LAPD is “bleeding out” — with the clock ticking ahead of two of the biggest global events Los Angeles will ever host.
As the city prepares to welcome the World Cup in 2026 and the 2028 Olympics, City Hall is locked in a bitter fight over whether or not it will spend the money to secure enough police officers to keep the city and attendees from around the world safe.
“We’re trying to find 170 additional officers to get to 410 so we can staff up for upcoming world events,” LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell told the Los Angeles City Council Friday. “This isn’t hypothetical. The need is real and urgent. If you knew what I know about the threats ahead, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”
McDonnell warned the department is “bleeding out” officers — and that Los Angeles does not have enough cops to keep the city safe.
410 officers only refers to new hires. Overall, McDonnell said LAPD is down roughly 1,400 sworn officers citywide.
“Even in the best-case scenario, we’re still losing ground,” he said.
The math is brutal. More than 550 officers are expected to leave the department over the next year through retirements and attrition — including about 94 retirements happening as early as January.
On Friday, City Hall was scrambling.
Council members were locked in a last-minute fight over whether to greenlight emergency funding to keep LAPD academy classes moving — or slam the brakes while they argue over long-term budget fallout.
The city’s current budget capped hiring at 240 new officers — a figure police leaders have blasted as a “low-ball” number that effectively amounts to a cut.
“We’re watching LAPD struggle to balance everyday needs with concurrent emergencies,” Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents the Westside of Los Angeles, including the Pacific Palisades said. “From the fires in January, to civil unrest, to ongoing major events — they are spread way too thin.”
“In 2022, LAPD hired 433 officers. In 2023, it was 396. Last year, it was 390,” she said. “We already knew 240 wasn’t going to cut it.”
Councilmember John Lee, who introduced the amendment to fund continued hiring, framed the vote as a public-safety gut check.
“If we’re serious about stabilizing staffing, we have to do more than talk,” Lee said. “We must fund this.”
Lee warned that uncertainty alone could drive recruits away — a concern McDonnell echoed repeatedly.
What was voted on Friday is essentially a month-to-month approach while City Hall goes back to the drawing board to hunt for funding sources to pay for new recruits.
A compromise that leaves LAPD in limbo.
“How would you run any business month to month?” McDonnell asked. “It’s like running a marathon and at every mile asking for more air. It doesn’t make sense.”
“People time out. They move on to other departments,” he added. “We’re bleeding out while we should be building.”
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