ANOTHER blow to quality of life and public safety in the city of Los Angeles was delivered to Angelenos with the recent announcement that a number of Los Angeles police officers will be taken off the streets to work in the new city jail located in downtown.

The excuse for using LAPD officers instead of detention officers, who are not LAPD, was the same old story that we have heard from our local elected officials ever since the "budget shortfall" became a daily excuse for eliminating so-called quality of life services.

At the same time, more than 50 percent of the citywide neighborhood prosecutors have been reassigned to other positions in the City Attorney's Office due to budget cuts to that department. Weakening an important quality of life and public safety program should be the last choice of our elected officials.

Quality of life issues, like street cleaning, tree trimming, etc., are important to all of us who live and work in Los Angeles. But, public safety has always been, and should always be, the most important program that needs to be maintained.

When our Police Department releases statistics showing decreases in crime citywide, we need to understand that these accomplishments did not occur by accident. Crime is down in L.A. because we have built up the size of our Police Department and added a successful neighborhood prosecutor program.

This program, in addition to the added cops on the streets, has more than proven its worth. The proof is in the glowing statistics released by the Police Department.

Should we be gambling with our success gained by having more cops on the street, having the Neighborhood prosecutor program and getting more Angelenos involved with our local police?

Taking cops off the streets only gives the growing population of gang members reason to salivate and will eventually erase all of the gains made in decreasing crime in our city.

Our city leaders seldom have to dig very deep in order to find the necessary funding for their own pet programs or projects. The money always seems to magically appear out of the blue. However, public safety has to be the primary concern for all of Los Angeles.

Managing the city budget to maintain the safety of Angelenos is not the job of Los Angeles residents and businesses. It has to be the primary job of our mayor and City Council. If they do not understand the importance of this, we must, as Angelenos, drive that point home to them with phone calls, e-mails, letters and public testimony.

Take note of what the people in the city of Bell recently accomplished by coming together as one and forcing out a local government that had no interest in hearing from the people that they represented.

Wake up, people of Los Angeles! If we don't stand up to the poorly thought-out decisions emanating from City Hall, this city is doomed to follow the road to ruin.

Don Schultz is past president of both the Van Nuys Homeowners Association and the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council. Joan Kelley is a longtime community activist in Van Nuys.