COMPRESSED SCHEDULES BEST FOR LAPD, CITY.

Byline: Mitzi Grasso

WHEN talking about compressed work schedules for Los Angeles police officers, the Daily News said it best: ``Public safety comes first.'' At the Los Angeles Police Protective League, we put public and officer safety before everything else.

That, indeed, is one of the reasons the Police Protective League so strongly supports compressed work schedules. We believe compressed work schedules are an integral part of an overall program to increase public and officer safety. Let me explain.

While we support the call for a study regarding compressed work schedules, it is important to remind the residents of Los Angeles that LAPD management has already thoroughly examined the compressed work schedule issue and issued the results of its study in 1994.

The results were amazing.

This study found that compressed work schedules would save taxpayers between $24 million and $100 million a year. That's a lot of money. It could be used to increase public safety by expanding the Police Department above its currently authorized strength or for better libraries, parks and streets - or for all of those things. Why would the city not want to implement a reform like that?

City leaders and the Daily News have asked some excellent questions: Would there be enough officers on the street when big problems occur? Would it cost the department more in overtime pay? Would it place an excessive burden on LAPD resources? Would cops perform at their best after 11 straight hours on the job?

The 1994 study addressed these issues as well.

It found that, contrary to what some might expect, the compressed work schedules would actually increase the amount of police services provided, for the same dollar expenditure. Specifically, it found that compressed work schedules would add the equivalent of an additional 141 officers to our underpoliced city, at no extra cost.

And then there's the matter of morale. Apart from Chief Bernard Parks and his command staff, it is difficult to find anyone over the age of consent who doesn't think low morale is a major problem within today's LAPD. Once admired worldwide as the leading municipal police agency in the United States, today our department is staggering under the weight of scandals, mismanagement and loss of public confidence.

While the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department finds it easy to attract large numbers of qualified recruits, LAPD has had to cancel incoming academy class after incoming class because it cannot find enough qualified people who want to join our agency. Many of our best and brightest officers leave for the greener pastures of other police agencies, worn down and out by the problems we face. We are understaffed to the tune of nearly 1,000 officers and there is no sign that this will turn around any time soon, unless we fix some basic morale-related problems.

A recent survey done by UCLA and USC found that 20 percent of LAPD officers said they were ``burned out'' and 57 percent said they would leave the department if they could.

That's powerful stuff. Studies around the nation confirm what you already know. Compressed work schedules will improve officer morale. It will improve family relationships. It will increase officer productivity. It will increase department success in recruitment and retention.

Let's make no mistake - compressed work schedules won't solve all the problems of the LAPD. No one thing will. But we know it will be a boon to public safety, to officer morale and to departmental efficiency. We know that standard working hours make no more sense for police officers than they do for firefighters. We both work high-stress jobs with unpredictable demands. LAPD officers deserve to have work schedules which take that into account and help us preserve the balance with our private lives, which is critical to long-term well-being. Firefighters won this battle a long time ago. Now it's our turn.

Do compressed work schedules make sense for the people of Los Angeles? We know the city's own research found that it did in 1994. Like the City Council, we welcome another look at this issue for we are confident that compressed work schedules make even more sense today than they did seven years ago.