EDITORIAL FORESEEN CONSEQUENCES.

REMEMBER the dog days of the 2001 Los Angeles mayoral campaign. Remember how Jim Hahn, eager to make Antonio Villaraigosa look soft on crime, labored to get the endorsement of the Police Protective League.

To close the deal with the PPL, Hahn agreed to enact a ``flexible'' work schedule for Los Angeles police officers. That meant letting cops have three-day workweeks, an idea that then-Chief Bernard Parks opposed for the common-sense reason that it would run up overtime costs and leave the Los Angeles Police Department shorthanded.

Five years later, it's clear the 3-12 schedule was as bad as Parks predicted.

According to a report from the city administrative officer, effects of the compressed schedule include a marked increase in nonemergency response times and overtime costs to cover off-duty cops who need to show up for court appearances.

Mayor Villaraigosa, who opposed the 3-12 workweek when he was on the City Council, says there's nothing that can be done about it now. Ditto for Chief William Bratton.

Like public-employee pensions that are bankrupting state and local governments, this giveaway benefited politicians in the short term and costs us all in the long run.