Hahn’s ‘3-12’ LAPD Workweek Advances

Mayor James K. Hahn Tuesday offered his plan for allowing officers to work three 12-hour days a week, telling the Police Commission the change would improve recruitment and retention of officers.

Faced with questions and concerns from some City Council members and community leaders, the commission voted unanimously to support the concept of a new work schedule but delayed a vote on Hahn’s plan until next week to give Police Chief Bernard C. Parks time to report on potential problems.

By giving officers more days off to recuperate from job stress and be with their families, Hahn said, the compressed work schedule would improve morale and productivity and stem the tide of officers quitting the Los Angeles Police Department.

“We do not have enough officers on our streets today,” Hahn said. “I believe the city is facing a public safety crisis. The crisis stems from our inability to retain and recruit police officers.”

The mayor said the number of officers leaving the LAPD has increased 50% in recent years, while the number of officers recruited has dropped from 1,000 a year in 1997 to 400 last year.

With the department losing about 50 officers a month, there are 1,186 vacancies. At the same time, crime is beginning to increase again, Hahn said.

“We have got to attract new police officers and we have to retain the valuable experience of seasoned officers through a comprehensive recruitment and retention effort that will include a flexible work schedule,” he told the commission.

The mayor wants to roll out the plan over the next 15 months, starting with the Hollywood and Central Division stations in October and adding two stations a month for nine months before then extending it to specialized units.

Under Hahn’s plan, one to three officers a day at each station could work 12 hours, one or two could work 10 hours and the rest would work eight hours. Those working 10-hour days would work four days a week.

By overlapping shifts, Hahn said, the department would be able to increase the number of officers patrolling at any given time.

“With the same number of offi cers, we can increase coverage and decrease response time,” he said.

In response to questions, Hahn said officers would experience less fatigue because they would have more days off and asserted that the city payroll system would be able to handle such a varied mix of work schedules. He said it would not cost more, predicting officers would work less overtime.

Hahn faces a tough sell with Parks but recommended implementing the plan even if the chief has objections. Parks has previously opposed the so-called 3-12 schedule but said in June that he would follow whatever policy is set by the mayor.

“We are going to review the proposal and come back with what our concerns are, if any,” Lt. Horace Frank, a spokesman for the chief, said Tuesday. “We will do whatever the mayor and the commission direct us to do to the best of our ability.”

The work schedule would fulfill an important campaign promise Hahn made to the Police Protective League, which endorsed his candidacy. During the campaign, Hahn said he would implement the compressed work schedule within 90 days of taking office. The 90 days are up Sept. 29.

Several critics of the plan accused the mayor and commission of rushing the proposal without sufficient study of potential problems and public comment.

City Council members Mark Ridley-Thomas, Nate Holden and Cindy Miscikowski reminded the commission that the council recently approved $150,000 for a study of compressed work schedules and hopes to have the results in a few months.

“To the extent we feel we could benefit from that information, it is our considered opinion that we should not proceed with adopting anything other than the current work schedule,” Ridley-Thomas said.

Hahn said starting the program at two police stations would give the consultants doing the study some good data.

Even so, the council will get to weigh in because changing the work schedule requires labor negotiations between the council and the union, Miscikowski said.

Hahn said he is confident the plan will win support from the council majority, although it appears there will be doubters.

Holden, Ridley-Thomas and Councilwoman Jan Perry signed a letter calling for a delay in action, saying it is premature, especially because the city is on a heightened security alert because of last week’s terrorist attacks on the East Coast.

“We are in a state of war,” Holden said, adding the public may think officers are “unpatriotic” for working three days a week during such times of crisis.

Norman Johnson of the Baptist Leadership Council voiced similar concerns about the timing.

“We find it to be very ironic that at a time declared a national emergency, that we would be here this morning talking about 3-12,” he said.

Hahn said he thinks the plan would increase public safety.

“I don’t think the events of last week change at all the situation that we are undermanned in the LAPD,” he said.