Police Commission Discusses a Ballot Measure
to Hire More Police Officers

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following discussion occurred at the LAPD Police Commission meeting on November 30, 2004, between David Cunningham, Commission President, and Commissioners Rick Caruso, Rose Ochi, and Corina Alarcon. In their minds, the LA Times had written a disingenuous article criticizing Police Chief William Bratton for not being able to increase officer strength at LAPD and for making a decision to temporarily transfer some officers from training positions to other work in the Department.

Following this discussion LACP's Bill Murray made the commitment to make this a primary mission for Los Angeles Community Policing and his priority for the next several months. Among other things, Bill will make the Neighborhood Councils aware of and involved in the issue through both LACP.org (this site) and the LA Neighborhood Council Citywide Issues Group website, www.LANCissues.org.

Here is the Police Commission discussion that prompted this decision:

November 30, 2004

Rick Caruso: [It's hard to understand the] coverage in the Los Angeles Times about the Chief not being able to increase the amount of officers the department needs. He is the only chief in the world that is expected to find the funding to hire the officers the city needs to protect the city. It is clear that between New York and Chicago and other major cities they have had much more foresight in making sure that the city is well protect by an adequate amount of officers. We have what's widely regarded in this country the best CEO of law enforcement agency. So to somehow criticize that CEO who has no control over the budget or the ability to allocate funding or create funding seems ridiculous to me.

EDITOR'S NOTE: To read the LA Times article click here:
A Year-End Push to Cut Crime in L.A.

Second of all, anybody ... if you equated this to a business that's in charge of a billion dollar a year operation ... a CEO certainly would certainly have the ability to manage the resources that he or she thought fit as a CEO. So I think fundamentally there is a problem here in the city that the political leadership needs to deal with in making sure the department is adequate capitalized and has resources that we need.

Rose Ochi: Amen.

Rick Caruso: In that vein … the other thing that I had would hoped that maybe this commission could think about taking the lead on … although Measure A failed for whatever reasons you want to contribute to that ... it was clear that 64% of the residents of Los Angeles were willing to impose upon themselves an increase of sales tax in order to have adequate safety in the city. And that's really what its all about.

What I don't quite frankly understand is how that doesn't translate into the elected officials of the city, other than a handful including the Mayor, who's taking the lead by saying lets get this back on the ballot and do this at least from the cities prospective. I've talked to a number of council people and they raise some legitimate concerns. They [also] raise, in my opinion, some ridiculous concerns. But were not asking any elected official to blaze a trail here. I think that any politician that can get us 64% approval rating or vote ...

David Cunningham: Has a mandate …

Rick Caruso: Yeah, a mandate. Not only a mandate, they would probably be anointed some kind of God or a Lord in this city. I mean that's equivalent to what our Governor is rating at. And he's certainly equivalent to a Lord I guess. And for all the right reasons ... because he has taken a leadership role on some tough issues. I have expressed to the Chief, I have expressed to the Mayor, I have expressed to the President of the Council, and some of the members, that I would be willing to personally devote the necessary time and money to get this thing off the ground again.

And if that translates into hundreds of thousand quite frankly I'd be willing to do it because I feel strongly that we need to make that investment back in this in this community. I don't think there's anything more important that this commission should be focused on than getting more officers, and the only way were going to get more officers is if we have an imposition of some kind of tax ... and it seems to be that sales tax will be the most efficient way to do it, to fund these officers.

Because every time the political winds blow in one direction we have a whole bunch of elected officials that some how get nervous and don't take action. That's not what they get paid to do. They're paid to have leadership, to have vision. We have this gentleman here as our Chief and a whole bunch of people in this department that are struggling to keep the numbers down. I mean that the fact that were taking Training Officers and putting them back out on the street which is a good move but got criticized, to get crime down. That is a desperate act. We're getting to the point where were going to get the Parking Attendants in the city to start cutting crime. It's absolutely ridicules.

So I would like to see us take a firm position on lobbing the council. This thing could get on the May election, which means by the end of January the city has to figure out what the wording is ... and it shouldn't get complicated. It should be very simple. The money raised by sales tax will goes to the hiring of officers that end up on the street in patrol. It doesn't get mixed up into a bunch of other stuff.

Or be it maybe very valid we need a very clear singular message. And again, I'm happy to underwrite the effort to get it off the ground. I'm happy to take the lead to raise the money. I think that the 3 million dollars or so, which is the estimate to get this campaign out there, will be easily raised. It will be clearly the best investment the city can make in itself.

Because the risk to me on business is not that somebody is going to say they are not going to shop in Los Angeles. And I have huge investments in this city ... but I'm much more concerned about having people decide not to locate a business here because crime is going up, or not to have their family live in this city because they feel their neighborhood isn't safe. That's the long-term impact.

When I travel around the country I see cranes in the air. People are building. People are investing. When was the last time you saw a crane in the air in the City of Los Angeles? When was the last time you heard about a company moving in to the city? You hear about companies moving out of the city. When was the last time you heard families excited about going to the local school system? When was the last time you sent your kids to a park in certain areas of Los Angeles, in South Los Angeles and East Los Angeles, and felt safe leaving them in the park?

It's the ability to create an economic stimulus in this city ... it's grounded with whether or not people feel that the city is safe. I think the elected the officials should be ashamed of themselves for having half the amount of officers that we need when there has been a mandate by the public. That same 64% should start thinking about who the leadership should be in the city if they don't get what they want. And they clearly have said they want more officers. That's my plea to this commission ... to work closely with the council ... take the politics out of it. Get something on the ballot.

I'm not asking any politician to take a position on it. In fact quiet, the opposite. I think the public has already spoken. Allow the debate to occur between January and May. And let the chips fall where they may. And if some businesses are concerned that they may lose business because sales tax will be higher than other areas, we'll get that debated. The public will make the decision.

But I guarantee you if the city took a lead on this, you will see the county quickly following. To firm up the area. This notion that we need to wait for a countywide measure is silly. We have an obligation to help our residents here. And also an obligation to our officers so when they're in the field they have back up, and support. We don't have an obligation to the county. Someone mentioned to me that, if you took South Los Angeles and made it its own city, it would be the most violent city in the United States. That's not something that anyone should be tolerating if we don't have to.

David Cunningham: Its an excellent suggest and perhaps one of the things that we can do too, in that we actually had successes when we wrote a letter to the city council about the promotions issue. It was set up so they had to focus on it and they responded to it.

Rick Caruso: Everyone should start calling their Council people.

David Cunningham: Also a formal letter laying out many of the outlining concepts that you've just discussed. I think we'll get a response if we do that. As well as moving forward with what you're proposing. So perhaps one of the things we can do is direct you to draft a letter, which can be circulated to each of the commissioners, signed by all of us to the city councils members as a starting point. And then we can confer as to our next steps.

Rick Caruso: I'm prepared to underwrite signature gathering. We'll do a special election and draft the measure ourselves. We'll take some leadership. That's what this commission is all about. We have the best guy leading the department. We have the best-trained officers in the field. Its time we start investing in the people that we demand results from rather than asking them to go out in the field and accomplish something that impossible.

The Chief's analogy [is that LAPD is] being a fire department. We're more of a fire department than the fire department is. All we do is run from hot spot to hot spot in the city. There is no way to suppress crime long term. We owe it to the youth of the city to grow up in the neighborhoods that they feel safe in and walk to school. The politicians are not taking a risk when 64% of the people have already said that they want it.

Rose Ochi: Did you want to talk about the thresh hold? Lowering it?

Rick Caruso: We can come up with what the right number is. I know there are legitimate business concerns about it. I think it pales in light of what the city if going to face in losing business if you don't do something about it. There is clearly the notion that, going around the country, Los Angeles is a dangerous city. And people won't invest in a dangerous city. All you have to do is go around the county and see where the investment is going. Look where corporate headquarters is going locally … Thousand Oaks, Valencia, Orange County. They're not coming into the city.

Corina Alarcon: You totally have my support as a commissioner and a resident. What's key ... we need to make the initiative very simply. I think what may have happened here, is the residents want more police officers. They want more public safety but it was so confusing, they weren't sure where the money was going to go. There was a lot of doubt. I think it needs to be kept very simple.

David Cunningham: Thank you. [Then, to Richard Tefank, Executive Director] If you could prepare a letter [about this] that captures the passion as well as the steps I think it can be circulated, and signed by each of us. And that will be the starting point and we can follow up along those lines.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Richard Tefank promised to prepare such a document and brought it back to the agenda the following meeting, on December 7, 2004, for the Commission's approval and request for transmission to City Council.

Special thanks to the Police Commission staff and Judi Baylor for making this transcription possible.

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