Proposed budget cuts would result in “crippling” reductions in officers and services, threatening public safety, the Los Angeles Police Department said.
In a statement posted to Twitter, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said the city’s projected $600 million shortfall may force public safety cutbacks that would “devastate” the department.
“These envisioned staffing reductions would devastate our ability to provide basic public safety,” Moore said. “Requiring the closure of local stations and jails, the reduction and elimination of services, and ultimately it would jeopardize the reforms and gains achieved in public safety over the last two decades.”
“I cannot support further reductions.”
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The department claims that the proposed cutbacks would trigger the layoffs of hundreds of officers and other workers, on top of current staffing reductions estimated at roughly 500 positions.
The city cut $150 million from the LAPD budget in July, which will lead to the lowest staffing level in 12 years at the department.
“It is my hope we will do everything we can to avoid layoffs,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters last week before the proposal was announced. “So I know it’s kind of sexy to lead with the worst. But I hope that’s at the very bottom of our list.”
Garcetti said he is hoping for federal assistance.
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Robert Harris, an LAPD officer and director on the Board of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, told FOX 11: “I think it’s appalling and disappointing to see what city council has done to propose such mass layoffs, simply to pad their political slush funds, and I think it puts the communities that we serve in jeopardy, especially in light of the surge of violent crime that has been happening throughout the city.”
Fox News has reached out to the LAPD for further comment.