After Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass asked the city council to find over $4 million for the Los Angeles Police Department to ramp up hiring, the LAPD chief warned Thursday that not having the additional funding would significantly affect public safety and preparation efforts.
A day after Mayor Bass sent a letter to council members, calling on them to identify and allocate funding for the LAPD to hire 410 officers by the end of the fiscal year in June 2026, Chief Jim McDonnell held a news conference Thursday, warning fewer officers would lead to “a public safety crisis.”
No new recruits will enter the academy in January,” Chief McDonnell said, explaining if a new academy doesn’t start next month, the department lose the opportunity to gain dozens of more officers.
“Fewer officers mean longer shifts, increased overtime, and a greater strain on all our personnel,” the chief said.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said without the additional $4.4 million, the number of officers and employees of the nation’s third largest police department will drop to the lowest level in three decades, ahead of several major events coming to the region next year, including the 2026 Olympics.
The LAPD chief said when New York City and Chicago have about four officers per 1,000 residents, LA currently has two officers per 1,000 residents.
McDonnell added that the LAPD has been making progress in recruiting new officers, and not have the additional $4.4 million would stop the momentum.
“I joined Mayor Bass in urging the City Council to act now: Fund the hiring of 410 officers this fiscal year,” he said.
In her letter to the 15 city councilmembers, Mayor Bass said more men and women in uniform are needed now, and without this money, hiring would freeze in January.
“The second largest city in the United States cannot have an effective police department with 8,300 officers – levels not seen since 1995,” she said, echoing McDonnell’s plea.
“I urge you to prioritize the safety of Angelenos and allocate $4.4 million for the Los Angeles Police Department to hire 410 officers,” Bass said in the letter.
When Mayor Bass signed off on a $14 billion budget in April, the City Council and Bass authorized the hiring
of 240 new recruits. Bass approved the spending plan with an agreement with Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson to find more dollars to increase police hiring. Bass requested a report in 90 days to identify funding, but that deadline passed with no follow up identifying where those dollars should come from.
The Mayor’s Office told NBC Los Angeles that the city budget approved earlier this year already funded 240 recruits. The additional funding will be used to hire 170 new hires over the next six months in the run-up to the 2026 World Cup this summer.
NBCLA has reached out to all 15 city council members and is waiting for more information.
“Our job is to keep the city safe,” Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky Tim McOsker said Thursday. “We also have a responsibility to keep it solvent. I want to grow the police department, but I have yet to see a proposal that identifies an ongoing funding source to pay for more officers. Responsible leadership means telling the truth about our finances and insisting on a real plan to pay for new commitments. I will support this proposal once a real proposal exists.”
Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said the city council is trying to figure out how to do it.
“The reality is that there are only a few essentially drained pots of money that can be tapped into mid-year and using the reserve would have major consequences,” Blumenfield said in a statement to NBCLA. “In light of the budget shortfalls we face, every additional dollar spent on police officers will come as a sacrifice in another city service or department but we need to turn over every rock.”
City officials have already projected a starting deficit of $91 million in the coming 2026-27 fiscal year.
NBCLA’s Jonathan Lloyd contributed to this report.
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