A Los Angeles father who came home to find his house broken into says 911 had him on hold for 58 minutes.
The dispatcher answered within two minutes, then diverted him to a non-emergency hold for nearly an hour.
Evan Lovett, a creator of Los Angeles-focused content and a former Los Angeles Times sports writer, said police arrived within six minutes of him getting off hold. Police told him that his home was broken into by professionals who used a WiFi jammer to disable his non-hardwired security camera.
Officers, whom Lovett described as courteous and professional, recommended that he install a hardwired monitoring system, procure a means of self-defense and get a big dog.
The thieves stole Lovett’s large, heavy safe full of irreplaceable family heirlooms, such as baseball cards and Roman-era coins all handed down to him by his late father.
Lovett said his neighborhood has been targeted by burglary crews and that this break-in was only the latest example.
“Unfortunately there have been a rash of break-ins not just in my neighborhood but throughout Los Angeles,” said Lovett. “There are burglary crews. I know there’s a South American crew from Chile.”
“It’s just part of — I don’t want to say daily — but at least weekly life in our neighborhood,” continued Lovett. “Even after my burglary, since then in the last week, there have been two in my neighborhood.”
With the city facing a $1 billion budget shortfall, many, including City Controller Kenneth Mejia, are pointing out the police budget, and especially police overtime and liability claims, as part of the problem.
However, with high overtime utilization being driven by not having enough officers to make overtime no longer necessary, budget cuts could further impact the city’s ability to maintain basic law and order. Los Angeles has half the officers per resident that Chicago and New York do, and covers a much larger area than either city.
Base pay for officers has increased to $97,300 upon graduation from the police academy, with an additional $6,500 per year in pay for being assigned to patrol, not including any overtime. In California, overtime pay for hours worked in excess of eight hours must be one and a half times regular pay. At a base wage of $46.78 per hour for officers, overtime pay is $70.17 per hour. By hiring more officers to reduce overtime utilization, the city would actually save money.
Studies also show that police who are heavily fatigued from serially working extensive overtime are also more likely to make errors that result in lawsuits and liability judgements. This suggests that hiring more police to reduce overtime could also limit negative consequences suffered by the community and officers by fatigue-induced errors.
