Police Panel Approves LAPD Budget Proposal

The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday approved a proposed $1.4-billion departmental budget for 1999-2000 that would add 231 police officers to the LAPD, nearly double the number of department psychologists and staff a new police bureau in the San Fernando Valley.

The proposed budget represents nearly a 20% increase in direct costs from this year rather than the 2% cut Mayor Richard Riordan has directed city department heads to make. The commission sent the proposed budget to the mayor’s finance office for review.

“The budget dance has just begun,” Deputy Mayor Noelia Rodriguez, the mayor’s spokeswoman, said. “Let the games begin. This happens every year. It’s part of the process.”

The proposed budget represents about $1 billion in direct costs to the city contrasted with $853 million this fiscal year.

The budget includes less than $2 million to provide the command staffing level for a second Valley police bureau proposed by Police Chief Bernard Parks. The administrative staff members would include a new deputy chief, a commander to serve as an assistant, as well as a support staff of police officers and clerical workers.

“With 2,000 officers and five divisions in the Valley, the chief believes that is too much for one bureau,” LAPD Cmdr. Dave Kalish, a spokesman for the department, said. The existing Valley Bureau is in Van Nuys.

While the budget proposal signifies the chief’s commitment to dividing the Valley into two bureaus, Kalish said the budget provides only for employees, not the building to house a new bureau.

City officials are studying the feasibility of the LAPD buying or leasing the Department of Water and Power’s Anthony Office Building in Sun Valley to serve as the second Valley bureau.

Also, Parks has asked the City Council to put a bond measure on the ballot next year that would provide money to buy or build a second bureau.

Overall, a large portion of the proposed budget increase--about $48 million--involves “obligatory salary” adjustments, officials said.

Much of the money for the new officers would come from a $150-million federal grant that is supposed to pay for up to 710 officers over the next few years.

According to LAPD officials, about half of the new police officers would be assigned to patrol and field operations. Another 23 officers would go to the elite Metropolitan Division for a new “Crime Suppression Squad,” and 21 officers would be assigned to the financial crimes unit and robbery/homicide squad.

The proposed budget also calls for creation of 177 civilian jobs. Among those positions: six civilians to assist the LAPD in year 2000 computer readiness, 11 management analysts to support the department’s statistical-based “command accountability” project, and seven civilian positions that would work on risk-management issues with the city attorney’s office.

LAPD officials also are asking for tens of millions of dollars in new equipment, including $31.6 million to replace about 1,100 vehicles, and $4 million to replace two helicopters. Funds also have been requested for 310 video cameras and 385 door panels for patrol cars.

“This budget request reflects an accurate assessment of our critical needs to provide public safety for the city of Los Angeles,” Kalish said.

While the proposed budget represents a significant increase over this year, LAPD officials also identified “efficiency measures” to be taken. For instance, department officials are planning to implement a bar-coding system, similar to the one used in supermarkets, to improve the checking out of equipment to officers. That project is expected to save up to $13 million a year in officers’ time.

In other action Tuesday, the commission debated whether to downgrade the department’s dispatch time for “unverified” burglar-alarm calls from “urgent” to “routine” calls for service. Because more than 92% of alarm calls turn out to be false, LAPD officials said it would be financially and strategically better to dispatch officers to such calls within 60 minutes of receiving the call instead of 15 minutes, which is the current practice.

Commission Executive Director Joseph A. Gunn said the alarm matter was an “operational issue” that did not need approval from the civilian board. Some commissioners, however, said it did represent a “policy issue” that required their approval. They directed LAPD officials to further analyze the proposal and report back to the board in a few weeks.

In another development, the commission, which has been impaneled for nearly 1 1/2 years, voted to hold a special meeting early next year to map its first public set of priorities for the department.

*Times staff writer Patrick McGreevy contributed to this story.