In a big city already short on cops on the street, sworn officers are stuck doing paperwork, answering phones and handling other administrative duties that could be done more cheaply by civilian workers.

"We do not need hundreds of police officers, at a cost of $30,000 a year more than a properly trained civilian, performing administrative functions that do not require carrying a firearm."

Those words could be ripped from one of the many recent news stories on the debate over whether to continue hiring LAPD officers or stop police hiring and fill vacant civilian public safety jobs.

But the quote above is nearly three years old. It comes from then-Controller Laura Chick, whose audit found some 500 jobs in the LAPD could be performed by civilians, which would save $16 million a year and free up sworn officers for actual policing and investigative work.

When the audit came out in March 2008, both Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and then-LAPD Chief William Bratton were enthusiastic supporters of civilianization as a way to get more cops on the street. But the budget crisis, layoffs, early retirements and hiring freeze stopped civilianization before it could start.

Since then the LAPD has gone in the opposite direction - pulling cops off the street to backfill administrative and non-policing jobs that can't be filled because of a civilian hiring freeze.

In fact, on Wednesday the City Council debated whether to staff the new downtown jail with 83 cops, rather than hire civilian detention officers. They postponed the decision until January, but the police chief can make the move without their approval. Still, everyone from LAPD to the city leaders agree - this is a bad solution. Cops should be on the street, not doing civilian work.

The problem is that civilianization requires hiring new workers, and the city isn't hiring civilians. Period. But the city continues to hire police to maintain a force of 9,963 officers - the compromise number agreed to as the budget crunch hindered Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's goal of hiring to the level of 10,000 officers.

Yet, the questions keep coming up. How does it make L.A. safer to keep hiring police - whose salaries, benefits and pensions are higher than civilians - when those cops are stuck in the jail or behind a desk? What is the force number that counts - 9,963 or the tally of those doing hands-on police work?

Like so many other decisions being made in this budget crisis, the staffing of the LAPD seems to be driven more by stop-gap measures and the desperate hope that the economy will improve, rather than addressing the long-term financial stability of the city.