A Blue Line Stretched Thin

In seeking another 20% drop this year in homicides, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has set a high goal. Because of the state’s budget crisis and the City Council’s subsequent refusal to hire more officers, Bratton will have to meet this ambitious target with no more cops than he had in 2003, far fewer per capita than New York or other major cities. Some of the methods he plans to use were on display in Wednesday’s anti-gang raid on a South Los Angeles housing project.

The raid and its 41 arrests capped a yearlong investigation by the LAPD and the FBI into a drug-dealing gang that had virtually taken over Nickerson Gardens, the state’s largest public housing project. According to the city attorney’s office, the gang used parking lots as centers for gambling and drive-through drug sales and, worse, took over apartments when tenants moved out, refusing to let newly assigned tenants move in. Gunfire was so common that a mother of three told a Times reporter, “Nobody in their right mind ... would live here” if they could live elsewhere.

Predawn raids are nothing new for the Los Angeles Police Department. What set the one Wednesday apart was what didn’t happen afterward: It was not followed by a widespread community outcry against the police. Bratton appears to be holding to his promise to target the “shot-callers,” or leadership, of the most violent gangs rather than going after every kid in baggy clothes or, for that matter, every member of every gang. Doing so is not only more efficient, it helps rebuild trust -- and much-needed cooperation -- between cops and the poor, largely minority neighborhoods that bear the brunt of the city’s homicides and, too often, of police abuse as well.

A single raid is not, of course, going to turn around Nickerson Gardens, nor can police alone end poverty, bring jobs or solve other societal problems that magnify residents’ woes. But safety is basic, and rebuilding community trust and cooperation is one of the ways Bratton is trying to make the understaffed LAPD work smarter.

At the same time, more aggressive policing has led to an increase in gun attacks on officers. Homicides dropped nearly a quarter in 2003; shots fired at cops went up 21%. Early Wednesday, three men sped out of Nickerson Gardens and opened fire on a police car in pursuit; the two officers, thankfully, weren’t hit. The city cannot tolerate attacks on its police force. Nor can the City Council abandon the effort to hire more cops. The LAPD may need to work smarter. But given what it’s up against, it also needs enough officers to do the job as safely as possible.