EDITORIAL THE SHRINKING LAPD MAKING THE DEPARTMENT A BETTER PLACE TO WORK REQUIRES MAKING L.A. A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE.

IT takes a special kind of person to apply for a job in the LAPD: someone willing to put up with the department's low morale, its dismal reputation and its interminable applications process.

A county grand jury report concludes that the LAPD is hemorrhaging officers and can't hire replacements fast enough.

The department is down to 9,060 officers - a loss of 800 from just two years ago. At this rate, the incredibly shrinking police force will quickly become inadequate for the task of protecting public safety.

According to the grand jury, part of the problem is the department's recruitment process, which the report calls ``lengthy, unfriendly and negative.''

Typically, it takes applicants six months to get a job with the LAPD. While they're stuck waiting, many would-be officers end up taking jobs with other departments instead.

Not surprisingly, recruitment is down. While 14,000 men and women applied to become LAPD officers in 1995, the number dwindled to fewer than 7,000 in 1999.

To make the LAPD a more attractive employer, the department must expedite its applications process and make it more friendly.

But it must not lower its standards just to beef up its ranks.

Because police officers are entrusted with tremendous power and authority, they need to be screened properly. The Rampart scandal has shown that a few rogue cops can do far more to undermine a department's morale than a stringent applications process.

Yet the greatest impediment to the LAPD's ability to recruit and retain cops isn't applications or morale - it's the city of Los Angeles itself.

Police officers, like many of L.A.'s young adults, have discovered that the outlying suburbs provide a more comfortable quality of life at a more affordable price. That's why 80 percent of LAPD officers have moved outside the city, and why many would-be cops would prefer to work where they plan to live.

To make the LAPD a more desirable workplace, city leaders need to make Los Angeles a more desirable place for middle-class families to call home.

That means taking up many of the quality-of-life issues that city government has ignored for decades, such as transportation, schools and housing.

If police officers could take pride in L.A., they would be proud to work for the people of Los Angeles.