It's crisis time again in Los Angeles, and city leaders are considering how to slash tens of millions of dollars from the budget. Both Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council agree: Public safety should be the last service cut.

But the definition of public safety is getting stretched and tested as almost every city department tries to fit under the public safety umbrella.

Front-line police officers, firefighters and paramedics are clearly protecting the public. OK. They're exempt from cuts. But what about the staff assistant firefighters who drive chiefs to incidents? Or the civilians who answer phones, process incident reports and staff the jails? Are they high enough on the public safety hierarchy to be spared cuts?

How about the roughly 100 sworn officers employed by the General Services Office of Public Safety. These are the armed men and women who guard city facilities. Should they be under the public safety umbrella?

At least one city leader says yes. Last week, Councilman Tony Cardenas called those officers "an integral part of public safety" and said it would be a mistake to impose more furloughs, especially after the recent shooting of a public official in Tucson.

Then there are the city prosecutors. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich argues his office is a vital piece of public safety and should be spared.

"I don't see many people from Recreation and Parks in the courtroom. I don't see anyone from Cultural Affairs in the courtroom," Trutanich scoffed last week when asked about the competition for public safety priority.

While police officers arrest folks, the city attorney's criminal division prosecutes the offenders. Some 70 percent of all arrests are prosecuted by the City Attorney's Office. Should those folks be furloughed or laid off?

Councilwoman Janice Hahn told her colleagues last week that the Recreation and Parks Department should be considered part of public safety because its programs keep kids out of trouble, which is a critical piece of the crime prevention puzzle.

Along the same lines, Councilman Bernard Parks has pushed a ballot measure to guarantee more funding for libraries - again, arguing that public safety is more than cops and firefighters. It's also the parks and libraries that provide a safe space.

And the city's librarian, Martin Gomez, wrote to the Daily News last week to say, "Libraries are a major component of L.A.'s crime-prevention network."

Supporters of the city's museums and Cultural Affairs have argued that public safety also means promoting the well-being of the citizenry.

And what about animal services, whose officers keep people safe from loose dogs roaming the streets?

Just about every department is vying for a piece of the public safety pie, and that competition will continue until the mayor and City Council clearly define their public safety priorities.