PLAN TO INCREASE OFFICERS ON STREET DIGS INTO DARE

Mayor James Hahn and Police Chief William Bratton on Friday unveiled plans
to reassign 52 police officers -- including some from the DARE program --
to "higher-priority" duties that will put more officers on the street.

In his proposed budget for the 2004-05 fiscal year, Hahn also authorizes
Bratton to add 30 more officers to the LAPD's ranks. The announcement came
one year after Hahn lost a bid to expand the Los Angeles Police Department
by 320 officers.

"We lack the resources to hire hundreds more police officers, but we are
looking for creative ways to put additional officers into our communities,"
Hahn said.

The move all but spells the demise of the LAPD's Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program, which was founded in Los Angeles in 1983 to encourage
children to avoid drugs and gangs. The DARE program's 15 officers will be
reassigned to other duties, leaving only a token liaison function with the
national DARE organization, Bratton said.

"We're trying to do more with what we have," Bratton said during a news
conference. "The reality is, the money is not there this year. Next year
maybe it will be."

Hahn's proposal last year to expand the 9,211-officer LAPD by 320 officers
ran into strong opposition from City Council members who said the expansion
would saddle the city with unbearable costs for years.

Hahn said Friday that his more modest goal of adding 30 officers by July
2005 would help maintain progress in rolling back violent crime while
preserving other city services.

"We're trying to concentrate on providing direct services to constituents,"
Hahn said. "We've heard from neighborhood councils and the community that
public safety is job No. 1."

Hahn and Bratton said that with no money to expand the LAPD by more than a
few officers, the department would stretch its existing personnel even
further. Background checks will be performed by civilians instead of
officers, and 320 police supervisors will be deployed in the field once a
month to high-crime areas, they said.

The demise of the DARE program, which has shrunk in recent years, may be
the most visible change.

Lt. Tony Lomedico, who heads the LAPD's DARE program, lamented the loss of
DARE, what has become to many a critical community policing crime
prevention program.

"Hopefully with the proper funding and resources we can build it back up in
the future," he said. "We're saddened that because of the crime situation
we can't deliver our message of prevention, self-esteem building and
role-model figures to the youth."

* Staff Writer Jason Kandel contributed to this report.