Two years ago, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass laid out an ambitious and expensive goal for her first city budget: restore the size of the Los Angeles Police Department to 9,500 officers.

At the time, the LAPD was struggling with recruitment, and Bass — just four months into her job — openly worried the department would soon fall below 9,000.

Now, the mayor’s hiring goal looks even more out of reach. With the city battered by a budget crisis and homicides falling by double digits, some are wondering: just how low can, or should, LAPD staffing go?

On Thursday, the City Council’s budget committee provided a short-term answer, moving forward with a plan to cut the LAPD by another 300 officers — not through layoffs, but simply by slowing down recruitment. Such a move would leave the department with 8,400 officers by June 2026, down from about 8,700 this year and 10,000 five years ago.

The slowdown, if approved by the City Council later this month, would free up $9.5 million, helping the city save some of the civilian workers at the LAPD whose jobs are among the 1,600 targeted for elimination in the mayor’s proposed budget.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Faced with a nearly $1-billion shortfall and several years of financial turmoil ahead, the five-member committee obtained an analysis from the city’s policy experts showing how much could be saved if the LAPD ramps down hiring even more, and for a longer period of time.

The answer? $385 million over five years, if the LAPD cuts the mayor’s police hiring plan for 2025-26 by 75%. Under that scenario, the department would bring on just 120 recruits per year — far fewer than the number who resign or retire — leaving slightly more than 6,600 police officers by 2030.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, an outspoken opponent of police spending who sits on the budget committee, requested the analysis. She was one of three council members who voted against Bass’ budget last year, arguing that too much money went to the LAPD and not enough to departments that provide other critical city services.

The four-page analysis handed Hernandez and her allies, who have long called on the city to shift funds away from police, a road map for driving down police spending over the long term.

Hernandez, in an interview, called the committee’s decision to cut police hiring in half over the coming year — taking Bass’ proposal for 480 recruits down to 240 — a good start. She sounded intrigued by the numbers laid out in the analysis, saying it “lays out a very clear pathway” for future budget deliberations.

“This budget crisis is not going to be solved in one budget cycle,” said Hernandez, who represents part of the Eastside. “So I’m hoping we take this into consideration as we try to move this city out of this crisis.”

Others were more critical of the committee’s deliberations.

Sylvia Robledo, a former City Council aide who plans to run against Hernandez next year, warned that scaling back police hiring would increase attrition, result in officer burnout and force the LAPD to spend even more on overtime.

Real estate developer Rick Caruso, now mulling a second run for mayor, also blasted the committee’s approach, calling it “just more of the mismanagement we’ve come to expect from this City Hall.”

“Whether it’s a disastrous budget that will cut services while raising costs on working families, a downgraded bond rating, or fewer cops, Los Angeles is on the wrong track, and this budget will only make it worse,” Caruso, who called in 2022 for the LAPD to have 11,000 officers, said in a statement.

Bass spokesperson Clara Karger said in an email that her boss “has not abandoned her goal to grow the Los Angeles Police Department.” Karger argued that progress is still being made, with the LAPD receiving a record number of applicants and a larger number of officers staying in their jobs.

“Now, with new leadership in the Personnel Department and LAPD, we will eliminate barriers preventing applicants from becoming officers,” she said.

Karger would not say whether Bass would veto a budget that cuts the number of LAPD recruits in half, noting that the council is still “in the middle of the process” of reviewing the spending plan for 2025-26.

In recent years, a majority of council members have been willing to give Bass the money she needs to preserve sworn hiring at the LAPD, even as its ranks continued to shrink. But that equation changed once Bass proposed layoffs for more than 400 civilians working at the Police Department.

Budget committee members coalesced around the idea of slowing down police hiring on the condition that it save the jobs of some of the 133 specialists who carry out critical tasks at the LAPD, such as handling DNA rape kits or conducting fingerprinting analysis.

The committee didn’t bite on another Hernandez idea: halting the acquisition of new police helicopters. Hernandez, who pushed unsuccessfully for that idea last year, will almost certainly raise it again in coming weeks.

“I’m going to keep doing my best to try to move forward with fiscally responsible suggestions and decisions,” she said.

State of play

— CUTTING BACK: The council’s budget committee didn’t just go after police hiring. During its marathon 11-hour meeting on Thursday, the panel also took steps to zap Bass’ proposal for creating a new 67-person homelessness unit within the Los Angeles Fire Department and endorsed a reduction of up to $10 million for Inside Safe, the mayor’s initiative to move homeless Angelenos into interim and permanent housing. The committee is set to finalize its recommendations next week.

— OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Bass went to the 10th Select LA investment summit this week to offer foreign investors a clear message: L.A. remains very much open for business. “At a time of global uncertainty, Los Angeles stands out as a reliable, stable partner for international business and trade,” she said during her welcome remarks, while also releasing her office’s investors guide to L.A.

— WAGE WORRIES: Meanwhile, a coalition of business groups has been pleading with city leaders to delay passage of an ordinance requiring hotel owners and businesses at Los Angeles International Airport to pay a $30 per hour minimum wage, plus $8.35 per hour for healthcare. Those groups say the proposal will deal a potentially fatal blow to L.A.’s tourism industry. “L.A. has destroyed housing production. Now they’re coming for tourism,” said Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.

— SO LONG, NATE: Former L.A. City Councilmember Nate Holden, who served in the state Legislature and later spent 16 years on the council, died this week at 95. “He was a lion in the State Senate and a force to be reckoned with on the Los Angeles City Council,” said L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn.

— SOIL SAMPLES: New soil testing by the L.A. County Department of Public Health has found high levels of lead and other toxic metals at homes destroyed by January’s catastrophic wildfires and cleared by federal cleanup crews.

— MORE FIRE FALLOUT? Bass joined L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, Annenberg Foundation Executive Director Cinny Kennard and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel for a wildfire recovery panel moderated by Fox 11’s Elex Michaelson at the Milken Institute Global Conference.

The mayor was bullish on the city’s recovery and defended the performance of DWP head Janisse Quiñones. But she also hinted that more city officials might lose their jobs over the fires.

“I think that there are a number of people that should be held accountable, and we’re in the process of doing that,” she said, without providing specifics. Bass ousted her previous fire chief, Kristin Crowley, in February.

— JEERING FROM THE SIDELINES: One figure was notably absent from the Milken stage: Caruso, the former mayoral candidate and frequent Bass antagonist. Caruso, who recently published an op-ed criticizing the mayor’s leadership, was slated to participate in the recovery panel but dropped out after Bass joined the lineup.

“I’m not going to be part of a campaign stop,” he told a reporter shortly after the panel, while holding court in the bustling Beverly Hilton lobby bar. Caruso has been flirting with the idea of another mayoral run but said he won’t “focus on a decision until the end of summer.”

— SHOW YOUR RECEIPTS: Three top officers of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 were suspended from their posts Monday after an investigation by the union’s parent organization found $800,000 in credit card purchases that were not properly documented. The International Assn. of Fire Fighters, which oversees UFLAC, suspended President Freddy Escobar and the others over financial improprieties, including “serious problems” with missing receipts. Escobar, who is now locked out of UFLAC’s office, said Friday that he has paperwork that would clear his name.

— BAD FOR BARNSDALL: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House, located in East Hollywood’s Barnsdall Art Park, could close to the public if the mayor’s budget is approved. The reductions also threaten the site’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

— HIRING A CHIEF: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced the hiring of a new police chief: Bill Scott, an LAPD veteran who most recently was chief of the San Francisco Police Department. Scott will be responsible for building Metro’s new police force, a concept approved by the board last year.

— D IS FOR DORMANT: Speaking of transportation, the Metro D line, also known as the Purple Line, will soon be closed for 70 days as construction continues on a $3.7-billion extension of the subway west to La Cienega Boulevard. The extension is scheduled to open by the end of 2025.

— TRANSITIONS: Former Board of Public Works president Vahid Khorsand has moved across the 3rd floor to the mayor’s office, taking a new job last week as deputy mayor of community engagement. Steve Kang, a former member of the Central Area Planning Commission, is taking over as public works president. Khorsand, a super fan of The Killers, managed to work in lyrics from the band into his all-staff goodbye email and his final board remarks.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature homelessness program went to two parts of Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky’s Westside district: Wilshire Boulevard at San Diego Way and Robertson Boulevard at Burton Way. Inside Safe workers also went to Warner Center in Councilmember Bob Blumenfield’s west San Fernando Valley district and made return visits to Chinatown and South L.A., per the mayor’s team.
• On the docket for next week: The City Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the plan for hiking the minimum wage of hotel workers and employees of private companies doing business at Los Angeles International Airport.

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