LAPD Could Risk City’s Safety to Police Convention, Wachs Says

A Los Angeles city councilman on Monday accused the LAPD of leaving neighborhoods throughout the city unprotected in its plans to police the Democratic National Convention next month--an allegation that was quickly disputed by Police Chief Bernard C. Parks.

“The Police Department has diverted its gang-enforcement personnel to convention planning, leaving many neighborhoods in our city without its first line of defense,” Councilman Joel Wachs told reporters at a morning press conference. “Yes, we have to provide safety for the convention, but we cannot compromise the safety of our community to do it.”

But Parks--responding at his own press conference--said the officer deployment will be adequate throughout the city during the four-day convention next month.

“We do not believe those decisions have caused communities to be under-policed or unpoliced,” Parks told reporters.

Officers assigned to police the convention will not be part of the Los Angeles Police Department’s regular deployment, he said, and no officers are being allowed to take vacations during the event, which will take place Aug. 14-17. Parks also said that the department can hold officers longer than their standard eight-hour shifts, ordering them to work 12-hour shifts if security needs require it.

“If everyone comes to the city and demonstrates legally and lawfully, we will not have to go through those kinds of issues,” he said.

Nevertheless, Wachs said he has received reports from the department’s command staff that gang enforcement efforts are being compromised. Wachs, who did not identify the sources of his information, said he plans to introduce a motion today asking the council to question Parks.

“The moment gangs know that they’re not going to be watched . . . gang crime is going to increase,” said Wachs, who is running for mayor.

He said he is also concerned that the cost of policing the convention will exceed $10 million--far more than the $3.5 million originally anticipated.

“The department has not leveled with the people of the city, including the council,” Wachs said.

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who heads the Public Safety Committee, said Wachs’ concerns will be discussed at a special meeting of the council’s Public Safety, Budget and Finance and ad hoc DNC committees on Thursday.

The debate over staffing erupted even as plans for the convention stirred another controversy just a few blocks away.

At the request of Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, the Board of Supervisors today will consider approving almost $1.1 million to pay the cost of overtime and other county expenses involved with providing security for the convention.

Supervisor Gloria Molina introduced a motion late Friday to cover the expense of sheriff’s deputies who will ride aboard nearly 300 buses being used to transport delegates and dignitaries from hotels throughout the Los Angeles region to the convention at Staples Center. Parks requested the county’s assistance with transportation.

In addition, the LAPD has requested that the Sheriff’s Department provide a field booking team in the event that there should be mass arrests of demonstrators during the convention.

The supervisors are being asked to provide an additional $500,000 in public funds to help the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau pay the cost of transportation services during the convention, said Molina spokesman Miguel Santana. He said it is the first request for county funds to support convention-related security and activities.

“For us it is a very simple issue of public safety and we’re doing it within that context,” Santana said.

The commitment of nearly $1.6 million for convention security and transportation was sharply criticized by Supervisor Mike Antonovich, a Republican, who called the effort to provide the funding for the Democratic convention “wrong and irresponsible.”

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Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this story.