EDITORIAL A $437 MILLION QUESTION WHY DOES IT COST SO MUCH MORE FOR LAPD HQ?

ON one side of the city, a new police station is being built for $37 million.

When it is done next year, the new 54,000-square-foot Canoga Park station will help the Los Angeles Police Department serve the sprawling San Fernando Valley's 1.3 million people and improve the time it takes to respond to calls for service.

On the other side of the city, another new police building is being raised -- but with a $437 million price tag (at least for now).

It's the new LAPD administrative headquarters downtown to replace the aging Parker Center. And when it is completed next year, it will serve as the department's HQ with nice new offices in a tony downtown location.

So what's with the $400 million difference? Good question.

Well, to be sure, the downtown administration building will be larger and on more expensive land. But if that doesn't seem to explain the discrepancy, take solace in knowing that it doesn't satisfy City Controller Laura Chick either.

Chick is launching an audit of the construction of the new police headquarters building to make sure that the $437 million isn't being misspent.

It's time someone took a hard look at the project and why the price tag is so high. Costs have skyrocketed from the $150 million figure tossed around in the conceptual stage, to the $200 million at the inception of the project.

Then suddenly, it jumped to nearly $300 million. Then came the current forecast of $437 million with an expansion of the project.

The cost inflation of this project definitely warrants some tough questions and thorough examination by Chick's office -- before the price tag soars to more than half a billion.