Having worked for the Police Department for 23 years it always seems as if we are borrowing from Peter to pay Paul with personnel. For example, the Directed Action Response Team was formed partly to direct resources to the out-of-control vendor issue on the Pier, and they were very successful at gaining back some sense of normalcy. The sacrifice was those employees had to be pulled from elsewhere in the department. The Police Department no longer has a plainclothes unit, a street interdiction team, a full-time mounted unit or a fully staffed downtown unit, all units the department formerly staffed. It’s always seemed like a game of Whack-a-Mole, solve an issue here but one pops up somewhere else. There are just never enough officers to keep the City as safe as everyone wants.

Read More: https://smdp.com/2024/07/10/santa-monica-massively-underfunding-its-police-department/