Hayden Outlines Plans for LAPD, Jabs at Mayor

For his news conference denouncing Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s failure to pump 3,000 additional officers into the Police Department, mayoral challenger and state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) had exactly one police officer on hand.

Narcotics Det. Trinka C. Porrata praised Hayden for his work in the Legislature to bring bipartisan support to a bill criminalizing the date-rape drug Rohypnol and for his current sponsorship of legislation to do the same for gammahydroxybutyrate, a currently legal drug popular on the L.A. party scene that can cause disorientation and blackouts.

But even Porrata wouldn’t endorse Hayden. And she can’t even promise him her vote.

“I live in Timbuktu, so I can’t help him a lot,” said the Apple Valley resident. “I don’t have any bone to pick with Riordan. I don’t agree with Tom on every issue. . . . All I want is a good mayor who does good things for LAPD. Either one of them.”

Hayden does not expect much support from the Police Protective League, either; they’re the guys he blames for smashing his windows and slashing his tires back in his hippie-activist days. And when the challenger endorsed Police Chief Willie L. Williams last month for a second term, the city’s top cop said no thanks.

“Don’t expect me to be surrounded and supported in the race for mayor by guys with big gold braids on their shoulders,” Hayden joked Thursday, noting that he did attend the league’s famous Christmas Party this year, consuming his share of jumbo shrimp. “We have a great relationship--like only old adversaries have.”

But Hayden’s colorful history with law enforcement, dating from his arrests for civil disobedience outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, didn’t stop him from presenting a public safety platform as his first major policy statement in this mayoral campaign.

So what if the incumbent ran his entire campaign in 1993 based on expanding the LAPD, and has made police issues the centerpiece of his administration? “I have a longer and more effective record in the fight against violent crime than our present mayor does,” Hayden said from his Westside campaign office.

Hayden said Riordan has balked on his promise not to seek reelection if he did not add 3,000 new officers to the streets in his first term. The force had 7,875 sworn personnel when Riordan took office in July 1993, and now has 9,250.

Riordan, continuing his habit of ignoring Hayden’s daily campaign news conferences, could not be reached for comment Thursday. But his campaign consultant, Bill Carrick, acknowledged that high levels of attrition and tight budgets have prevented Riordan from meeting his goal.

“We have the largest force in the history of the LAPD, as well as the most diverse force. The mayor’s highest priority has been the public safety of the citizens of L.A.,” Carrick said. “It’s been a struggle. It’s a very difficult goal to achieve and he’s made enormous progress toward getting there. In his second term, he’ll make it happen.”

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But Hayden said that if he were elected chief executive of the nation’s second largest city April 8, he would pursue a public safety plan that places prevention alongside enforcement as a priority. “They have to be better police, not just more police,” Hayden said. “[Riordan’s] close to zero on prevention. I want to make a 100% commitment to prevention.”

To wit, Hayden said he would spend “every waking hour possible” promoting gang truces. He would bring jobs to the inner city, along with 3,000 college students to tutor troubled teenagers. And he would empower neighborhoods to solve crime problems--from prostitution motels to crack-dealing corners--by electing local councils and giving government grants to activist groups.

How would he pay for all this?

“Why do people so often think that solving problems has to involve tax dollars?” he asked, then suggested rescinding city subsidies to major developments such as DreamWorks SKG and the proposed downtown sports arena.

“This mayor wants to spend $90 million of our tax money to subsidize millionaires. They don’t need $90 million. Communities need $90 million,” he said, referring to a proposed package of tax breaks designed to lure DreamWorks to the Playa Vista project. “This idea that if you subsidize millionaires it will help the poor has failed for a century. We need to try trickle up.”

Carrick called this “fiscal hocus-pocus.”

“A lot of these things he talks about sound good, but they’ve got to be fleshed out. Are they realistic? How are you going to pay for them?” Carrick asked. “You’ve got to have a complete package here; it’s got to be fiscally realistic.”

Det. Porrata, who first met Hayden in the 1960s in Michigan, when she was a student journalist and he was a student activist, said she she just wants Hayden’s help passing the bill to outlaw gammahydroxybutyrate so that it takes effect right away rather than Jan. 1.

“I like Tom as a person. It was fun dealing with him,” said the 23-year LAPD veteran. “He said, ‘I’m not asking you to stand up there and jump up and down on my behalf.’ It was low-key. I’m not taking tremendous sides.”