LAPD still far from employment goal despite costly, generous pay raises for officers

The LAPD's sworn ranks currently stand at nearly 8,800 officers - far from the 9,000+ needed to be considered fully staffed. But even of the 8,800, how many cops are 'street ready?'

The department reports that more than 6,100 officers are working patrol beats, but Tom Saggau, a spokesperson for the Police Protective League , told KNX News' Craig Fiegener that when you break it all down, the number is much lower.

"So the 6,100 number they gave you, those folks are eligible for patrol. But remember, out of that 6,100, it's every function under the sun... all your specialty units come out of that," Saggau said. "All your gang units are all out of that. They're not doing 911 calls...those folks are not doing patrol work."

190 recruits graduated from the LAPD academy at Lesion Park between December and June this year, which isn't insignificant but certainly a smaller number than the number of officers retiring monthly.

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Even with the starting salary for a new cop raised to $92,000 and a bump to $97,000 after one year on the job plus significant overtime, Saggau said it's a challenging recruiting environment, but they are working on it.

According to Saggau, "There's three pilot programs that are happening in L.A. now in real-time to try and figure out what's the best approach because we're not going to get to 15,000, we're not going to get to 12,000 - that's not gonna happen. But can we get to 10,000? And if we get to 10,000, is that enough to control a city the size of L.A.?"

Mayor Bass' most recent budget includes enough money to bring the LAPD's employment up to 9,088 officers; now, it's a matter of attracting enough candidates. Saggau said things are improving, but there is still more work to be done.

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