Mayoral candidate Richard Alarcon called Wednesday for the city to boost the Los Angeles Police Department by 1,000 officers, in part by billing the city's airport, harbor and water and power departments $75 million a year to pay for homeland security.
In a four-point plan that he personally delivered to City Council members, state Sen. Alarcon (D-Sun Valley) also called for consolidating the airport and harbor police departments into the LAPD.
After several embarrassing incidents involving airport police, the mayor and several council members have also suggested unifying command.
"I don't think any one of us doubts that the most critical problem facing Los Angeles is public safety," Alarcon told the council, the lone member of the public to address the panel during its meeting on the day before Thanksgiving.
Saying the issue was too important to wait until next year's mayoral election, Alarcon urged the council to adopt his ideas as soon as possible, noting that his proposal would "expand the LAPD by at least 1,000 officers by tapping into resources that now exist."
Public safety is shaping up to be one of the major issues in the campaign. In addition to Alarcon, Mayor James K. Hahn is being challenged by Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg and Councilman Bernard C. Parks, the former police chief.
The mayor touts his public safety record, saying he brought the city a popular police chief in William J. Bratton and that crime is down.
Still, Hahn's efforts to expand the LAPD have been foiled, first when the City Council balked at a hiring plan saying there was no money in the budget and then again this fall when voters rejected a plan to raise the county sales tax to hire more officers.
For weeks, Parks has kept up a drumbeat of criticism against Hahn for allowing some police officers to work three 12-hour days instead of five days a week.
The other candidates are expected to weigh in with their public safety ideas soon.
The most controversial aspect of Alarcon's plan calls for billing the city's three independent, proprietary departments for the costs of safeguarding against terrorists.
George Jarvis, president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Assn., said Wednesday that the proposed merger may be illegal.
