In just 36 photographs and four-and-a-half minutes of narration, photojournalist Robert Nickelsberg sums up one of the most compelling and accurate portrayals of what life is like for today’s LAPD in On the Streets with the LAPD, featured on TIME.com. The multimedia slideshow takes viewers from a ride along with specialized unit officers in the South Bureau’s Southeast and 77th Divisions, to working an investigation up close with K-9 and Gang Units. The slideshow is available for viewing on TIME’s website here.
“In an era of steep budget cuts, police officers’ work just gets harder,” says Nickelsberg, introducing his dramatic program. He notes that the combination of budget cuts, elimination of overtime and forced home leaves (T/Os) are contributing to the adverse reduction of police officers’ presence in the city, particularly areas where gangs have been challenging law enforcement for three generations. He continues on to address another concern affecting enforcement efforts, which is the requirement for members of specialized units to disclose personal and family financial records beginning in March 2011. This ill-conceived requirement from the Consent Decree is already driving officers away from the gang units where, ironically, they are most needed. If you’re unaware of how budget cuts and financial disclosure are inadvertently working together to create a perfect storm for trouble in our city, this presentation will be your wakeup call.
Regrettably, the drastic budget cuts and strict financial disclosure rules currently directed at hundreds of our specialized officers, will prove a lethal combination that will likely push police work in Los Angeles toward the breaking point.
The Mayor, Chief of Police and City Council would do well to be among the first to view this powerful presentation. It would make a good opener for a City Council meeting where LAPD issues are on the agenda. As city officials watch, we hope it dawns on them that the LAPD is at a crossroads: We can continue to build on the substantial progress that has been made in the past decade, or we can begin a long, painful slide back to a terrifying time in our city’s past, recently chronicled in a Los Angeles Times story.
We urge you to watch the TIME presentation while there is still time to reverse course and build on the progress of recent years. We have come a long way, but that also means we have a long way to fall if city leaders make the wrong choices and decisions in the months ahead. Our profound thanks to photojournalist Robert Nickelsberg and TIME, for visually telling the story that needs to be told -- and understood -- before it is too late.
