EDITORIAL GET REAL.

PROPONENTS of a compressed workweek for the LAPD contend that the plan will attract more cops to the department, and in time, perhaps it will.

But some supporters of the flexible schedule, citing the recent surge in employment applications at the Los Angeles Police Department, have put forth the argument that Mayor James Hahn's pet project has already worked its magic.

They claim that at least some of the new cops flocking to the LAPD are there because they're dazzled by the prospect of working three days a week for 12 hours or four days a week for 10.

That seems far-fetched.

The flexible schedule doesn't even take effect until next month, and then only in two divisions.

There are far more likely reasons to explain why LAPD recruitment went up 50 percent in the last month to its highest level since 1996.

First among them is Sept. 11. Police officers and other public-safety workers have risen dramatically in the public's esteem, so it's natural that more people now want to become cops. And the new sense of pride among police has partially reversed the LAPD's morale problems.

Then there's the economy. At a time when jobs are scarce, the LAPD's starting salary of $44,537 looks all the more promising. The LAPD realizes this, which is why it recently held a job fair in Westchester, in the hopes of attracting workers who have been laid off at or around Los Angeles International Airport.

And finally there's the LAPD's recently stepped-up recruitment and advertising efforts, which couldn't have come at a better time.

It's doubtful that the flexible workweek has anything to do with it.

Applications are also up at the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, without the benefit of a new work schedule. Sheriff's officials estimate that the number of certified candidates (those who have passed two preliminary tests) has jumped by 15 percent to 20 percent in the last month.

And unlike the LAPD, the Sheriff's Department already had healthy recruitment levels. It doesn't have as much ground to make up, as many jobs to fill or as desperate a need to get more men and women into uniform.

The real issues of what's broken in the LAPD are still on the table, and they will only be solved if City Hall devotes the same energy to them as it gave to the workweek issue.