Mayor Bass: “Public Safety Is the Most Important Service That the City of Los Angeles Can Provide.”

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Mayor Bass Calls on City Council to Fund the Hiring of More LAPD Officers

LOS ANGELES - Mayor Karen Bass today sent the following letter to the L.A. City Council urging them to prioritize the safety of Angelenos and allocate $4.4 million for the Los Angeles Police Department to hire 410 officers for this fiscal year ending in June 2025. Read the full letter here.

December 10, 2025

Honorable Members of the City Council
c/o City Clerk
City Hall, Room 395

Subject: Keeping Los Angeles Safe

Honorable Council President and Councilmembers:

Our number one job as city leaders is to keep Angelenos safe. Without the $4.4 million funding, the Los Angeles Police Department will stop hiring in January.

I urge you to prioritize the safety of Angelenos and allocate $4.4 million for the Los Angeles Police Department to hire 410 officers for this fiscal year ending in June 2025.

Stopping the hiring of new police officers will have drastic and lasting consequences for our city. It will mean no new cadets in the police academy in January of 2025. It will mean increasing overtime hours and costs as fewer officers will have greater workloads. It will mean that we strain officers' health with longer shifts and more responsibility. The second largest city in the United States cannot have an effective police department with 8,300 officers - levels not seen since 1995.

When I signed the budget, I secured an agreement with City Council leadership to identify additional funding to restore officer hiring. I have spent the last three years working on reforming the hiring process for LAPD recruits, and we have made lasting change. I have made leadership changes at both the Personnel and Police Departments, and I issued Executive Directive No. 14, Modernizing the Officer Hiring Process to Grow the Police Department, to codify the changes. LAPD has received a record number of applicants and our December recruitment class has 56 cadets, recruitment not seen since before the pandemic.

The City of Los Angeles is the largest city geographically in the United States at 550 square miles, and the second-largest city in the United States in population, with a population of 3.8 million people. Yet, the LAPD currently has about two officers for every 1,000 residents. By comparison, the City of New York has a force size of 36,000 sworn officers, or about four officers for every 1,000 New Yorkers. The City of Chicago has a force of approximately 11,600 sworn officers for a population of 2.7 million, equating to about 4.3 officers per 1,000 residents. We must have enough officers to effectively and sustainably keep Angelenos safe in the coming years, especially as we host major events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games welcoming millions of visitors to our neighborhoods.

We cannot knowingly and willingly increase the demands on our officers while reducing their workforce to the lowest levels in more than 20 years, levels not even seen during the Great Recession. Los Angeles cannot protect our families, cannot grow our economy and cannot welcome the world without a strong police department.

Public safety is the most important service that the City of Los Angeles can provide to its residents, businesses and visitors. I look forward to working with you to keep the people of Los Angeles safe.

Sincerely,

KAREN BASS

Mayor