Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Tuesday he did not favor the idea of reducing the city's police department.

It is imperative for the police department to remain around the 10,000-officer level despite an ongoing budget crisis, the mayor said.

"I would submit to you that as we begin budget deliberations -- we're looking at a 360-million-dollar deficit in the coming year -- our commitment to maintain the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department at least at attrition levels today will go a long way to ensuring that we'll continue our efforts to draw down crime in the city of Los Angeles," the mayor said.

Without an appropriately sized police force, there would not be a record decline in the city's homicide rate last year, Villaraigosa said.

The city saw 297 homicides in 2010, the fewest since 281 homicides were recorded in 1967. The city had about 6.6 homicides per 100,000 people in 2010, the lowest per capita rate since 1964, according to official figures provided by the Los Angeles Police Department.

"People often say that if it ain't broke, don't fix it," the mayor said. "Well, the LAPD isn't broken, and it doesn't need fixing to the extent that we are providing the resources that they need."

Villaraigosa has stressed the need to maintain 9,963 police officers, but some council members recently argued that it was unrealistic to maintain a large police force when other city departments have been forced to drastically shrink in size through early retirements and layoffs.

The mayor's view was echoed by Police Chief Charlie Beck, who said the LAPD is "finally become big enough to do its job," as could be proved by the decline in the homicide rate.

"Public safety is the cornerstone of government," he said. "If this is not a safe city, then this is not a city that can deliver services or support human growth."

Councilman Bernard Parks, a former LAPD chief and current chairman of the City Council's Budget and Finance Committee, said the city is not living within its means.

Parks said the city will spend one billion dollars of its four-billion-dollar budget on pensions and medical costs in the upcoming fiscal year.

Of the remaining three billion, 70 percent will go to the Police and Fire departments, leaving all other departments to share the remaining 30 percent.

"Once July 1 arrives, it's going to come to everyone's attention that the city's workforce in general is too large," Parks said. " When you begin to look at what you're spending on police and fire, compared to the rest of the city, you then have to make a decision how many more cuts are you willing to make in every other department to keep this mythical 9,963 (police officers)."