Will LAPD Stop Hiring Cops?

On a 3-1 vote, the Budget and Finance Committee called for a halt to the hiring process, which currently allows the LAPD to replace those who resign or retire. The existing policy is designed to keep the number of sworn officers at 9,963 for the fiscal year that ends June 30....The budget committee has made recommendations in previous years to halt police hiring, only to have that advice ignored by the full council. But the situation is more dire this year, with a $222-million budget shortfall and 93 workers recently notified that they are being laid off..... LAPD Chief Charlie Beck expressed concern about the vote, saying that an order to stop hiring would mean the loss of 90 officers by the end of June and an additional 230 over the course of the upcoming fiscal year....Beck said he was hopeful the full council would reject the motion. "I'm confident they know the reason we have a safe city now is because we have a well-staffed, effective police force," he said.

There are 3,958 civilian positions, but only 3,000 of them are filled. By July 1st, the new fiscal year, another hundred could be slashed, shifting the responsibility to sworn officers, according to the L.A. Police Protective League. That means more officers instead of civilians will be working 911 call centers, processing warrants, data entry work for booking suspects, writing grants and doing statistical crime analysis."For every 100 officers who are pulled from field work to backfill vacant civilian positions, it is the equivalent of removing about 30 police cars citywide," the LAPPL's blog noted.<