Council Votes to Bill Officers Who Leave Force Early

Los Angeles Police Academy recruits will have to reimburse the city for their training if they decide to join another police department before they complete five years of service for the LAPD, the City Council decided Tuesday.

It costs about $58,600 to train each recruit at the city’s police academy, LAPD Assistant Chief David Gascon said. The Police Department estimates that the city would have saved more than $1 million in the last two years if it had implemented the contract agreement.

The motion came after disclosure that one academy graduate, Ceasar Escobedo, took a job with the San Marino Police Department the day he graduated. Last year’s No. 1 recruit, Sean Frank, departed for the Glendale Police Department after eight months in the Pacific Division, Gascon told the council.

Mayor Richard Riordan is expected to approve the measure.

“This has nothing to do with punitive [measures], it has to do with taxpayer money,” Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg said. “It says to the officers that if they are not going to return their loan to the taxpayers by servicing the area, then you need to repay your loan.”

Police academy applicants will be required to sign a contract agreeing to pay back part or all of the cost of training if they leave before completing five years on the force. The reimbursement will be prorated based on how long the officer stays with LAPD. Exemptions will be made for officers who leave the department for personal reasons or because of extenuating circumstances.

The motion was passed after considerable debate and included one dissenting vote by Councilman Mike Feuer, who argued that the motion did not address the real issues behind the Los Angeles police attrition.

In 1995, 30 officers left the LAPD for other departments in Southern California before they had completed five years of service, Gascon said.

Gascon said the reimbursement contract should have no effect on morale among officers on the force.

But Feuer said most of the officers he spoke with did not think the action was the best way to address attrition. The contract attaches a negative consequence to leaving rather than improving morale and salary, he said, noting that LAPD officers stay on the force an average of 5.4 years.

“This should be part of a package where we say to LAPD officers, ‘We want you to make a career in the LAPD,’ ” Feuer said. “It doesn’t do much to encourage officers to stay for positive reasons.”

Gascon and other members of the council acknowledged that the reasons behind the LAPD’s attrition rates have more to do with lower wages, benefits and pensions, which make the LAPD less competitive than other police departments.

The average starting salary for a Los Angeles Police officer is $35,000 a year compared to $42,024 at the Glendale Police Department or $41,700 at the Beverly Hills Police Department.

Councilwoman Laura Chick, who presented the motion, said this was only the first step in addressing a wider problem.

“This is not a solution,” said Chick, chairwoman of the Public Safety Committee, “it is a tool in addressing the worst-case scenarios.”