Photo: Jorge Luis Macías / Impremedia
The number of police officers employed by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has dropped to historic levels not seen since the 1990s.
Currently the number of police officers is below 9,000, and was 8,967 as of July 30.
At the same time, the City of Los Angeles like many others across California and the country is struggling to recruit new officers and retain those with experience, as many are also choosing to retire.
As announced last July, LAPD Chief Michel Moore, his plans are to hire 60 new officers every four weeks.
Under the new contract the City of Los Angeles signed with the LAPD Union, a newly hired police officer will start at a salary of $86,193 per year, a 12.6% increase from the current salary of $74,020.
The current average salary for an LAPD officer is $89,390 a year.
Speaking to the press in August, Chief Moore said the historic shortage of officers is the product of a combination of events related to the pandemic, the defunding and reduction of the police force under the belief that alternative services can and they must do the work.
So they stopped hiring for almost a year.
The opinion spoke with former detective Moisés Castillo, who worked for the LAPD for more than 30 years.
“The main reason why people no longer want to be police officers is because in addition to being very dangerous to do the job, the attitude is more in favor of those accused of crimes than of the officers,” said former detective Castillo.
He considered it regrettable that officers, even when they comply with all laws and policies, are arrested.
“There are two recent cases: in one of them, an officer was found guilty of using a firearm when he defended a colleague and had to go to prison. A month ago, he won an appeal when a judge acknowledged there were injustices and they let him out. A new trial has been ordered.”
The next case cited by the former detective is that of the Palmdale and Lancaster sheriffs who were trying to rescue a baby from the hands of its mother who was under the influence, but then the sheriff of Los Angeles, Robert Luna, comes out, saying at a conference press that the actions were not correct.
“The sheriff was wrong to say that.”
He recalled that when he began his career in 1989, at the Academy they were taught that the greatest dangers were gang members, criminals and that they should be vigilant about their surroundings whether they were on duty or not.
But today, things have changed.
“We must take care of our own leaders. They seem to be against us. The biggest risk we face is that you can go to prison for doing your job”.
It brings to mind the case of the police officer who accidentally killed a 14-year-old girl trying to arrest the suspect in an assault with a deadly weapon in a North Hollywood store.
“It was an accident, but now everyone wants to crucify that police officer. Because of cases like this, we are facing a national crisis and police departments are struggling to receive applications. Although you make good money as a police officer, many say it is not worth exposing yourself to all the risks of the profession.”
He even mentioned that his three children, now ages 25, 23 and 17, considered at one point being police officers, but after seeing everything that has happened, they have said no.
“After George Floyd, there is a belief that all police officers are bad and racist. And it is true that there are arrogant and bad police officers, but that is not all of us. We as police officers know who they are and we don’t want them either.”
But he said they would like to have leaders like a police chief, a sheriff and a prosecutor in Los Angeles County who make them feel supported.
“The most recent thing we know is that they want to remove the qualified immunity that a police officer has. That’s not going to help recruit more police officers.”
Qualified immunity protects officers from personal liability in civil litigation when their actions on the job do not violate current laws.