LA mayoral debate: How would the candidates make LA safer?

[0:00] We have a lot of topics to cover tonight. [0:01] The next one is public safety. [0:04] LAPD is reporting the overall crime rate is down, [0:06] but people repeatedly say that's not their perception. [0:10] They do not feel safe. [0:12] We're seeing yet another series of home burglaries in the San Fernando Valley. [0:16] And just today, federal authorities arrested at least 18 people [0:20] connected to a drug trafficking investigation. [0:22] They called it Save MacArthur Park. [0:25] Mayor Bass, you have 60 seconds for this. [0:27] Who ordered this operation with the feds? [0:30] Is it a sign that our communities are not safe? [0:32] No, actually, that operation was ordered by the feds. [0:36] However, we have been working in collaboration [0:39] because we were very well aware of the drug dealing that was taking place there. [0:43] We have used a comprehensive approach when it comes to MacArthur Park. [0:47] Multiple things are needed. [0:48] And so what happened a couple of hours ago [0:51] was an action that had been in the works for many, many years. [0:55] But let me just say, or many, many months, [0:57] let me just say also that Los Angeles is understaffed in terms of LAPD [1:04] for the nation's second largest city. [1:07] And so I have been fighting to hire more officers. [1:10] Unfortunately, I have not had the cooperation from the city council, [1:15] including, unfortunately, my colleague next to me, [1:18] who has voted repeatedly against hiring officers, [1:21] including when we were finally able to increase the class size [1:26] and the council would not fund it. [1:28] What is in my current budget now is 512 officers, [1:33] which still is not enough. [1:35] We, at least, that will deal with attrition. [1:37] We cannot shrink our department. [1:40] Council Member Rahman, you have 30 seconds to respond to that. [1:43] You know, I've supported multiple budgets, thoughtful budgets, [1:47] that maintained and sometimes even increased the size of the police force. [1:50] I did vote against a big contract, [1:53] a contract that gave the police union more money than the city had. [1:58] A contract and its knock-on effects, [2:00] which ultimately led to the city having a billion-dollar budget deficit last year, [2:05] that led to us having to cut essential services across the entire city. [2:09] If you're wondering why your streetlights are out on your block [2:12] and the Bureau of Streetlighting is telling you [2:14] that it's taking a year to fix a streetlight, that's why. [2:17] Council Member Rahman, thank you. [2:18] Mr. Pratt, there were 100 LAPD officers working with the feds today. [2:23] Your response to what went down in MacArthur Park? [2:26] It's unbelievable. [2:27] I hope we have the FBI, the DEA, the CDC, the ATF. [2:31] The more resources we can make the streets of L.A. safe with federal money, amazing. [2:37] I talk to thousands of moms a week. [2:39] They do not feel safe in the street. [2:41] No matter what these crime statistics are telling anybody, [2:44] it's not how people feel on the street. [2:47] There's a difference between people reporting crime [2:49] and feeling unsafe on the street. [2:51] And with Councilwoman Rahman, [2:53] people are more concerned about getting stabbed in the street [2:55] than the lights being out. [2:57] So I think Mayor Bass funding the police was important, actually. [3:00] Mr. Pratt, I have a follow-up question for all of you here. [3:03] He didn't mention me, so do I get to respond to that? [3:06] Um, just a moment. [3:07] Okay. [3:08] This is a response to some of that. [3:10] Langer's Deli, which, as you all know, [3:12] is a staple of downtown Los Angeles, [3:14] is asking all of you on the stage right now [3:18] to end the Needle Run giveaway program. [3:22] So my question, Mayor, first of all to you, yes or no? [3:27] Um, it's run by the city. [3:29] The City Run Needle Program. [3:30] Right. [3:31] Yes or no? [3:32] Yes. [3:34] Councilmember Rahman? [3:35] Uh, no. [3:38] Mr. Pratt? [3:38] Absolutely no needles and pipes for drug addicts on the street, ever. [3:45] Got it. [3:45] I'll take that as a yes. [3:46] Sorry. [3:47] So, uh... [3:48] Go ahead. [3:49] You have 30 seconds. [3:50] Well, I did want to say in response to this question [3:53] that the way you address homelessness, [3:55] the way you address people living on the street [3:57] is by bringing them off the streets and indoors. [4:00] I think we need to absolutely invest in shelter. [4:03] We need to invest in services. [4:04] We need to actually get people off the streets [4:06] for people to be safe. [4:07] That's what I've done in my district. [4:09] We've had a 54% reduction in tents and encampments [4:12] in Council District 4 just over three years. [4:14] And I'm very, very proud of those results. [4:17] That's how you achieve real public safety outcomes. [4:19] That's how you ensure that the people of Los Angeles are safe. [4:22] So, Mr. Pratt, the chief of police said the other day [4:25] that he doesn't think we're going to have enough officers for LA 2028. [4:29] Now, the federal government's responsible for security for the Olympics. [4:32] But, LAPD is part of that. [4:35] Plus, you have to patrol the rest of the city. [4:38] Hiring more officers is expensive. [4:41] It's extraordinarily so in many cases. [4:44] What is your strategy for getting more people, [4:47] recruiting more officers and paying for them? [4:49] You know, what's more expensive than hiring them is overtime [4:53] because that's what these salaries for the fire department [4:56] that everyone's complaining about, [4:57] these everyone's understaffed. [4:59] So, first off, I'm going to bring hiring back to the LAPD. [5:02] Right now, the LAPD is hired by the same people that hire sanitation. [5:06] And we need to bring it back like it was 20-plus years ago [5:09] so that police hire police. [5:11] And we need a 10-year plan. [5:12] It's going to take 10 years to get to the 12,500 officers that we need. [5:18] And that needs to be a priority. [5:19] Our sheriff's partner, they're the same size. [5:22] They have a billion-dollar more budget for the same size. [5:25] So, this idea that Councilwoman Rahman keeps saying [5:27] that the police department is overfunded, [5:30] public safety should be our number one priority. [5:32] And we're going to find all this money [5:34] when we stop her useless open-bed plans [5:38] that actually doesn't put drug addicts in these housing [5:41] that we're spending billions of dollars. [5:42] And we're going to actually start checking where this money is going. [5:46] Not to mention, when you get rid of all the drug addicts off the street, [5:49] the police won't be responding to the drug addicts all day long. [5:52] Thank you. [5:52] Councilwoman, you can respond. [5:53] You know, I have not argued against paying police officers what they're worth. [5:59] They do some of the hardest jobs in our city. [6:01] And they and all of our city employees deserve a living wage. [6:04] They deserve to be paid. [6:07] What I am arguing against is bad fiscal management, [6:10] which is what has gotten the city of Los Angeles into this moment. [6:13] The police union is the most powerful force in L.A. city politics. [6:17] And when you give contracts to people [6:20] because they are going to fund your campaigns, [6:22] and by the way, I'm the only person on the stage that is being spent against [6:26] because I had the courage to speak out about bad budget decisions. [6:29] Thank you, Councilwoman. [6:30] That is what happens. [6:31] Appreciate that. [6:32] We're going to stay with you, Councilwoman Brantman. [6:33] So you said, even last night you said it, [6:35] that you're okay with the current staffing levels at LAPD. [6:39] My question to you, people say that's just ridiculous. [6:41] It's not enough. [6:42] We need more officers. [6:43] My question to you is, what do you tell people, especially victims, [6:47] who say the city has let them down? [6:50] Yeah, and I think this is a very real issue. [6:53] The city's most important response is public safety. [6:57] It is so important to me. [6:58] I'm the mother of young children. [6:59] The safety of people in Los Angeles is absolutely essential. [7:03] But that's why I think we have to start getting honest with people [7:05] about how we're actually going to respond to public safety needs. [7:09] How will we make sure that when they call for help, [7:12] someone picks up the phone at 911 and someone comes when they call, [7:16] the right person comes when they call? [7:18] Right now, we have not built out that system [7:20] because we have funded more police officers [7:24] but haven't been able to hire. [7:26] Our police force is actually shrinking. [7:28] We have shrunk right now. [7:29] So no more officers? [7:30] No, no, no. [7:31] Stay the same? [7:31] What are you saying? [7:32] I would love to keep it the same. [7:34] We have funded them more. [7:35] The police force has been shrinking. [7:37] So let's get real about how we actually deliver public safety outcomes. [7:41] I'm going to work as hard as I can to maintain our police force where it is. [7:45] But we also need to make sure that we build out responses [7:48] that can actually take call load off of LAPD. [7:51] So many calls that are coming into LAPD do not require armed officer response. [7:55] Let's take call load off of them. [7:57] Thank you, Council Member. [7:57] And let's make sure that police can come when people call. [8:00] Your time is up. [8:00] Quick reply. [8:01] Mayor Bass. [8:02] Let me just say that unfortunately my colleague has contradicted herself [8:06] because on the one hand she says that if you pay officers what they need [8:11] then we're going to bankrupt the city. [8:13] And then on the other hand she doesn't understand that frankly we have to pay the officers, [8:19] had to give them a raise, had to expand recruitment [8:22] because officers were going to other cities. [8:25] We were not competitive. [8:27] We have to make a decision and frankly my job as mayor, my number one job, [8:32] is to keep L.A. safe and we can't keep L.A. safe with the size of the property we have now. [8:37] Thank you. [8:37] We're going to talk about [8:38] We're going to talk about