I'm not anti-police. I'm pro-facts. And the facts about the Los Angeles Police Department are ugly — not because of the rank and file doing an impossible job, but because of what the department has become: smaller, more expensive, less accountable, and rotting from the inside.
Everything below is documented. Sources at the bottom.
1. THE STAFFING COLLAPSE
The LAPD is falling apart, and its own chief says so.
Chief Jim McDonnell told the press the department's uniformed force stands at about 8,550 officers — down roughly 200 in just a few months. The department has lost 1,400 officers since 2019. When Mayor Karen Bass took office, the force was at 9,500. It's been shrinking ever since, losing more than 500 officers a year to attrition.
McDonnell says the department needs 12,500 officers to properly safeguard the city. That's nearly 4,000 more than it has. He told the California Post: "We're not even in that ballpark."
Meanwhile, Los Angeles is about to host the World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics. The chief has warned the department lacks the personnel to prepare for events of that scale. The city's own budget projections say staffing could fall to the lowest level in 30 years.
Fewer cops. More overtime. Slower response times. That's the math.
2. THE MONEY PIT
Here's what failure costs.
The proposed sworn overtime budget for FY 2026-27 is $240.6 million — up $36.7 million in a single year, according to the city clerk's own budget documents. The department projects 1.4 million overtime hours this fiscal year, creating a $16.5 million deficit.
And then there's the Olympics. LAPD estimates the price tag for policing the 2028 Games at $730 million — with $375.4 million of that being officer overtime alone, at $131.94 an hour. The organizing committee, LA28, carries zero police budget. The city — meaning taxpayers — is on the hook, with no guarantee the federal government covers it.
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, citing a Public Safety Committee report, said LAPD spent $50 million on overtime and questioned whether any of it was necessary. He also pointed out the department has 23 officers doing PR and media relations — "their salaries cost more than the entire budget of nice city departments."
Read that again. Twenty-three cops doing press releases cost more than entire city departments.
3. THE WHISTLEBLOWER THEY TRIED TO BURY
This is the one that should make your blood boil.
In 2024, LAPD Officer Daniel Flores — assigned to the department's Recruitment and Employment Division, the unit that decides who gets to become a cop — documented his supervisors and coworkers using racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language. Slurs against Asian, Black, and Latino people. Derogatory remarks about women. This is the unit screening future LAPD officers.
Flores did what you're supposed to do. In 2025, he submitted his documentation to Internal Affairs and to the Office of the Inspector General. The department investigated 18 individuals. Seventeen received sustained disciplinary complaints. His reports were real.
So what happened to Flores? On July 31, 2026, District Attorney Nathan Hochman charged him — the whistleblower — with 16 felonies for unlawful recording, carrying up to 13 years in prison. No criminal charges were brought against any of the officers who made the racist remarks. Zero.
The DA called the documented hateful language "locker room talk."
The LA City Council — in a resolution presented by Councilmember Soto-Martínez — condemned the prosecution as whistleblower retaliation "intended to silence future dissent." Only after massive public backlash did Hochman reduce the charges to misdemeanors, admitting the felony prosecution would "chill legitimate whistleblowers."
The message was already sent: document bigotry inside the LAPD, and you're the one who ends up in court.
4. THE GANG UNIT THAT ROBBED PEOPLE
In the San Fernando Valley, the LAPD's Mission Division Gang Enforcement Detail wasn't fighting crime — it was committing it.
An internal LAPD investigation found officers in the anti-gang unit were illegally searching vehicles and stealing from the people they pulled over — including the theft of a knife with brass knuckles on the handle.
The fallout reached the top of the division: Captain James "JT" Townsend, Lieutenant Mark Garza, and Sergeant David Gomez were all relieved of duty and sent to disciplinary hearings — the step the chief takes when he believes there's enough evidence to fire. At least five additional lower-ranking officers were implicated.
The senior captain responsible for the division's daily operations. The lieutenant in charge of the gang unit. Gone. This wasn't a few bad apples at the bottom. This was the chain of command.
5. WHAT THEY DO TO THE HOMELESS
I've been homeless in this city. I've lived this section.
Chief McDonnell himself said the LAPD fields around 40 calls an hour tied to homelessness alone — on top of routine crime response. The department is drowning, and homeless people are caught in the middle.
The courts have already ruled on how the city treats homeless people's property. In Lavan v. City of Los Angeles (2012), the Ninth Circuit held that the city violated homeless people's Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by seizing and destroying their belongings during cleanups. Your tent, your documents, your medication — the Constitution protects them whether you have an address or not.
But the sweeps continue. Property still disappears. And under 41.18, the city's anti-camping law, enforcement keeps expanding while the constitutional limits get treated as suggestions.
Soto-Martínez put it bluntly: "We have hundreds of police officers that can't even do their job because they've committed acts so egregious they can't interact with the public. That's really costing us millions of dollars."
Hundreds of officers. Paid. Benched. Because of what they did.
6. THE BOTTOM LINE
Let's add it up:
- A force of 8,550 that needs 12,500 — the smallest in 30 years, heading into the Olympics.
- $240.6 million in overtime, a $16.5 million deficit, and a $730 million Olympic security bill dumped on taxpayers.
- A whistleblower prosecuted for exposing racism while the racists walked.
- A gang unit whose leadership was fired for robbing the people they pulled over.
- Hundreds of officers too compromised to interact with the public, still on payroll.
- Twenty-three officers doing PR while response times climb.
This isn't a department with a few problems. This is a department where the problems are the system.
I wrote to LAPD's Hollywood Division this week asking them to enforce 41.18 like professionals, not punishers. To treat homeless people like human beings. To respect the Constitution they're sworn to uphold.
I'll keep writing. I'll keep showing up. Because "protect and serve" is a promise — and right now, it's a broken one.
Measure the results, not the press releases.
— Kerry Lewis
SOURCES
- NY Post, July 2026: LAPD chief details staffing shortage (8,551 officers; 12,500 needed)
- City of LA budget documents via cityclerk.lacity.org: FY 2026-27 sworn overtime budget $240.6M
- LAist via thelalocal.org: LAPD Olympics policing estimate $730M; $375.4M overtime at $131.94/hr
- LA City Council resolution (Council File 26-1108, Aug 2026): Daniel Flores whistleblower case details
- Police1.com / iHeart LA local news, Aug 2026: Flores charges reduced to misdemeanors
- LA Times (via reporting, Sept 2024): Mission Division Gang Enforcement Detail scandal
- MyNewsLA / KFI AM 640, Jan 2026: Council approves $2.7M for LAPD hiring; Soto-Martínez remarks on overtime, PR staff, and benched officers
- Lavan v. City of Los Angeles, 9th Cir. 2012: Fourth/Fourteenth Amendment ruling on seizure of homeless people's property
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