LOS ANGELES, CA – Officials with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) are reportedly entertaining the idea of pausing academy classes in order to free up training officers ahead of the Olympic Games in 2028.
LAPD officials are having to contend with dueling issues regarding recruitment efforts alongside appropriate staffing for the looming Summer Olympic Games kicking off in July of 2028, as seasoned officers needed to run the academy happens to tie up their needed physical presence to ensure public safety for the events.
As previously reported this past May in Law Enforcement Today, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell signaled to city leaders that the department was lacking in the needed staffing and funding for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. While the LAPD has yet to issue any official acknowledgement regarding allegedly floating a pause to academy classes, anonymous sources within the department claim the proposal was brought up during a senior staff meeting earlier in July.
The aforementioned idea reportedly caused some strife amongst the higher-ups at the department, who reportedly expressed concerns that pausing academy classes would be counterintuitive to the LAPD’s efforts to increase their rank-and-file. However, conceding to the temporary pause would effectively free up hundreds of seasoned officers tied to academy duties.
Under the purported pausing proposal, academy classes would cease for approximately seven months following the January 2028 academy classes, freeing up approximately 300 training officers during said timeframe. Additionally, senior officials are allegedly debating on whether to increase the size of academy classes both before and after the purported pause so as to offset anticipated annual attrition from the LAPD.
Meanwhile, while funding and staffing issues pertaining directly to the LAPD are ongoing ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, the state legislature is reportedly considering a bill which would allow for hundreds of law enforcement officers from other states to assist local authorities in Los Angeles during the games.
According to the AB 2411, “This bill would, until January 1, 2029, make a regularly employed law enforcement officer from outside the state of California a peace officer in this state for the purposes of assisting local law enforcement for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
The Peace Officers Research Association of California has openly opposed AB 2411, claiming out-of-state law enforcement officers being temporarily granted powers in California creates “lower standards” and, by extension, “higher risk” for all involved.
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