Job candidates shunning the LAPD is a cause for concern

07

Oct 2010

It is counterintuitive that in this challenged economy, applications to join the LAPD as police officers are down by 30 percent.

As reported in the LA Weekly, only 9,232 people applied to become LAPD officers last year compared to 13,202 the previous year. This should be cause for inquiry and concern by the Chief, the Mayor and the City Council. After all, the quality of recruits accepted for Academy training is in direct proportion to the size of the candidate pool. The larger the pool, the higher the caliber of applicants chosen to join the finest police department in the world. With unemployment the highest it’s been since the Great Depression and some 300 sworn positions open in the Department, one would think the candidate pool would be at record high levels.

To stimulate thinking in understanding and addressing this issue, we offer ideas for why some men and women in the job market are having second thoughts about even beginning the application process:

Entry level pay for new hires has been cut by 20 percent. Current officers have already made other significant concessions.

Ongoing news media reports on the City budget crisis and elected officials calling for city worker pay concessions and reduced pensions and benefits have combined to make a City government job less attractive than it was just a year or two ago.

Police work is dangerous. But now, more than at any time in recent memory, police officers are under attack. Activists are blasting police for doing their jobs the way they were trained to do them. And, increasingly, we’re dealing with officers literally under attack - often by early release prisoners or parolees the system has lost track of. The recent story of a parolee taking aim at three LAPD officers with an assault weapon before he was shot and killed heightens the anxiety about the realities of city policing.

It may be tempting for city leaders to rationalize the decline in LAPD job applicants. But we suggest a more thoughtful approach is in order – in the long-term interests of our city and the police force that protects its residents. If this is an early warning sign, Los Angeles needs to heed the warning and take corrective action.

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