When Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass gave pay raises to the city’s rank-and-file police officers last year, she sold it as a sensible investment toward regrowing the police department to the 9,500-member force it was before her 2022 election. In the months since, Bass and police leaders have continued to project optimism about reaching that goal. Behind the scenes, though, officials are starting to confront the reality that the LAPD buildup won’t happen anytime soon while acknowledging that the third-largest U.S. police department may continue to shrink, the Los Angeles Times reports. Projections in the department’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal show that between recruiting shortfalls and attrition, leaders expect to lose more than 150 cops, leaving a force of about 8,620 by June 30, 2026. That would mark the lowest deployment in 30 years. During public appearances, Bass, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell and other top leaders are still making the case that the department needs to grow, arguing more manpower is required to maintain public safety. The Palisades fire showed the department can be stretched thin during a major disaster. The planned World Cup and Olympic Games loom as massive security challenges.
Yet even as the LAPD has gotten smaller, by some measures the city is becoming safer — despite public perception to the contrary. Police data show that many types of violent crime are down, especially homicides and shootings, continuing a decline after increasing during the pandemic. LAPD leaders have long debated how many officers are necessary to patrol the city’s sprawling territory. Although the push has historically been for more manpower, the latest crime trends have left some wondering whether the recent declines in staffing have actually led to a right-sizing of the department. Some officials say having fewer officers available for patrol duty and other functions will make it difficult to sustain the recent declines in crime. Not only will people experience even longer wait times when they call 911, some crimes also will inevitably go unsolved for a lack of available investigators — both of which erode public trust, they argue. L.A. is hardly alone in its struggles with hiring and retaining officers. Like other big-city agencies, the LAPD is facing tougher competition for top candidates from other suburban law enforcement agencies, as well as the private sector.