LAPD Needs More Civilians: Auditor

The Los Angeles (Calif.) police department should move police officers back into the field, and replace their positions with civilians, according to a just-issue report by the city’s Controller. Auditors found that a previous civilianization program stalled several years ago, and for the past few years officers have been moved to fill their vacant positions, many of the officers on light-duty. Interestingly, it was the department’s comm center dispatchers who led the way with civilianization in 1981, with a promise that they could move upward to other positions outside the comm center. However, since the mid-1990s, no dispatcher has ever moved up, the controller found. Now the controller has recommended 565 positions for civilianization, including 3 assistant watch commanders in the comm center. Download (pdf) and read the entire report here, and then move on to a similar 1999 report by the New York City PD here.