LOS ANGELES — Faced with a growing financial crisis, Los Angeles city budget analysts recommended Friday that the city begin preparing for the elimination of nearly 1,900 filled positions, including 951 police officers.
City Administrative Officer Rich Llewellyn advised Mayor Eric Garcetti and members of the City Council to lay plans for deep reductions at the Los Angeles Police Department, cutting the number of rank-and-file officers by roughly 10% while also eliminating 728 civilian jobs within the department, Los Angeles Times reported.
If the city ultimately moves ahead with such reductions, the LAPD would likely have fewer officers than at any point in 25 years.
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UPDATE: In a statement posted to Twitter, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said the city’s projected $600 million shortfall may force public safety cutbacks that would “devastate” the department.
LAPD Statement Regarding Proposed Layoffs pic.twitter.com/v8C8hgjQBn
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) December 5, 2020
“These envisioned staffing reductions would devastate our ability to provide basic public safety,” Moore said. “Requiring the closure of local stations and jails, the reduction and elimination of services, and ultimately it would jeopardize the reforms and gains achieved in public safety over the last two decades.”
“I cannot support further reductions.”
Robert Harris, an LAPD officer and director on the Board of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, told FOX 11: “I think it’s appalling and disappointing to see what city council has done to propose such mass layoffs, simply to pad their political slush funds, and I think it puts the communities that we serve in jeopardy, especially in light of the surge of violent crime that has been happening throughout the city.”
