STUDIO CITY : Riordan Seeks Support for Police Plan

Promising to present his much-touted police plan to the City Council within the next ten days, Mayor Richard Riordan on Tuesday called on Valley business and civic leaders to actively lobby the council to approve the measure.

“It is urgent that we put pressure on the City Council to adopt the first phase of the plan,” Riordan said. “You must call your City Council people and then try to get groups to endorse ‘Project: Safety.’ Politicians are going to wimp out unless they know the public is strongly behind them.”

Speaking before an audience of about 300 at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City, Riordan said the city has the $25 million needed to implement the first phase of the five-year “Operation: Safety.”

“We found money in this year’s budget to pay for the first phase,” Riordan said. He did not, however, specify where the funds would come from.

If approved by the council, Riordan said, the first phase would put 776 more officers and 353 new police cars on the streets by June 30, 1994.

“We have not bought a new police car in the LAPD in over six years. These cars are falling apart,” Riordan told the audience. The group included members of the Van Nuys Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, the Mid Valley Community Police Council and the Mid San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce.

The mayor’s plan, which is estimated to cost $300 million by 1998, would also pay about $4 million in overdue overtime for police. By 1998, Riordan said the full plan would provide a total of 2,885 new officers and move many officers from desk jobs to the streets, resulting in about 4,000 more officers in the field.

“We support your ideas,” said Robert B. Lamishaw, a Van Nuys zoning consultant. “But the question comes to mind, ‘How do we pay for this?’ ”

Riordan replied that he would “start finding ways to pay for the rest of this” in January.