LAPD, expecting funds, begins recruiting campaign.

In a campaign designed to coincide with a November ballot measure that would fund the hiring of more police, the Los Angeles Police Department has rolled out a slick recruiting program.

The effort, created by the L.A. office of Weber Shandwick Worldwide, includes billboards that resemble ads for movies, radio spots and a new Web site. Another component to the $425,000 campaign, a series of three ads meant to capture a typical day in the life of an LAPD officer and slated to run in movie theaters, is being held back until after the election, said Bruce Whidden, spokesman for the Los Angeles Personnel Department, which is handling the hiring for the LAPD.

Although law enforcement officials can actively support a candidate or initiative, state and federal election laws prohibit the use of public funds for endorsing measures or candidates. As a result, there is no mention in the recruiting aspect of Measure A, which if passed would add a half cent to the county's sales tax to fund the hiring of 5,000 new law enforcement officers. But the initiative loomed large in the planning for the advertising push.

"If Measure A passes, law enforcement agencies will all be hiring, all roughly from the same group of people," Whidden said.

Sheriff Lee Baca, who proposed Measure A, and LAPD Chief William Bratton have helped raised nearly $2 million. The L.A. Police Protective League, the largest local police union, gave $500,000 to finance the campaign.

While the measure requires a two-thirds vote for passage, Mitch Englander, chief of staff for 12th District City Councilman Greig Smith, a strong supporter of the proposal, is confident it will pass.

"Historically, public safety measures have passed in L.A. because it's the number one issue," Englander said.

If approved, Measure A is expected to generate $500 million annually, allowing the city to hire more than 800 new officers in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005, and 1,260 in the first year of the half cent sales tax, Whidden said. The sales tax increase, to 8.75 percent, would be effective April 1, 2005.

By all accounts, the LAPD is seriously understaffed. With 9,095 police officers, the department has a ratio of one officer for each of the city's 435 residents. By comparison, New York City has more than 39,000 officers, one for every 200 residents.

The Sheriff's Department currently has 8,271 sworn officers and has had a higher attrition rate because other departments have been recruiting from its ranks.

Different approach

This is not the first marketing effort by the LAPD.

In 2001, the city commissioned Deutsch LA to coordinate a recruiting campaign--a pro bono effort that combined creative design and market research work that Eric Hirshberg, Deutsch's managing partner and executive creative director, said was worth between $2 million to $3 million.

That campaign drew on research that found police officers were overwhelmingly drawn to their careers by a desire to be active community members, and ran on about 50 billboards displaying acts of police heroism.

The campaign designed by Weber Shandwick takes a different tack by focusing on L.A.'s ethnic diversity and the need for multicultural, multilingual police.

In addition to interviews with cops of at least five ethnicities, the campaign's Web site is filled with movie clips of officers shooting at the firing range and handling complex weaponry, speeding police cars, motorcycles and bomb-sniffing dogs.

"If you're going to do ads about driving cars fast and blowing things up," said Hirshberg, who looked at the Web site, "you're going to attract people who like driving fast and blowing things up."

Radio ads in the latest campaign began airing in September on KFWB-AM (980) during Dodgers playoffs and on KJLH-FM (102.3), KKBT-FM (100.3) and KPWR-FM (106).

As the county's largest law enforcement agency, the LAPD has the greatest number of uniforms to fill but also has the strictest admission policies.

"It's very, very tough to recruit police," said Capt. Rick Webb, commanding officer of LAPD's recruitment and employment division. "We have to recruit about 15 people to hire one police officer."

The city allocates about $1 million to recruiting activities, including advertising as well as visiting colleges and job fairs, he said.