Mariella Rudi
The labor union for the Los Angeles Police Department released a report Jan. 28 calling out the West Los Angeles Division for “dangerously low police staffing levels over [the] past two days.”
“Yesterday, in the West Los Angeles Division, the Los Angeles Police Department deployed only two patrol cars to respond to emergency 911 calls for an area covering over 65 square miles, 748 street miles and to protect a population of 228,000 residents from 5:30am to 10am,” the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) stated.
“Today, only three patrol cars were deployed between the hours of 5:30am to 10am. The dangerously low staffing levels come amidst a citywide rise in crime, which has seen violent Crime rise 20.2 percent, property crime is up 10.7 percent, robbery is up 12.5 percent, and auto theft is up 17.1 percent from 2014 to 2015.”
Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Don Montelibano of the West Los Angeles Station responded to the allegations, telling Westside Today that the report was “inaccurate.”
Montelibano said there were seven cars deployed today between 5:30am and 10am.
He supposed that the LAPLL was not differentiating calls between “A” patrol cars – 911 and other citizen generated calls – and “Z” cars – which are specialized units and not always required to respond to all radio calls.
“We schedule officers to adequately be deployed in the field,” Montelibano said, “but we have no control when officers call in sick,” which he said had not been more frequent than usual.
