Bernard Parks - CD8

Police Union Sides with Parks on LAPD Hiring

The Los Angeles Times reported today that the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) now favors a halt to police hiring, a position Eighth District Councilmember and former LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks has held for several years.

Parks, Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, and the only Councilmember with experience managing a large city department with an annual budget of over $1 billion, has a rather nuanced view of the issue.

"I don't know any anyone that WANTS to stop hiring police officers," Parks said. "But just like families are doing in the Eighth District and across the rest of the Los Angeles, the City has to make tough decisions about where to spend taxpayer money, and has to live within its means. There is nothing magical about the number 9,963 (the current number of sworn officers); what's more important is how the officers are being deployed.

"What is the logic in maintaining that level, if over 200 officers are performing civilian job functions, as was recently reported ?  When you consider the fact that sworn personnel cost the city nearly twice as much as civilians in salary and benefits, it makes even less sense."

While Parks welcomed the LAPPL President Paul Weber's assessment, he described it as "remarkable, and late in coming."

Here's a look at some of Parks' past statements on the issue: 

"We are expecting to see layoffs and furloughs among civilians, but without some sacrifice by police and fire, the city work force could be devastated," Parks said.

"Seventy to 80 percent of our budget goes for public safety and that does not leave a lot for parks and libraries and street repair. And it's the civilians who run the city.

"Police and fire respond to emergencies, but it's the civilians who open the rec centers. It's the civilians who repair pipes and roads. It's the civilians who clean up afterwards." -   Daily News, June 2, 2009

“I’ve been saying for the past year we should be scaling back on all hiring,” Parks says. “You cannot keep hiring police for this year’s budget or next year’s.” - LA Weekly, October 14, 2009

With that in mind, Councilman Bernard Parks moved to include Police and Fire departments on the list of agencies facing cuts.

"We are asking you to give us a plan with no restrictions," Councilman Bernard Parks, Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, told City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana at a committee hearing. "You cannot balance the budget when 70 percent is tied up in police and fire services. It is the elephant in the room that no one is talking about." - Daily News, Feb 1, 2010

"At some point, it becomes counterproductive to shield public safety from budget cuts," said Los Angeles Councilman Bernard C. Parks, the city's former police chief. "It does no good to have a robust police force, he said, if there isn't enough money to fix its vehicles, process its crime reports or buy its equipment." -  Wall Street Journal, February 13, 2010

Councilman Bernard Parks, a former police chief and current Chairman of the City Council's Budget and Finance committee, questioned if the city can afford to continue hiring.

"There are an awful lot of smart people in this country and they haven't figured out a way to continue hiring," Parks said. "They are all laying off workers and cutting back on services. I don't see any other way out of this." - Daily News, Feb 17, 2010

Councilman Bernard Parks, a former Los Angeles police chief, said he does not believe the city should be looking at any minimum number of officers.

"You get the police department you can afford," Parks said. "That was true when Ed Davis was chief and wanted 8,500 officers and it's true now with the mayor wanting 10,000." -   Daily News, Feb 27, 2010

“If you keep hiring police officers, you have to lay off other folks," said Parks, a former LAPD chief. "You can’t have them both. So if the council majority decides to keep hiring, the issue that’s going to confront them is, where is the money going to come from?" -  LA Times, April 12, 2010

Councilman Bernard C. Parks, a former LAPD chief who heads the Budget and Finance Committee, had argued that the city no longer has enough money to press ahead with its LAPD expansion plans. With the hiring moving ahead, he told his colleagues that he doesn't want to hear them tell distraught public employees that they are trying to save their jobs.

“When these folks show up next week and the week after and say, ‘Don’t lay me off,’ don’t tell them you’re fighting for their jobs,” he said. “Because with every police officer you hire, you have to lay off 1.5 or more civilians [because officers are more highly paid]. So don’t tell them you’re fighting for their jobs and the next day vote to hire police officers.” - LA Times , April 14, 2010