LA City Council Approves Major Police Salary Hike

The L.A. City Council on Wednesday voted 12-3 to approve a police contract that increases spending on officer pay by $1 billion over the next four years.

Mayor Karen Bass had sought to boost raises and bonuses, contending the city could better recruit and retain officers whose ranks had fallen below 9,000 at the start of the fiscal year — the lowest number in the past decade.

The starting salary for an officer would rise from the current $74,000 to more than $86,000 in the first year of the agreement, with further increases over the life of the contract.

Councilmember Traci Park said the contract with the Los Angeles Police Protective League demonstrates a "long-overdue" commitment to the officers it represents.

"And it sends a message that Los Angeles takes public safety seriously," Park said.

But critics of the contract say funneling more money to LAPD — already the most expensive department, costing the city more than $3 billion annually — will burden future budgets and shortchange other agencies.

"It shouldn't take us seven years to fix a sidewalk," said Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez before casting a "no" vote, along with Hugo Soto-Martinez and Nithya Raman. "We shouldn't be limited in the number of alleys we can repave."

Raman said the "enormous" police expenditures "potentially prevents us from being able to build out an alternative response to nonviolent calls for service which are the majority of 911 calls." Many of those calls, she said, involve homelessness and mental health issues.

Newly-elected Councilmember Imelda Padilla brought up her incarcerated brother as she expressed the need for more investment in social services. But she voted for the contract, reasoning that the council had to address LAPD staffing levels.

"We also need our police officers to do their basic duties, such as helping us clean up encampments that my constituents no longer want to see anymore," Padilla said.

The first year of the contract with the police union would add $123 million to the LAPD's budget, followed by $75 million in FY '24-25; $91 million in FY '25-26 and another $95 million in FY '26-27. By the last year of the contract, $384 million will have been tacked on to what the city spends annually on police payroll.