPD’s Elite Units Being Scaled Back

A labor shortage and tight budgets have combined to force sharp cutbacks in the Los Angeles Police Department’s most elite units, including narcotics, and the crunch is now so severe that city officials are considering slashing the DARE drug education effort--long one of the LAPD’s most popular programs.

Retirements and resignations have outpaced recruitment of new LAPD officers. The resulting shortages have affected the entire department, but specialized divisions--staffed mainly by investigators and more highly trained officers--have been especially hard hit.

This is not an accident. Police Chief Bernard C. Parks has deliberately allowed vacancies to soar in such divisions so they don’t stack up in another, more critical area: patrol.

The point is to redirect the LAPD’s resources toward its most essential function--providing uniformed officers to answer emergency calls and patrol the streets, he said.

So, as the number of LAPD officers has fallen to about 8,910 from a pinnacle of 9,852 in June 1998, Parks and his command staff have made a series of Solomonic redeployment decisions, cutting deeply into the narcotics, organized crime and vice, and financial crimes units, so more officers can be assigned to black-and-whites.

Parks said that the upside has been a strengthened patrol force, and that today there are more officers working patrol than in 1993--a year in which the LAPD’s force was of a similar size.

But despite these efforts, patrol functions continue to be strained. Police emergency response times have crept up slightly citywide to a current average of 8.7 minutes, while the amount of discretionary time officers have to spend on non-emergency problems has diminished.

“It’s like we’re in a sinking boat and the water is rising, and we only have a little cup to keep bailing,” said Police Commission President Rick Caruso.

Now, a looming citywide budget shortfall is adding to the difficulties, forcing city leaders to take an even harder look at LAPD deployment.

One possible target for trimming may be the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program launched in 1983, in which police officers teach schoolchildren about the risks of illegal drug use.

Although it has received criticism from some quarters, DARE is considered a proud achievement by LAPD officials because the department invented the concept, which has since been adopted in communities nationwide.

Because of the officer shortage, positions in the DARE program have been reduced over the last two years. DARE Capt. Mark Perez said he has 73 officers rather than the 119 allotted in his budget.

In recent weeks, Caruso has urged the department to go further. He has proposed temporarily reassigning DARE officers to more critical functions, such as patrol, in the interests of “putting them on the street where they are needed.”

The proposal is supported by the Police Protective League, which represents LAPD officers, and the commission will consider it in the coming weeks.

At the same time, Mayor James K. Hahn has proposed cutting all officers from DARE, except for seven based at law enforcement magnet schools, to help balance next year’s city budget. The move would free up about 75 officers for patrol cars if their supervisors are included.

“Getting more officers on the street to help address the crime problem is a top priority for the mayor,” said Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook. Alternatives, such as seeking volunteers among retirees or reserves to maintain DARE, are being considered, he said.

Parks said he will argue for maintaining at least a portion of the program because of its value in preventing crime and fostering community involvement. A possible alternative, he said, is to eliminate positions from joint task forces with other agencies.

Whatever the outcome, there remains the long-standing problem of finding more recruits to fill officer positions already approved.

Police departments across the country have had difficulties recruiting new officers recently. But the LAPD, whose attempt to expand its force rapidly generated much public controversy amid the Rampart Division corruption scandal, has had an especially hard time.

Unless its ranks grow, the LAPD is stuck with “managing by crisis,” Caruso said.

Several LAPD commanders echoed Caruso’s view that, given the labor crunch, Parks’ redeployment decisions have been reasonable, even necessary.

The chief “doesn’t get credit for putting emphasis on patrol,” said 77th Street Division Capt. James Miller.

But, in the process, some of Parks’ choices have been controversial.

Leaders of the officers union, for example, are critical of the number of those reassigned to jobs related to risk management and investigating and disciplining officers while the Patrol Division struggles.

Those changes in large part are mandated to fulfill demands of a federal consent decree signed in 2000. Transfers of 126 sworn officers and 33 civilians have been approved for such functions, augmenting Internal Affairs, auditing and use-of-force investigations.

The chief said he doesn’t have much choice in this. But Police Protective League President Mitzi Grasso--a Parks opponent--said the department should find ways to perform the jobs more efficiently.

The deployments also have generated more public reaction. Community activists from Boyle Heights recently appealed to the Police Commission to remedy what they say is a lack of narcotics enforcement in their neighborhood, which is troubled by gangs.

The controversy, centered in the LAPD’s Hollenbeck Division, erupted after police resources were further strained by security demands following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Elite investigators from the already depleted ranks of the narcotics staff were among those temporarily reassigned to anti-terrorist investigations.

That happened just as some Boyle Heights residents were asking for more officers to perform surveillance of houses used for drug sales.

“We found out that, lo and behold, the city is unprotected,” said William Murray, a Montecito Heights resident who has been among those organizing the political push.

The activists succeeded in getting the commission to study issues of specialized gang and narcotics forces--not just for Boyle Heights but citywide.

Last month, Eastside residents also staged a march on police headquarters to further highlight the issue.

Their criticisms of the chief have added to the political controversy surrounding the commission’s consideration of whether Parks, who is nearing the end of his first five-year term, should be reappointed.

LAPD officials say many of the reassigned narcotics officers have since gone back to their regular jobs. But the more long-standing staffing problems remain acute.

The number of vacancies in the LAPD’s specialized divisions has expanded to about 350. Sept. 11 aside, narcotics has declined by 100 positions to 220 in 18 months.

The Metro Division has pared about 50 positions from crime-suppression platoons. That move required LAPD officials to back away from a function they had fought for years to expand, and meant sending some officers who had advanced to coveted downtown jobs back to the precincts.

Also diminished are the Training and Juvenile divisions.

At the precinct level, Parks told captains to observe a 15% cap on the portion of patrol forces reassigned to special duties, such as gang details, in order to maintain patrol numbers.

Some precinct captains have had to eliminate bicycle and foot patrols. The pressure to staff black-and-whites has also meant tapping community outreach officers known as senior leads, a hard-fought issue that has played into the question of whether Parks should be reappointed.

Hahn has made the LAPD’s labor shortage one of his chief criticisms of Parks, whose reappointment he opposes.

“It’s unfortunate we have to make any of these types of decisions,” said Middlebrook, the deputy mayor. “They are the result of the inability to recruit officers and grow the department.”

Parks said that the department must not look to increasing recruitment as the cure for all of its problems, and that he is working to ensure that existing resources are used more effectively.

In the meantime, he and Hahn agree with Caruso that the need to maintain sufficient forces in patrol duties simply outweighs other priorities.

LAPD officials concede that the redeployments may have made the department less able to prevent future crimes; for example, there are fewer narcotics officers to upset drug markets.

But, said Cmdr. Dan Koenig, “We can’t say to you, ‘Wait two more minutes for an officer because in six months you won’t be calling,’ because you’ll say, ‘I don’t have two more minutes--someone is coming through my door now.’”