A Word from LAPD Commander Donald Graham

My Friends,

I normally don’t reach out with matters political, however, the national rhetoric has become dangerous and your police officers are being targeted for harm.  The idea of “Defund the Police” is making its way through social media and is a constant theme in the recent marches.  They have been so loud in fact, that they have swayed the City Council and the Mayor to potentially change the budget of the LAPD with a severe cut of $150 million dollars.

First of all, let me assure you that I believe that the George Floyd killing was murder, I was sickened by it and, literally, so is everyone I know on the LAPD.  I was heartbroken when I saw that video, as I was when I saw the video of LAPD Officer Frank Hernandez, who’s career, and probably freedom, are rightfully forfeit.  We have worked so hard in reinventing policing in the last 25 years.  When I saw those videos, it broke my heart because I knew that this was going to severely damage over 2 decades of work both within and outside of the Department.

As to the demands of the protesters, the country does need to look at systemic racism and to police reform because, believe me, not all police departments are created equal.  If you read the bill that Democrats have introduced into Congress, which I support by the way, it is as if they took the LAPD manual, pulled out the changes we have made in the last 25 years, and wrote the word, “BILL” on them.

While I would never deny anyone their right of free speech, many of those who are marching and demanding local change are just not versed in actual facts.  I will present them here and invite you to verify them.

• The LAPD’s actual annual operating budget is $1.85 billion (http://cao.lacity.org/budget20-21/2020-21Budget_Summary.pdf Page 12).  Activists giving public comment before the City Council have quoted as high as $3 billion.
• The Total City budget is 10.5 billion (http://cao.lacity.org/budget20-21/2020-21Budget_Summary.pdf Page 13).  While it is the largest single line item, it was not 54% as the activists claim.
• You can find a comprehensive look at the budget and the process at https://sites.google.com/lacity.org/mayorsproposedbudgets/home
• Los Angeles is experiencing the lowest crime rate in many years and crime went down again last year.  This year, crime is down in all areas except shootings and homicide victims.  However, we are still talking about 100,000 part 1 crime victims per year.  Is that enough?  Is it time to pull back now?
• Activists say that police officers are the wrong people to deal with mental illness, child abuse, elder abuse, homelessness, animal control issues, business regulation (illegal vending for example), and a host of other issues.  Therefore, the funding should be removed from the police to deal with other issues.  We only deal with these other issues because the entities in government that are meant to handle them have failed so utterly, that police have been deployed to fill the gap.  There are many other services and crime related issues that police cannot get to or approach too sporadically because of these additional burdens.  For example, illegal fireworks, traffic enforcement, graffiti, and fraud.
• It’s not just a matter of funding.  Prop 63 has raised over a billion for mental health in CA.  Has anyone seen any change?  Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority funding has increased by a factor of 4.  The City of LA’s funding alone for LAHSA is now $37 million and we are now spending hundreds of millions per year in the City and County on homelessness managed by LAHSA and the County.   Has anyone noticed the reduction in homelessness?

• Civilian Oversight of the Police – LAPD has been governed by the Board of Police Commissioners since 1920.  They have the power to discipline the Chief, make Department Policy, have access to every document and investigation in the LAPD, have an independent Inspector General, and are the only civilian board in the country that rules on uses of force.  By comparison, the voters of LA County just voted this year to give the Sherriff’s Civilian Oversight committee subpoena power and the Sheriff has refused to comply.
• Ban the chokehold – LAPD banned chokeholds in 1982
• Video Cameras on Cops – LAPD piloted video cameras in 2016 and went Department-wide in 2018.  LAPD was the first Department with more than 100 employees to require video on all field officers.
• More comprehensive Use of Force reporting of critical incidents – LAPD established Force Investigations Division in 2004 and is the only Department in the country that requires its Inspector General and the District Attorney to roll out on any critical force incident.
• Eliminate unannounced police raids known as “no-knock warrants” – These warrants are traditionally very dangerous for officers.  In 25 years, I have never participated in, or authorized one.  They are used very rarely for illegal casinos or in locations where drugs can be destroyed before the cops can get to them.  I would support their elimination.
• Requirement for officers to report misconduct – Officers have been required to report misconduct since I have been on the job.  Failure to report misconduct is, itself, misconduct.

Friends, it is not just the money.  While it is true that you can look at LA’s Budget and find quite a few areas that can be cut before police to prevent the pay reduction of important civilian functions like parks and libraries, that isn’t the point either.  My problem with this motion is two-fold.

In the Mayor’s press conference, he indicated that he wants to divert these funds for programs benefiting the education, mental health, health, jobs and homelessness in communities of color.  All but one of these issues, in the public sphere, are the responsibility of either LAUSD or LA County.  Therefore, unless we are going to redirect all the budget cuts to jobs, we will be involved in mission creep instead of holding other, responsible, elected and tax funded entities accountable for their failures.

If the Mayor had said they need $150 million LAPD dollars to make whole the Department of Recreation and Parks, Animal Control, Building and Safety, Transportation, Street Services, etc., then we would be girding our loins to find the money.

Secondly, the Motion before the LA City Council states, “While a complete overhaul of the City’s budget will take time, we can begin to slowly dismantle those systems that are designed to harm people of color. A preliminary cut to the LAPD budget will not solve everything, but it’s a step in the right direction to become the city we aspire to be.”  This statement is hurtful and denies 25 years of change.  Where once we were the Department of Operation Hammer, Public Disorder and Intelligence Division, CRASH, and The Hat Squad, we are now the Department of Community Police Partnerships, Community-Police Advisory Boards, Community Police Academies and the Cadet Leadership Program.  LAPD is the most demographically diverse, large Department in the country and a great representation of the City:

LAPD Diversity (2019)

Hispanic: 49.15%
White: 30.4%
Black: 9.5%
Asian: 7.75%
Filipino: 2.46%
Indian: 2.46%
Other: 0.33%

City of LA Diversity (2019)
Hispanic: 48.6%
White: 28.5%
Black: 8.9%
Asian: 11.6%
Other: 2.4%

Please, I urge you to add your voice to the discussion.  The advocates have gotten their public comment participation down to a machine and the same scripted fallacies appear over and over again.  They have gotten to the point where they have people simply log into the Council System and write #DEFUNDTHEPOLICE.
If you can, please go to:

https://cityclerk.lacity.org/publiccomment/
The File Number for this motion is: 20-0692.  Enter that and your email address.  Please include that you are a resident of the City of LA so they know that you can vote here.  Once you have entered your comment and push SUBMIT, you must log into your email to validate the comment.  That’s it.
If you want to see what others are commenting, you can log onto:
https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm

and type the File Number in the Search Bar.

If you agree with the movement because you believe that now is the time to transition away from police dollars to other programs, then leave that comment as well.  We need to hear the real voices of Los Angeles and not scripted, uninformed, followers who are convinced that cops are bad because someone they know someone who got a ticket once.  For those who have faced injustice at the hands of police, I want to bring that to the light of day and purge that influence from my organization as much as anyone.