REFERRAL BONUS FOR LAPD HIRES UP TO $1,000.

Byline: Dan Laidman Staff Writer

A City Council panel agreed on Monday to double the cash bonus to $1,000 for city employees who recruit new cops as the LAPD struggles to find qualified officers.

The action by the Public Safety Committee, which requires the approval of the full council, shows how policymakers are becoming increasingly concerned by the Los Angeles Police Department's recruiting woes.

The panel had earlier declined to act on the Personnel Department's request to boost the bonuses, citing a lack of statistical evidence that the incentives worked. However, members were swayed by a dire prognosis from a personnel official who said that, if current trends continue, the LAPD could end up adding significantly fewer officers this year than planned.

``If this is an extra tool, and it results in a handful of officers, it's a good thing,'' said Councilman Jack Weiss, who chairs the committee.

Los Angeles has paid bonuses since 2000 to city workers, mostly police officers, who recruit successful LAPD candidates.

In the ensuing years, 146 of 1,156 referrals have been successful. That 8-to-1 ratio beats the 12-to-1 figure for walk-in applicants, according to a city report.

``They have a better chance of getting through the system,'' said Cmdr. Kenneth Garner, head of personnel for the LAPD.

The department has long been short on manpower given the size of the city, but historically it has been a matter of money. Now the department has the money to hire more officers, but such factors as low unemployment and competition from other agencies have left it short of qualified recruits.

The LAPD and the Personnel Department have tackled the problem with a multimillion-dollar recruiting campaign that includes theme events, community outreach and advertising in ethnic and electronic media.

The Public Safety panelists encouraged officials to continue such efforts while raising concerns about the standards for new recruits.

The department has been moving away from across-the-board rejection of recruits with past credit problems or drug use and toward ``looking at people as individuals,'' Garner said.

Without offering specifics, Garner said the use of certain drugs would still automatically disqualify applicants.

Councilman Bernard Parks said the full City Council should review any loosening of restriction on hard drugs.

Parks, a former LAPD chief, said similar efforts in the past might have started with good intentions but ended up eroding standards over time. At one point, he said, the department considered it ``experimenting'' if a recruit had smoked marijuana 125 times.

``I don't know anything you can do 125 times as an experiment,'' he said.

Phyllis Lynes of the Personnel Department responded that, with such technological advances as polygraphing and a new approach to screening, the LAPD's standards have never been higher.

Dan Laidman, [phone]

dan.laidman(at)dailynews.com