VALLEY SHORT OF POLICE OVERTIME RESTRICTIONS MEAN FEWER PATROLS AS CRIME RISES.

Byline: Jason Kandel Staff Writer

Valley police divisions are abandoning entire mid-shift patrols because they don't have enough officers and their local commanders can't approve overtime for the shifts, the Daily News has learned.

Coupled with a shortage of firefighters and paramedics in the Los Angeles Fire Department, the police shortage brings questions of who's available to answer emergency calls, or how quickly.

``My ongoing frustration with both the Fire Department and the Police Department is that you can never get straight and accurate answers about how many officers are deployed and where they are deployed,'' said City Councilwoman Laura Chick, whose district includes the West Valley. ``The numbers shift like sand. What is the deployment going to be like when the (Democratic National) Convention is up and running in a few weeks?''

The Los Angeles Police Department's staffing shortage comes as some areas of the Valley are reporting increases in crime. Police say they are taking longer to get to emergencies because their ranks are stretched so thin.

The shortage of personnel forced police on Thursday to cancel a pair of four-officer shifts intended to patrol the West Valley Division when the LAPD's afternoon and night shifts are changed.

Other Valley divisions have been affected by the officer shortages. The Foothill Division did away with its four-person, mid-day shift in March. The Devonshire and North Hollywood divisions have had to cancel cars on occasion, but haven't had to to cancel shifts. Officers from the Van Nuys Division have been forced to respond to calls across the Valley.

``What happened (Thursday) night is symptom of the lack of personnel,'' said the West Valley's top officer, Capt. Donald Floyd. ``But it doesn't mean that there weren't any cops on the street. We would be more effective if we had a full complement of personnel. It does have an impact on crime. This is something we live with all the time.''

Typically, 10 cars are assigned to the West Valley Division's three main eight-hour shifts, which begin at 11 p.m., 7 a.m., and 3 p.m. Four officers each are assigned to two afternoon and night shifts. The officers are assigned to patrol the streets to give relief to the officers on the main shifts. These two shifts were canceled Thursday because five officers were in training, and three others had the day off.

Floyd said that his overtime budget will not allow him to pay for officers to cover the short shifts.

``I'll pay OT for officers to go to court, or if a cop is bringing in an arrestee late,'' he said.

LAPD spokesman Lt. Horace Frank said it is not uncommon for a division anywhere in the city to cancel the number of cars on shifts.

``It's not uncommon to be short on any shift,'' he said Friday. ``The day watch shift routinely is short because that's a shift where officers get subpoenaed to court. Sometimes officers call in sick. Others are in training.''

Frank's explanation was no consolation to Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization President Gordon Murley.

``If we were to put together all their excuses, we'd have the largest book ever put together in the whole world,'' he said. ``The LAPD allows too much switching around of times. If you don't have a commitment to do the job at the time they were hired to do it, then they shouldn't be doing police work.''

Lt. Frank rebutted: ``These are not excuses, they're facts of life.''

Staffing shortages are nothing new to the LAPD. In 1998, the Police Department borrowed 42 Valley cops to fill its ranks in other city divisions. As a result, the Valley had recorded some of the slowest response times in the city.

The shortages continue. The LAPD is in the middle of a nationwide recruiting drive that hasn't made a dent in the 700 spots it needs to fill.

Officers on the street Friday said that the staffing shortages are chipping away at morale.

n A patrol officer from the West Valley Division said that during the past couple of months, as few as eight cars have been sent out to patrol during a shift.

``We are supposed to have a minimum of 10, so the public is losing out on public service,'' said the officer, who asked not to be identified. ``Our response time is going down and morale is going down.''

The officer said on many occasions, officers don't even have enough time to eat during their work day.

``If calls are too heavy . . . we don't get our request granted to eat,'' he said, shaking his head.

Staff Writer Orith Goldberg contributed to this report.

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