A $150 million budget cut will compel the Los Angeles Police Department, over the coming months, to move a total of 234 officers back into patrol, reduce desk hours at its stations, cut special deployments and stop staffing teams that cover homelessness issues, it was reported Saturday.
LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the Los Angeles Times the actions are a part of a broad reorganization geared to preserving patrol and community engagement functions.
A spokesperson from the department’s Media Relations Section could not be reached for further comment.
Moore told the Times the department will cut its air support, robbery and homicide and gang and narcotics units. The plans are in response to the City Council cutting the department’s multi-billion-dollar budget by $150 million, triggered by the widespread protests this summer and pandemic-driven fiscal crisis.
He also told the Times the $150-million budget cut forced the cutting of 350 sworn positions, reducing its ranks from about 10,110 sworn officers to an estimated 9,752 by March or April 2022. Many more civilian employees will also be lost.
The reductions will come through retirements, not from closing out vacant positions, meaning they are ”a true cutback” in force and not simply “phantom vacancies” remaining unfilled, Moore told the Times.
Source: NBC Los Angeles
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