The price tag for policing the LA Olympics? $730 million, says LAPD

The Los Angeles Police Department plans to deploy thousands of officers a day during the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and it estimates it will cost $732 million to do so. 

Added to the department’s typical staffing across the city, estimated personnel costs for the two-month period hosting the Games soar to more than $1.15 billion. That’s more than half LAPD’s 2026-2027 budget.

Police Chief Jim McDonnell laid out the department’s staffing model — and its whopping price tag — in a budget memo submitted to the Los Angeles City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee in May. The document offers a rare glimpse into security plans for the Olympics, which are being overseen by the U.S. Secret Service. 

It also casts light on the immense cost of policing the Games as concerns grow over what Olympics expenses may fall on the city of Los Angeles, which is the financial backstop for the Games. 

More than half of LAPD officers will be dedicated to the Games

At its peak, LAPD expects to deploy 6,703 officers a day across the city during the Olympics, according to the May budget memo outlining the department’s policing plans.

To do this, the department is planning to dedicate more than half its officers — 4,713 people — to the Olympics and Paralympics over a more than two month period in the summer of 2028. 

But that won’t cover all the personnel LAPD says it needs. Accounting for days off, the department expects around two-thirds of its Olympics staff will need to come from outside law enforcement agencies. 

The department’s estimated cost of housing, feeding and paying those officers from outside law enforcement agencies is $354 million, close to half of LAPD’s anticipated Olympics price tag. The state of California will negotiate contracts with those external agencies, according to a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month.

These plans for the city of L.A. are just one piece of police spending for the Games, which will span the region. Law enforcement officials are expecting that staffing the Olympics and Paralympics will require between 24,000 and 30,000 officers in total, LAPD Commander Mario Mota told a state Senate committee in June. 

He said as many as 16,000 officers a day could be deployed across the entire Los Angeles region during the Summer Games.

Marci Rand, a spokesperson for the Secret Service, told LAist in an email that staffing estimates are still being determined, as are security perimeters around venues.

“The U.S. Secret Service is working closely with our law enforcement partners including the LAPD on developing a robust and thorough security plan for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Rand said in an email.

The biggest expense will be overtime

The single biggest expense in LAPD’s Olympics and Paralympics cost estimates is for overtime. In total, the department is anticipating a $375.4 million price tag for officer overtime alone.

The department estimates that it will pay its own force overtime for about a third of its Games deployment, and that all outside law enforcement being brought in will make overtime rates. According to the budget memo, “outside agencies do not provide regular-time staffing for an event of this scale; they backfill on overtime.”

LAPD estimates the officer overtime rate to be $131.94 an hour.

The department’s media team declined LAist’s request for an interview on its budget and staffing projections.

No guarantees on federal funding

Olympics and Paralympics security plans rely on public funding. Both the Olympics organizing committee LA28 and the city of L.A. are counting on the federal government to cover the cost of deploying thousands of additional police for the Games. 

Last year, Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" allocated $1 billion for Olympics security costs. But exactly how that money will be distributed has yet to be determined. There’s no guarantee that the money will cover all security expenses.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a task force on security and other issues related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

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In the May budget memo, LAPD staff noted that it’s possible that federal funds will only cover LAPD overtime, not base salaries. 

That potentially could leave the city to pay for more than $300 million in regular staffing costs for LAPD officers assigned to work the Olympics and Paralympics.

California is similarly relying on federal dollars to cover the cost of officers from other agencies who will temporarily come to L.A. If it doesn’t, the Office of Emergency Services estimates that contracting costs could be more than $1 billion, according to a fiscal analysis included in the bill tasking California with executing Olympic law enforcement contracts. 

Security cost €2 billion euros for Paris Olympics

It’s not clear what authorities expect the total security price tag for the 2028 Games will be, but recent Olympics suggest expenses could exceed $1 billion.

A French auditing body found that security costs for the 2024 Paris Olympics were €2 billion euros, Reuters reported last year. Those auditors criticized organizers for not anticipating the high price of security.

A French auditing body found that security costs for the 2024 Paris Olympics were €2 billion euros, Reuters reported last year.

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“The sums spent are not in themselves excessive given the political choice to stage the Games in the heart of Europe’s densest city, but it is abnormal not to anticipate the cost of such an event,” Pierre Moscovici, the head of that auditing body, told reporters, as reported by Reuters.

Paul Krekorian, the former L.A. City Council President who now leads the city's major events office, told LAist in an email that Los Angeles is learning from recent host cities including Paris when it comes to security plans.

Krekorian said in a statement provided by the mayor’s office that those experiences demonstrate “a need to increase public safety coordination and staffing to manage increased tourism, transportation demands, and regional security needs.”

LA is already debating additional Olympics spending

As local officials await details on staffing plans and security perimeters, the Los Angeles City Council is already facing the limits of federal support.

LAPD wants the city to finance 300 new vehicles to temporarily expand the Police Department's fleet during the summer of 2028 — a request it does not expect to be reimbursed by the federal government.

The council’s budget and finance committee kicked that decision down the road, after multiple members expressed skepticism about the possible $30 million expense. But the City Council has already approved spending $13 million on another LAPD request to procure 107 non-patrol vehicles.