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1,057 views · Published 1 August 2017 · 3:45 · Indexed 20 October 2026

Channel: TONY VERA TVNEWS · 2017 · News & Politics

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Councilmen call on LAPD to put more patrols on city streets Responding to frequent demands from constituents who are fed up with rising crime and homeless issues, two Los Angeles city councilmen called Friday for more neighborhood police patrols.

Councilman Joe Buscaino, representing the Watts-to-Harbor 15 District, and Mike Bonin, who represents the Westside’s 11th District, introduced the “Back to Basic Car” motion calling on the Los Angeles Police Department to beef up field patrols.

Buscaino, a former senior lead officer with the LAPD’s Harbor Division station, said only a small number of sworn officers are assigned to patrol duties. The motion claims there are actually fewer patrol officers on the streets at any given time today than there were in 1969.

On an average day in 1969, 337 officers patrolled the streets of the 503-square-mile city, the motion states. That compares to 311 patrol officers on the streets on an afternoon in December 2016 in a city with 1 million more people.

Harbor Area residents rallied earlier this month to demand more officers be added to patrols in that district where concerns about homeless encampments and aggressive panhandling run high.

The goal would be to shift more desk officers to patrol duties.

“While there is public support for maintaining a police force of 10,000 sworn officers, there is also an expectation that the amount of officers correlates to the number actually patrolling our streets,” Buscaino said in a written statement. “However, that is not the case. This is why the residents of the Harbor Area have twice rallied at LAPD Harbor Division in the past year demanding more patrols.”

The LAPD’s community policing plan, the motion states, needs “review, improvement, reinvigoration and significant reinvestment of personnel.”

Both Buscaino and Bonin are running for re-election this spring.

“In my district, our LAPD Harbor and Southeast divisions have done a phenomenal job working with the resources they have been given to address crime in our communities,” Buscaino said. “We owe it to both our command staff and our officers to continually look at ways to make our police department more effective and efficient to ensure that we are properly supporting the load of work and expectations that our officers are given.” By Donna Littlejohn, Daily Breeze

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