LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The Los Angeles City Council Friday approved a $1 million funding proposal for additional hiring of new Los Angeles Police Department recruits for January and February.<\/p>\n
In a 9-6 vote, the council advanced a proposal introduced by members Katy Yaroslavsky, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, and Ysabel Jurado to allocate enough dollars to cover additional hiring for the next two months. The proposal allows LAPD to continue hiring new recruits while giving council members time to discuss a larger plan to fund more officers while addressing long-term budget concerns, as well as risks to more than 200 specialized civilian LAPD employees.<\/p>\n
Council members Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Heather Hutt, John Lee, Traci Park and Imelda Padilla voted against the plan, opting to support a $4.4 million funding proposal made by Lee.<\/p>\n
City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo reported the annual cost for additional officers would be closer to $24 million. The initial $4.4 million would serve as partial cost for hiring mid-year. If the department reaches 480 new recruits, the cost increases more than $6 million for hiring mid-year, and approximately $33.5 million for annual, ongoing, spending.<\/p>\n
Szabo confirmed there had not been a formal report issued to identify funds for additional hiring prior to this week.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the council approved the $1 million funding plan on the last day before their three-week winter recess begins.<\/p>\n
“Additional hiring adds roughly $24 million to the city structural deficit. On an annual basis, the full cost would be reflected in the mayor’s proposed budget, and it cannot be paid for by laying off city workers or reducing essential city services,” Yaroslavsky said in her remarks.<\/p>\n
“As long as I serve as budget chair, which is a great honor, that approach does not move forward. Public safety is about more than police. It’s about fixing street lights so they actually work. It’s about repairing sidewalks before they cost us millions in liability payouts, and it’s about having enough money to paint our own damn crosswalks and not having rogue volunteers doing it for us, and then getting arrested on the news,” Yaroslavsky added.<\/p>\n
Most council members supported an increase in LAPD hiring. At the same time, several council members raised concerns about the city’s fiscal solvency, noting a projected deficit of $91 million in the coming 2026-27 fiscal year, which may grow.<\/p>\n
Council members also criticized the manner in which the issue was presented to them.<\/p>\n
“I want to make it clear that, again, it is not about the number of cops. It is a false narrative. When I hear people and I see press releases and stories talking about the Council is deciding how many officers to support,” Blumenfield said. “I don’t think that’s what this is about at all because I’m a maximalist. I want to see us support as many as we can, but I want to do it in a responsible way.”<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez emphasized the importance of having a “very comprehensive conversation” around public safety and how dollars are used from top to bottom, and examining the city’s priorities.<\/p>\n
“And that’s not happening. Everything’s happening in isolation, and all of a sudden, like boom, we’re right here the day before or the day of, and it’s political theater,” Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
“I get it. I know where I work, but that’s just financially prudent when we have to really have thoughtful conversations around the people’s money,” Rodriguez added.<\/p>\n
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell defended his department’s hiring, and urged the council to approve the $4.4 million.<\/p>\n
“It was our understanding, as the CAO mentioned, the money would be found by who is yet to be determined, I guess from what I hear today, that we would be able to hire an additional 240 if we hired 240 in the first six months,” McDonnell previously said.<\/p>\n
“We’re in a position two and a half years out from the Olympics. We’re down 1,300 police officers. We’re down over 500 civilian, professional staff, and we’re authorized today for 240 for the year, and we’re going to lose 550. We’re bleeding out. So yeah, we took advantage of what we were told to do, and we did a heck of a job getting there.”<\/p>\n
The L.A. City Council voted to fund the LAPD through January as the mayor urges more officers to be hired in preparation for upcoming mega events.<\/p>\n
McDonnell also touted that crime in all categories are down in the city even though the department is struggling with staffing levels.<\/p>\n
City officials discussed the potential of tapping into the city’s reserve fund to cover $4.4 million, though overall the idea was frowned upon.<\/p>\n
“We should never, as a practice, assume the use of the reserve fund for hiring police officers. That’s an ongoing expense that should never be an assumed use of the reserve fund,” Szabo said earlier this week during a budget committee meeting. “I cannot recommend in stronger possible terms that the budget process be used to determine how much hiring we are actually going to fund. This body and the mayor need to make that decision, and then actually need to fund the amount of hiring that we intend to do.”<\/p>\n
The decision to provide some money for additional hiring comes after Mayor Karen Bass on Wednesday issued a letter to council members requesting them to provide $4.4 million for a total of 410 officers by the end of summer 2026.<\/p>\n
LAPD is hiring at an accelerated rate, with the department on track to hire approximately 480 officers.<\/p>\n
In April, Mayor Bass signed off on a $14 billion budget that scaled back police hiring as part of solutions to address a nearly $1 billion dollar deficit caused by overspending, liability costs and other challenges. Elected officials closed that shortfall, and also averted proposed layoffs through a strategy involving negotiations with labor unions, among other actions.<\/p>\n
Workers are expected to take five unpaid days off, and some police officers are banking overtime as time off as part of negotiated concessions with the city.<\/p>\n
As part of the budget, the City Council and Bass authorized the hiring of 240 new recruits. Bass approved the spending plan with an agreement with Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson to find more dollars to increase police hiring. Bass requested a report in 90 days to identify funding, but that deadline passed with no follow up identifying where those dollars should come from.<\/p>\n
“Our number one job as city leaders is to keep Angelenos safe. Without the $4.4 million funding, the Los Angeles Police Department will stop hiring in January,” Bass wrote in her letter to the City Council.<\/p>\n
She argued that stopping the hiring of new police officers would have “drastic” and “lasting consequences” for the city, such as not having new cadets in the police academy in January, an increase in overtime hours and costs for officers, and strain sworn personnel with longer shifts and more responsibilities.<\/p>\n
As the second-largest city with a population of nearly 4 million, the LAPD has about two officers for every 1,000 residents, according to the Mayor’s Office.<\/p>\n
New York has a police force of 36,000 sworn officers, and Chicago has approximately 11,600 sworn officers for a population of 2.7 million.<\/p>\n
“We cannot knowingly and willingly increase the demands on our officers while reducing their workforce to the lowest levels in more than 20 years, levels not even seen during the Great Recession,” Bass wrote in her letter. “Los Angeles cannot protect our families, cannot grow our economy and cannot welcome the world without a strong police department.”<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Police Protective League Board of Directors, the union representing LAPD officers rank lieutenant and below, supported the mayor’s call to action. The directors noted that with police hiring on the “right track,” it would be the worst time for the City Council to tell recruits that Los Angeles “doesn’t want them.”<\/p>\n
“For a council majority in one breath to say they want to hire more police officers but in the very next breath say, but only for the next two months, sends a confusing and mixed message to those wanting to join the LAPD. Angelenos need this Council to understand that neighborhoods are clamoring for more police, not less, and it is time to end the political posturing and put their money where their mouths are and grow the force. Defunding the police is a recipe for disaster,” the LAPPL Board of Directors said in a statement.<\/p>\n
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