City Report: Curtail LAPD hiring to achieve budget goals
LOS ANGELES, CA - MAY 28, 2020: Los Angeles Police officers in riot gear and face masks stand on the other side of metal fence barriers in front of headquarters to keep Black Lives Matter protesters from advancing in a rally to protest the death of G
LOS ANGELES - A city report on how Los Angeles can fulfill a recent City Council motion to cut up to $150 million from the Los Angels Police Department's budget recommends reducing the number of new officers hired and cutting back overtime costs.
On Monday, the council's Budget and Finance Committee approved a proposal to cut $100 million to $150 million from the LAPD's proposed 2020-21 budget, sending the motion to the full council.
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Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso and City Administrative Officer Richard Llewellyn released their report on the proposal Friday, and it says that if city officials want to achieve the more ambitious cost savings goal without resorting to layoffs, they will have to reduce the LAPD's ranks to 9,757 officers by the end of June 2021, according to an analysis of the report by the Los Angeles Times.
Leaders have pushed to keep the department at its current level of closer to 10,000 officers.
The report also recommends reducing overtime spending to avoid the practice of "overtime banking,'' in which officers work overtime but are not paid for it until later years.
Some community activists have called for far more dramatic reductions in law enforcement spending.
The People's Budget LA proposal was developed by a coalition of organizations led by Black Lives Matter's Los Angeles chapter, seeks to have the LAPD's proposed budget cut by 90%, with the funds allocated to social services, such as mental health and housing. LAPD's proposed operating budget for the next fiscal year is about $1.86 billion.
The Budget and Finance Committee is expected to meet again Monday and
June 29 before adopting a budget by June 30. Council members have said the
budget will continue to be worked on throughout the next fiscal year, which
begins July 1.