The LAPD spent more than $400,000 on security at City Council meetings during a recent three-month period that included angry demonstrations against council members who were heard on secret audio recording making racist, homophobic and anti-Indigenous remarks, according to the Los Angeles City Controller.
From Oct. 11 through Jan. 13, the LAPD showed up in force with 30 to 95 officers at meetings, according to figures compiled by Controller Kenneth Mejia’s office. In the past, there have been as few as three visible at meetings. The controller said the city spent nearly $17,000 dollars on security per meeting during that period.
“We wanted to understand the extent of the resources that were committed to city council meetings and their related costs,” said Sergio Perez, Mejia’s chief of accountability and oversight. The controller released the information in a tweet Monday night.
“People were really, really upset at the time,” said Rob Quan, an organizer with Unrig LA who attended some of the meetings. “You could understand why they might feel like they needed to have some backup there.”
But he called the number of officers, which sometimes equaled the number of protesters, “absolutely excessive.” The public area of the council chambers has capacity for 160 people.
‘There were exceptional security issues’
Hugh Esten, a spokesperson for City Council President Paul Krekorian, defended the security measures and their cost.
“In autumn of 2022, there were exceptional security issues in the city council chamber,” Esten said, adding that the security was not only for members of the council. “The fact that members of…
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