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Charles Feldman: Rampart scandal causes a recruiting nightmare for LAPD

Charles Feldman

CNN Correspondent Charles Feldman reports that the Los Angeles Police Department is struggling to fill almost 1,000 vacancies, and veteran officers are retiring faster than new officers can be trained. He found that the corruption scandal surrounding the department is only adding to the recruiting nightmare.

CNN: How did the LAPD's staffing shortage get so bad and what have they tried to do to correct it?

Feldman: The situation with the LAPD, the hiring situation, is so bad that they needed to do a lot of things differently, they thought, to get new recruits. So, one of the things they did was to fan out over roughly an 11-month period all over the country and they ended up getting applications from roughly 8,000 people, but it turned out that only 10 were good enough, in the LAPD's view, to offer jobs to.

Part of the problem is that the economy is good so it's hard, and getting harder, to attract young people to the police department. Another problem is that in some cases they talked to people all over the country who were still in school or were unwilling to move to Los Angeles or in one way or another were not able to work in the LAPD.

VIDEO CNN's Charles Feldman reports on the why not enough people want to don an LAPD uniform Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     MESSAGE BOARD LAPD Scandal

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But the main problem the LAPD has come up against is its own image. Major police departments across the country, many of them, are having trouble now recruiting new candidates but the LAPD has had a particular albatross around its neck and that's the Rampart corruption probe, the Rampart being one of the divisions in Los Angeles.

The Rampart corruption probe has been going on for over a year. Some 70 officers are under investigation; about 100, I think now, wrongful convictions have been set aside; the morale is at some of its lowest now among the rank and file. All of that has produced now what's called sort of a bad buzz on the street. So people who are interested in law enforcement careers I'm told are turned off by the LAPD.

CNN: Are other law enforcement agencies in California having an easier time recruiting because of the LAPD's problems?

Feldman: If you look at the rival, neighboring police department, which is the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which patrols much of the county area that is not incorporated, they tell us that they have had no problem recruiting new people. Often, it is getting the sons and daughters of current LAPD officers who are dissuading their children from working with the LAPD. They're telling them to work with the L.A. County Sheriff's office.

CNN: Is the LAPD's morale problem also leading more officers to retire or just quit the department?

Feldman: The number of officers, according to an L.A. city councilman, the number of LAPD officers who are either retiring or leaving the department to go elsewhere is now approximately double the rate of the new recruits that successfully complete the academy. The result of this is that the force needs to be at roughly 10,000 sworn, uniformed officers and right now they are looking for almost 1,000 applicants. Even after this almost year-long search, they're not anywhere close to getting those numbers.

CNN: Is the shortage of officers having an impact on the crime rate?

Feldman: Although crime has been going down in the past decade, in the past few months many major cities, Los Angeles among them, have had an uptick in violent crimes. In Los Angeles, the homicide rate is almost 25 percent higher this year than last year. So at a time when crime seems to be going up and there's a perceived need for more police officers, the LAPD seems to be incapable of getting new police officers.

CNN: What does the department plan to do now to try to attract new recruits?

Feldman: Among the things they are trying is a new television ad campaign that's been out for a few months that some people are describing as "warm and fuzzy." It shows the lighter, more human side of the LAPD. It shows a lot of different officers with children and doing a lot of interactive things that they hope will attract people who are interested in helping the community, but those commercials don't seem to be having an impact. There's discussion of lowering some of the hiring requirements. There are discussions about increasing the financial package, although the LAPD is among the highest paying municipal police departments in the United States. Some of the measures that might be taken can be done simply by the LAPD deciding to do it. Other things will require the L.A. City Council, so those are much more difficult.

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