The LAPD is defunding the city.
Police liabilities and community service.
The LAPD, like other departments across the country, are defunding the city. The department's budget has grown year over year with this fiscal years operating budget of $3,334,843,027. In exchange for increasing the department's funding during a budget crisis, the city made cuts to other city departments, including hiring freezes and a reduction in services. The busted sidewalk in your neighborhood is going to take even longer to fix, and the pothole you drive over every day will continue to throw your car out of alignment for the forseeable future.
The LAPD's budget isn't the only contributor to the city's current budget woes. For the past five years, the city has paid out $400 million in liability settlements related to the department's misconduct and use of force. The story I wrote for LA Public Press about the issue was published earlier this week, and you can read it here. In it, I go over what's been paid out and what, if anything, can be done about it.
Here is one of my favorite bits:
“All of those things get less money, resources, and staff and investments from the city budget in these moments where we have to shift our dollars in order to pay out these liabilities,” she said.
Settlement costs are pulled from the general fund, according to controller Mejia’s office.
Last fiscal year, LAPD settlements totaled $155 million, an amount that could cover this fiscal year’s budget for animal services and the street lighting department combined.
The budget impacts shouldn't overshadow that on the other end of the payouts are victims. The payouts don't bring their loved one's back or fix the disability they have now from a car collision caused by a police pursuit. For CJ Montano, the $1.25 million won't fix the brain damage caused by the rubber bullet LAPD fired at his head during a protest in 2020. The family of Margarito Lopez lost a loved one who needed mental health care, not a death sentence from the police.
The money is the closest the victims will ever get to justice, and they deserve every penny.
Want more reporting about how the police are defunding us? What about a more in-depth look at the police officers behind these lawsuits and whether they've been disciplined or not? You can support that work and my future reporting by becoming a paid subscriber.
Community Service
The Dodgers won the World Series again. I was unfortunately working the night they won and couldn't report on the spirited celebration in the streets of Echo Park and downtown Los Angeles. I was bummed I missed the ritual sacrifice of a vehicle to the sports gods. The fans opted to tag a Waymo and not set fire to a bus full of CNG gas like last year.
There were, of course, endless amounts of fireworks fired from the streets of Sunset Boulevard. Other people saw the neighborhood as a canvas and participated in some arts and crafts involving spray paint. It was what you'd expect from a city whose sports team won a championship.
The city has been through a lot this year with the fires and ICE raids, and I'm in full support of the city letting off some steam, Waymo be damned. It's the LAPD who I have an issue with here.
The department responded in its typical aggressive, fun police fashion by bringing out the horses and nearly trampling fans outside the bars near Dodger Stadium. They also fired off plenty of less lethal munitions at people, including throwing tear gas into the streets with uninvolved street vendors, and Metro bus passangers got caught up in the spicy air.
LAPD on horses charge at and beat guests standing in line to the Short Stop in Echo Park. @shoton35mm.bsky.social
— L.A. TACO (@lataco.bsky.social) 2025-11-02T08:42:47.784Z
The following morning, I took a walk in Echo Park, right where the celebrations occurred less than 12 hours ago. Sunset Boulevard was littered with the remnants of used fireworks and broken bottles. I was walking Lemmy, and in my vigilance searching for any food on the ground he might eat, I saw spent less lethal munitions sitting in the gutters. The rubber bullets gathered near storm drains, becoming another obstruction that causes the streets to flood when the rain comes (fingers crossed) in the coming weeks.
It was upsetting and disrespectful, but I gave the city the benefit of the doubt, thinking they'd get to cleaning up in the coming days.
Nope.
Three days later, the gutters were still a mess with rubber bullets. Out of pure spite, I decided to do my community service cleaned up after them. I decided to take the opportunity to make a video to teach the public about what was used that night and at other protests. You can watch it below:
@joeyneverjoe Come with me to Echo Park to pickup the less lethals LAPD fired at people celebrating the Dodgers winning the World Series. #dodgers #lapd
♬ original sound - Joey
I also have a longer video on YouTube that you can watch here:
