Mayor Karen Bass is no longer promising to rebuild the Los Angeles Police Department to its former size. Her new, more modest mission: keep the force from shrinking any further as City Hall stares down a tight budget and stubborn recruiting and attrition problems. Bass is set to roll out her spending plan on April 20, with city leaders trying to juggle public-safety demands and a whole lot of red ink.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Bass acknowledged that "my goal changed, unfortunately," adding that while she still wants to grow the department someday, "we are not there now." The Times noted the LAPD counted about 8,677 sworn officers this week, the lowest total in nearly a quarter-century, and that the mayor will detail her proposed budget on April 20. That setup, the paper reported, essentially forces a choice between hiring more officers and shielding other city services from deeper cuts.
Budget Squeeze Complicates Hiring
City Hall has already scraped together short-term cash to keep the police academy from going quiet. In January, the City Council signed off on roughly $3 million to avoid a hiring freeze, according to NBC Los Angeles. Even with that stopgap, officials warn that retirements and resignations could still outpace recruits unless a more stable funding stream appears. Hence, the new mantra from the mayor’s team: stop the bleeding first, worry about rebuilding later.
Mayor's Office Pushes Hiring Reforms
The Bass administration points to an executive directive that revamps the hiring pipeline and sets benchmarks intended to shave months off background checks and clearances, according to a statement from the mayor’s office. Mayor Karen Bass' staff also says interest is there, with applications to the LAPD on the rise, but paperwork bottlenecks and a lingering backlog are still slowing the conversion of would-be officers into sworn personnel.
Rivals And Advocates Question The Trade-offs
The shift in goals has not quieted Bass’s critics. Rivals and some City Council members argue that recent police pay raises have not solved recruitment woes and have instead squeezed funding for parks, street repairs, and other basic services, the Los Angeles Times reported. The paper also pointed to polling that shows Angelenos split over whether the LAPD should grow, leaving public safety as a politically fraught question with the mayoral campaign starting to heat up.
Bottom Line
For now, Bass has dialed back the promise. The plan is to stabilize LAPD staffing, then chase expansion only if and when the money and hiring pipeline line up. With a lean fiscal outlook and a crucial budget proposal due on April 20, the fight over how many officers Los Angeles can afford is about to play out both in council chambers and on the campaign trail.
